In observance of Black History Month, a student organization will conduct educational activities for the UTRGV campus community.
The Black Student Union and Student Involvement will collaborate to host cultural chats, in which members of the student organization will participate. The department will also show the educational biographical film, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” The time and date of the screening will be announced at a later date.
The movie stars Oprah Winfrey as Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s, according to IMDB.
“It just feels like our responsibility … to make sure that we definitely represent that Black History Month is carried out well, especially now that there is a black population to look to,” Black Student Union President Aimaloghi Eromosele said.
Members of the organization said February is too short of a month to represent their culture.
“Black History Month is a scam. … I don’t think the shortest month of the year is enough to justify what black history is,” said Payton Poindexter, Black Student Union vice president. “A lot of people don’t realize part of them is black culture.”
Poindexter said some people do not realize how black culture is relevant to them, such as slang, ways of dressing and music.
Eromosele said she also dislikes the way in which the month is sometimes displayed as subservient. She recalled only a few blacks, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and George Washington Carver, being recognized. She said the dark side of black history is not talked about.
“Martin Luther didn’t get arrested for kissing babies on the forehead. He was arrested, and shot, and killed,” Eromosele said. “It’s almost, like, we have our idols thrown back in our faces.”
She said some people do not think the Black Lives Matter movement is legitimate, because King Jr. “always promoted peace, but he also said anyone who is quiet during a time of adversity is not on your side, either.”
Eromosele said she wants to recognize black history differently at UTRGV.
“Black History Month, at least the way I want to do it, is definitely about taking back these idols and really telling the whole truth and not just the little cookie-cutter pieces that everyone can swallow real easy,” she said.
Yaw Sam, the Black Student Union secretary, said he grew up in Ghana and what he has learned at UTRGV and in his hometown, and what he has seen in the media are portrayed differently. Although the events did happen, his instructors tended to linger on those that did not have as big of an impact as others, Sam said.
“When you watch documentaries, all you watch is ‘Madagascar’ and lions running around,” he said.
Poindexter said she has heard as all of Africa being described as a jungle.
Eromosele said lots of history classes still depict Africa as having third-world countries.
“There are cities, and buildings, CEOs, and executives, they do have airplanes,” she said. “Someone asked me if my dad has ever hunted a tiger. First of all, hunters don’t even hunt tigers. … No, it’s the same way you go to the grocery store when you’re hungry, or you want to go get McDonald’s or something like that. You can easily do the same thing in one of those types of countries.”
The Black Student Union aims to help others attain further knowledge about black history. The organization already has around 15 to 20 active members.
Members meet at 12:15 p.m. Wednesdays in ESTAC 1.112C on the Edinburg campus.
One aspect of black history the organization hopes to teach others about is the Willie Lynch letter.
“If we can just help plant the seed, and you go back home and do something about it, and read ‘The Willie Lynch Letter,’ or something else like that … I will feel very satisfied about how far this organization has gone,” Eromosele said.
