When George Washington University senior Joanne W. Cazeau landed a coveted interview with an employer last year, she was excited. But upon arriving at the office her spirits sank.
The employer—not knowing Ms. Cazeau was black until her arrival—said in disbelief, “You’re Joanne Cazeau? Wow—you spoke really eloquently on the phone.”
“I have a very French name, so when I call for an interview, employers automatically think I am a white woman because of the way I speak,” Ms. Cazeau said. “I think when people have a stereotype in their mind, they hold you to it. When you defy that stereotype, they’re not expecting it.”
Ms. Cazeau was one of nearly 50 GW students who gathered Thursday evening in the Marvin Center to explore how perceptions of black identity impact their lives—giving candid accounts of real or perceived discrimination and efforts to protect and
embrace their history and culture.
The standing-room-only digital symposium was an open forum for discussion on black identity.
The standing-room-only digital symposium, hosted by the Black Student Union (BSU) and the student-run Ace Magazine, was a part of a month of programming for the Multicultural Student Services Center’s Black Heritage Celebration.
“Who are you when the cops show up?” Ace Magazine Editor-in-Chief and GW senior Adam Middleton asked the audience. “We want to know who you’ve been taught to be, who you really are and to talk about the goodness in who you are—who we are as a people—and why we should bring ourselves to the classroom, to the boardroom and to the public sphere in general.”
The open dialogue ranged from laughter to frustration as students reacted to a TED talk, spoken word poems and a comedy sketch that examined the value, difficulty and consequences of code switching.
Code switching is a concept that indicates the shift between vernaculars and mannerisms that minorities make depending on environment and audience. It was recently popularized because of media coverage such as National Public Radio’s Code Switch blog and the ABC sitcom "Black-ish."
Students nodded in agreement as they watched poet Jamila Lyiscott describe how she code switches her speech between using “proper” English professionally and slang with her family and friends in the poem, “Three Ways to Speak English.” During the poem, Ms. Lyiscott rebuffs a woman who calls her articulate by describing how slang is a language of cultural familiarity—not ignorance.
For GW junior Taylor Hale, the poem brought to mind her own experiences with code switching. She said that growing up she attended schools with mostly white students and lacked the ability to naturally use slang with her black peers.
“My biggest issue was when I got to high school, and I was faced with a lot of black kids, I couldn’t code switch—because when I try to speak vernacular I sound like an idiot,” Ms. Hale said, laughing with the audience. “It’s not that I don’t value the code switch, but it’s interesting that it goes both ways.”
In a comedy sketch from “Chappelle’s Show,” “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong,” a successful businessman played by Dave Chappelle is congratulated by his white colleague with a request to “give me some skin.” In the clip, Mr. Chappelle angrily retorts, “Why can’t you shake my hand like a man?”
Though the room bubbled over with laughter in response to the parody, students related their own run-ins with friends, colleagues, bosses and teachers who—in clumsy attempts to cross cultural boundaries—made them feel alien or exotic.
“My mom has a co-worker who knows me, and every time I visit my mom, she says, ‘hey girl,’” said Sarai Reed, a senior and Ace magazine copyeditor. “That is a term of endearment that women of color use to refer to each other. To be called that by someone who doesn’t understand the rich tradition behind it is a little insulting.”
The importance of expressing “blackness” or ethnic identity with pride was another key topic of conversation. Students noted how internal and external factors play a role in showing the varied nature of black identity—from the way they wear their hair, dress or speak to their accomplishments in the classroom and efforts to be role models in the GW community.
However, students added that being a positive role model makes some people consider them an outlier of their race, which is equally insulting.
Students watched the poet Ernestine Johnson relate disgust with people who think it is a compliment to say she is different from “The Average Black Girl.” And in a TED Talk titled “Color Blind or Color Brave,” Chairman of the Dreamworks Animation Board of Directors Mellody Hobson argues that a lack of diversity in business hurts the United States socially and economically.
Mr. Middleton said that he hoped students would see the value they bring to the workplace and to the university.
“We wanted students to know there is a spot for us at the table, and our differences make us unique,” Mr. Middleton said.
“To an extent, ‘Who are you when the cops show up?’ was a leading question,” he added. “But the answer is: Who I am everywhere else—intelligent, poised, driven and black. ”