Weekly Spotlight: The Black Student Union

Alexandra Matthews Life Editor

When Angelic Sosa ’08 stepped onto the Vassar campus for her first semester in August 2004 she felt, like all freshmen, a bit overwhelmed.

“Coming here was totally different than my high school demographics…It wasn’t that I was uncomfortable being here, but it was that I needed something familiar,” said Sosa. How did she overcome these first emotions? By joining the Black Students Union (BSU), of which she is now president for the second consecutive term.

“BSU is a social, cultural and political group for students here. We aim to make those things available for black students and other students on campus who are sympathetic to our goals,” said Sosa.

BSU Historian Bonnie Velez ’10 also sought comfort in BSU as a freshman. “When I first came to Vassar I was feeling a lot of culture shock...it was nice to be in a familiar setting…it reminded me of home [since people understood] the things I would talk about or things I'd gone through growing up,” she said.

BSU has existed at Vassar for more than 20 years, but became a more visible presence on campus when students of color took over Main Building in 1991 to demand what we now know as the African American, Black, Latino/a, Asian American, Native American (ALANA) Center.

Velez feels that ““[BSU is] a place for open dialogue that deals with contemporary issues that the black as well as minority communities are facing today. So while we’re talking about any contemporary issue we kind of take a step back and see what were the socio-economic influences that got us here today.”

Who can join BSU?

“It’s open to the entire Vassar campus. Anyone who is sympathetic to the goals of BSU and understands what we want to do or if you just want to find out, then come on. Everyone is welcome in the ALANA Center, and we’re not exclusionary at all,” said Sosa.

February is Black History Month, and BSU, along with the Counsel of Black Seniors and other student organizations, have many activities planned to pay tribute to those who have fought for racial equality in the past and those who continue to fight today.

But although most people are conscious that it is Black History Month, Sosa said that it takes more than a shallow awareness to truly comprehend its purpose.

“I hate to say it, but I think that a lot of people expect BSU to carry the weight of Black History Month, or [expect] the Department of Africana Studies [to] carry the weight of that, which I wish wasn’t the truth,” said Sosa. She continued that it is important to “pay tribute to past people who have triumphed over the tribulations that they’ve gone through, dealing with black struggles. And it’s our duty to make sure that the idea of equality is held true.”

On Feb. 6 at 8 p.m., there was a reading entitled “The Fire Next Time: Writings and Speeches in Black Intellectual History.” Students read excerpts from the writings of Ida B. Wells, Malcolm X, Amiie Baraca, Frederick Douglas, and many more.

From Feb. 21-23 in the Shiva Center, BSU, in collaboration with Counsel of Black Seniors and Philaletheis, is putting on a performance of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 choreopoem “For Color Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.” The choreopoem, which is a poem or series of poems choreographed to music, is composed of 20 poems spoken by nameless women solely referred to as colors, six representing the colors of the rainbow and the seventh as the color brown. The play depicts the struggles of the modern black female in the United States.

On Feb. 27, Peniel E. Joseph, a scholar in African American History as well as an author and activist will be giving a lecture on “The Black Movement and American History: Rethinking Black Freedom Struggles and Democracy.” It will be held in Taylor Auditorium at 7 p.m. and is hosted in collaboration with the Africana Studies, History, Sociology, American Culture, Political Science and Women’s Studies Departments, as well as the Dean’s Office.

If you’re interested in attending a BSU meeting but are a bit hesitant, Velez encourages you to give it a try. “People should come check out BSU...There tends to be this whole mystification about the ALANA Center and affiliated organizations [that] white students aren’t allowed...but it’s not true. I’d love to see more of the Vassar community come to our meetings,” said Velez.

BSU general body meetings are held every Wed. at 8 p.m. in the ALANA Center.