When one thinks about student protests, Loyola Marymount University (LMU) isn’t the first college to come to mind. A private, Jesuit, research university overlooking Playa Vista, it seems pretty removed from any political disputes.
“We were protesting lack of funding for Black students, lack of resources, lack of representation with Black professors,” Vandalena Mahoney said, explaining that one particular protest, involving the LMU cheer team, really got the administration’s attention and subsequent action.
“We wanted them to know that someone had dropped the ball,” said the scholar-activist.
For decades, students have lead protests as tactics to elevate causes worldwide, from Kent State to Tinanmen Square; from lunchroom sit-ins during the Civil Rights era to a 16-year-old addressing the United Nations about climate change last week.
In the case of Black college students, such as James Turner of Cornell University who observed that they join the movement for black liberation because in educational institutions, they particularly ”feel a keen sense of themselves as an extension of the Black community.”
Mahoney joined Megan Castillo, David Turner and Makeen Yasar as panelists for a discussion: “Black Student Power: Community, Engagement and Activism,” held during the recent Leimert Park Village Book Fair.
“Education isn’t a passive thing,” Yasar said. “You don’t just educate yourself, you educate others. We have to be present and be powerful.”
Yasar, originally from Palmdale, minored in African-American (AA) studies at LMU. He is the founder and executive director of the Umoja Health Project on that campus, which works with Westchester High School students interested in medicine. Yasar is also working as an intern with Kaiser Permanente.
“I feel my most comfortable and my most whole when I’m in service,” Yasar said.
Castillo graduated from LMU’s AA studies program and was on the dean’s list all four years. She is currently a member of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“The fight needs you,” Castillo, also from Inglewood said. She considers herself an activist and community organizer. “Freedom needs you and you need freedom.”
Castillo credits her LMU Black psychology course for sparking her inner activist.
“That was the turning point for me, and what really was a driving force for why I picked up the torch,” she said. “And realizing I’m also standing on the shoulders of giants who had done this time and time again.”
“For me, it was a matter of saying, you know what, my family deserves better, the children coming after me deserve better,“ Castillo added. “If it isn’t me, it’s not about me.”
Mahoney was born and raised in Inglewood and her activism has lead her to establish a 501c3 nonprofit organization, Lets’ Give, where she’s the executive director. She’s also working in the music industry.
“The degree wouldn’t mean anything if I didn’t have my freedom,“ Mahoney said. “We’re not free right now. Everyone in this room of color is not free.
“Why would you feel comfortable being oppressed?” she asked. “I’m not comfortable, that’s why I do what I do.”
Stefan Bradley, associate professor and chair of LMU’s AA studies, moderated the panel discussion.
Bradley is passionate about advocating for social justice and creating learning environments which engage students. He aims to shape a cadre of thought leaders who will advance opportunities for the Black community. The panel, featured three of his former students reflected that goal.
“It’s amazing what a group of committed, loud, annoying and disciplined activists can do to change life at predominately White institutions, to change life in our community,” Bradley said. “These young people are going to be working in careers, but they still find time to press for Black freedom.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first recognized Black Studies department in the nation. Programs were created as a result of activism on campuses nationwide, where students felt their interests were underserved.
San Francisco State University hired sociologist Nathan Hare to coordinate the first Black studies program and write a proposal for the first department of Black Studies. It gained official status in the spring of 1969.
Still, it’s a risk to protest if you want to keep a scholarship and remain a student on some campuses.
The panel of activist-scholars agreed that African American studies opened their eyes when they became college students.
“Once you’re ‘woke,’ it’s kinda hard to go back to sleep,” Castillo said.
“Travon was killed in the second part of my junior year,” said David Turner, who is now a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkley. The Black Student Union there lead a protest which shut down the café for four and a half hours. “The amount of time Michael Brown’s body lay in the street.”
Turner is from Inglewood, received his bachelors degree in African American studies from CSU Dominguez Hills and has a masters in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, one of the colleges Bradley writes about in his book “Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Ivy League.”
Turner is currently working with the Brothers, Sons, Selves Coalition, which builds leadership skills among young men by engaging them in advocacy campaigns.
“At other high schools they might have a swimming pool,” said Turner. “At Beverly Hills High School, their basketball gym opens up into a swimming pool. At Morningside, we had a police station.”
“I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t name it,” Turner continued. “When I took my first African American Studies class, that’s when I started to get the vocabulary, and was able to name what I was going through.
“I’m the only person in my immediate family who has not been incarcerated,” he said. “I knew that the thing that was happening in my community wasn’t right. And it only happened to people who looked like me.”
