Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE, a show where we learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is Dr. Anthony Blacksher, Department Chair of Sociology and Ethnic Studies at San Bernardino Valley College. Thank you so much for being here.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Thank you.
Maya Gwynn
Of course, you didn't have a very long commute. I've been wanting to talk to someone from the college for a long time, so this was a perfect opportunity.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Yes, and we need to do a much better job of being here and supporting KVCR. We listen all the time. We're in the classrooms, but being present. So, thank you.
Maya Gwynn
That's good to hear. I wanted to talk today about Black History Month. Black History Month is often framed as a celebration, but we're also living in a moment where Black History and Ethnic Studies are being actively challenged at the policy level. How do you interpret the purpose of Black History Month in this political climate, particularly within higher education, where people are being more cautious of what they're saying.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
It's absolutely necessary. I mean, Carter G. Woodson founded Black History Week for this exact purpose, the movement, the political landscape that we're in, the silencing of history that centers black history, black people, contributions of black folk to America and to the world. We're seeing museums being told to strip down these exhibits. We're being told that if you apply for a National Endowment of Arts grant, it needs to be the right kind of history. Black History Week and now Black History Month is designed to be not just a celebration, but what Manning Marable calls prescriptive. It's designed to be corrective, that there's a narrative about who we are, about who the country is, and it intentionally leaves things out to make us feel comfortable, or for whatever purpose. And Black History Month is designed to correct some of those points. It's not always comfortable. There are hard conversations that leads to it. So it's prescient now, more than ever that this is 100 Years of Black History Month. Now it's a profound moment to reflect not just on what I call the Black History Bee trivia facts, but also the purpose and what it means to be still and quiet and silent and reflect on why we have this and what we can do with it.
Maya Gwynn
Definitely. As the college marks 100 years of black history, what does it mean for an institution to commemorate black presence and contribution, while also reckoning with the ways higher education has historically excluded marginalized black communities?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Yeah, colleges don't like to take stands and don't like to be political, and certainly within any one college, there are so many voices on all sides, and the purpose of a college is to create space for those voices to interact and engage. But in this moment as an institution, we end up taking a stand one way or the other, by not saying something, that's a profound statement. By leaning in. It's a profound statement, and it's a moment where college administrators and college leaders have to decide who are we, who are we in this moment? Who do we want to be? Who are we going to be as it relates to Black History Month and just black studies and Ethnic Studies and the issues that we're facing. Institutions really have to take a stand, and they also have to be mindful that by not taking a stand, that speaks just as loudly.
Maya Gwynn
From your experience teaching Ethnic Studies at the college level, what changes have you observed in how students engage with black history and identity over the years, especially in the wake of recent social movements and political backlash of what we're just talking about?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Oh, it's unavoidable. I think there was this feel-good era when I first started teaching that we could address it and we could approach it, but the tone was -
Maya Gwynn
Was it the Obama era?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
It was the Obama era. The tone was celebration. The tone was diversity. I've been fortunate to be in community college systems where students never lost sight of inequality or stratification. But there was, you know, hope and optimism in a way that now our students are engaging this really critically, because they've seen the post Obama era, which is, you know, I thought we were progressing in a linear fashion, and so now we have to ask tough questions that it doesn't always look like we go from A to B. It's really a three-dimensional plane and a struggle for, you know, power, a struggle for resources. It's a struggle to have joy. Speaking of joy like, how do you maintain joy in the midst of the struggle? In my time teaching over the past 15 years at community colleges, the students have shifted because the pandemic and the George Floyd, Black Lives Matter movement, they intersected at the same time, so they really recognize that technological revolutions or things happening socially are just as profoundly impacting them as their personal lives.
Maya Gwynn
Definitely. For students, especially black students, navigating classrooms where the histories are being politicized, I think we all have memories of like in high school, talking about black history and everyone's looking at you. What does it mean to see their stories validated within an academic framework? And why does it matter for student retention, belonging and success?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
When I teach Black Studies, everyone comes in and the first thing they see is just a black person, and then the next thing they see is a black person, and then the next thing they see... and I get the privilege of seeing their eyes sort of light up around week two or week three and say, oh my gosh, this is really all that we're doing. And even though a lot of students, when they come into a Black Studies class, they're excited about the prospect, they're excited about what this means, but then the reality starts to hit them, like, oh my gosh, we're studying, like we're working hard, but everything is still framed. It's a joy. It's a joy for me as an instructor to see the students go through that at the same time. It's a struggle because the classes are difficult. It's a reminder of the intellectualism, the rigor, the theory that they're expected to hold up to.
Maya Gwynn
I've heard a lot of black history teachers talking about how everyone always thinks it's gonna be easy.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Yeah, it's not easy.
Maya Gwynn
We're gonna move to our rapid-fire portion.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Wait, that wasn't the rapid fire? Okay.
Maya Gwynn
No (laughs). If your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Oh, the first thing that came up, it was, Get up, Stand Up by Bob Marley.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, good.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
And then [We Gon' Be] Alright, by Kendrick came up. And then I could go in so many directions.
Maya Gwynn
That's already a good playlist. If you had to teach a master class or give a TED talk on a random skill you have besides the job you already do, what would it be?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
It'd be something around poetry.
Maya Gwynn
Oh, I love that. And as someone born and raised in the IE, what's your favorite IE restaurant or landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Oh, how wonderful. Truthfully, on the north side of San Bernardino, if you drive all the way up to Palm you get this view of the wash, and just like this emptiness, minus the warehouses sprouting, but just this vast kind of space, just because of the way the wash is, and you can go up there and just imagine what people saw 100, 200 years ago, especially after the wind done blew away all the smog.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah. And how can people keep up with you? Or is there any Black History Month events happening at the college?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Yeah, there are black history months happening. I have to shout out black faculty and staff association who's been holding down Black History Month for so long. We have a kickoff brunch. We have the Black Arts Expo happening, Ethnic Studies. We're talking about holding a teach-in. Once you start getting into all the other things happening, community, this is just one of my favorite times of the month, being in San Bernardino and the IE.
Maya Gwynn
Awesome. And people can find out about all these events on the college website?
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Check the college website or just start Googling: Riverside Black History Month, San Bernardino Black History Month. Just pop out, show up, show out, have a good time. Black History is for everybody.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, definitely. Eventbrite is good for that too.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Yes, absolutely, yeah.
Maya Gwynn
Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate this conversation.
Dr. Anthony Blacksher
Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Maya Gwynn
Of course. Dr. Anthony Blacksher is Department Chair of Sociology and Ethnic Studies at San Bernardino Valley College. Find this segment and others at kvcrnews.org/bpie. Support for the segment comes from the Black Equity Fund at IECF, advancing racial equity and supporting long term investments in black led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn, thank you.
