Black Reality Talks | Photo by Rose Taylor | The Wright State Guardian
On Tuesday, Oct. 10, the Black Student Union hosted the first Black Reality Talks event of the year, continuing the tradition of discussing Black students’ issues and assisting attendees in their campus lives.
Creating a safe space
Jazmine Reeves, president of BSU, explained that Black Reality Talks is a space where students can speak about issues so BSU can bring those issues to the faculty’s attention.
When a BSU member had a racial slur put on their door, the organization recognized a need to create a way to discuss issues students were facing.
This is where Black Reality Talks, selected as the best program for the 2022-2023 academic year at the Student Involvement and Leadership Awards, comes into play.
“Last year, these events had a really big impact, especially because we made changes based off of the problems that we had,” Treyah Gray, vice president of BSU, said. “We pretty much had thirty to forty faculty members every time that we had a faculty session.”
Reeves specified that having this dialogue allows for students who may be scared to speak up to come into contact with student leaders who will advocate for them.
These talks are not limited to just Black students and issues; anyone is welcome to attend.
“[Wright State] lacks a lot of the same community [as other schools]” Jeffrey Ryan, event coordinator for Abilities, said. “I just came here to get to know what the community is more like around the university outside of my perspective.”
Facilitating the discussion
A continuation of three years of Black Reality Talks, the Oct. 10 event was the student session to introduce the concept of the talks and gauge the current issues on campus.
BSU leadership, including Reeves, welcomed students, urging attendees to complete a survey that allowed BSU to see what broader issues students were facing. BSU asked questions related to student satisfaction related to professors, faculty, involvement and more.
At the conclusion of the survey, BSU presented a QR code where students could scan it and ask anonymous questions about how to resolve issues on campus, including how to deal with a rude roommate and the best time to apply to research opportunities. Leadership would then read the questions and offer advice to the best of their abilities on how to resolve it.
While this Black Reality Talk was meant to be an introductory open dialogue, previous topics of discussion included what to do about the moat and campus safety.
The faculty session for Black Reality Talks was Monday, Oct. 16, where faculty came to communicate directly with BSU to be informed on student issues.
While the date for the next student Black Reality Talks event is currently not set, Jamboree week started on Oct. 16 with events such as line dancing, power hour fitness and a pink-out bonfire for breast cancer awareness. For more information about BSU, visit the organization’s Engage page.
