This Friday, Vanderbilt was shaken up by the loss of trailblazer and former athletics director, David Williams. The loss of former Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor came as quite surprise to many in the community. Death is often surprising but the events of Friday, February 8, 2019 were shockingly heartbreaking. As a university, we prepared to lose…
Author: valencia.clement
Acknowledging Ancestry & The Roots of Reconciliation: The Story of Jacques
A lot of Black folks, especially in the Haitian community struggle under the structure of single-parent households. The roots of the separation and dismantling of minority families has historical and contemporary implications. The term “family separation” evokes images of slaves on the auction block and children being teargassed at the border. It’s an issue of…
Erasure: Eros-affirming Christianity
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth” -George Orwell This post has been a long time coming and, in this post, I know I’m going to be speaking about topics that are sacred in unorthodox ways so first I want to emphasize that I am not a theologian. I…
What’s next for Diversity and Inclusion Officers: A Black Scholar-Activist’s Perspective
Many institutions have made large scale investments in diversity officers, offices and related programing. By investing money into the appointment of officers, these institutions assume the key reason for the negative experiences garnered by underrepresented scholars in academia is the lack of resources to support their recruitment and retention. However, these initiatives are a response to symptoms of…
Dis(embodiment).
I grew up in a community where I was repeatedly told that my body was not my own. My body belonged to my parents when I was unable to speak for myself. Once I had sense enough to understand, I was taught that my body belonged to another man, God; once married, my husband. I…
Erasure: Election Results & Prison-based Gerrymandering
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth” -George Orwell This week’s elections have been the topic of discussion since 2016 when Trump was elected. Democrats, social justice warriors and other constituents felt midterms were the time to shift political power from the hands of Republicans into the hands of…
Erasure: Conversations with Dr. Anita Hill
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth” -George Orwell On October 28, 2018, Vanderbilt University hosted a conference that culminated in a lecture titled, “No Longer Silent: Underrepresented Narratives in Sexual Violence,” presented by Dr. Anita Hill. Her lecture is very appropriately timed, falling just a few weeks after the…
Erasure: Whitening
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth” -George Orwell Often times, when learning about the history of the Americas or even the world, the histories of black and brown people are deprioritized, delegitimized and ultimately erased from contemporary understandings of our yesteryears. The consistent erasure of black and brown…
Erasure: Gender Minorities in the United States
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth” -George Orwell During former President Obama’s terms as President, one challenge he faced was in education as it relates to transgender students and their ability to comfortably use school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Many opponents of the President cited…
Talking about Hell
I can automatically tell if I should be in a church based off of how they talk about hell. Here’s why I say this… Some churches preach about hell by speaking about Lazarus needing just a drop of water from a finger tip or about the gnashing of teeth, eternity in the lake of fire…