OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi’s kickoff celebration for Black History Month included several speakers, a riveting performance of “If I Got My Ticket” and “Ride on King Jesus” by the UM Gospel Choir, and presentation of the 2014 Lift Every Voice Awards.
The Tuesday (Feb. 4) celebration in the Ole Miss Student Union featured the pervasive message that the university has made much progress in regard to race relations, but there is still more work to be done toward equality.
The program began with remarks by Brandi Hephner LaBanc, vice chancellor for student affairs, announcing the creation of a Center for Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement this fall to support the transition of African American students. Next came a historical perspective of the importance of this monthlong celebration by Susan Grayzel, director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies.Barbara Combs, UM assistant professor of sociology, delivered the keynote address on “So Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” a nod to the 1997 book by Beverly Tatum, president of Spelman College, concerning conversations about race.
“We don’t like to talk about race, except to ignore it,” Combs said. “The fiction we tell ourselves is that we live in a color-blind society. We do not. Race still matters in this society.”
Combs discussed the weight of being a minority: managing other people’s impressions and making sure they feel comfortable with the “otherness.” To Combs, the cafeteria table serves as a metaphor for a “safe space” that minorities find to escape the hostility and microaggressions that still exist in society, evoking recent examples such as Jonathan Ferrell, the unarmed former Florida football player killed by police, and Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teen killed by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in Florida.
Combs’ call to action was to reach out and seek relationships with others who are different.
“Opening the doors – physical integration is not the same as social integration, and that is the next step that I hope we will all take on,” she said.
Winners of the Lift Every Voice awards were Grayzel, Chancellor Dan Jones, Provost Morris Stocks and Charles Ross, UM director of African-American studies and associate professor of history.
For a complete schedule of UM Black History Month events, contact Valeria Ross at 662-915-7247 or vross@olemiss.edu/.