In celebration of Black History Month, the University of Idaho Black Student Union and Office of Multicultural Affairs will host a “What Is Black History Month” panel discussion at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Law School Court Room. Admission is free.
Chelsea Butler, president of the Black Student Union, said the panel will include seven speakers who will discuss issues of civil rights, racial profiling and black history.
“We wanted to get people that we knew could speak about the topics that we wanted to discuss and so we chose people from different branches of education,” Butler said.
She said the panel will focus specifically on black history in the Northwest.
“It’s not so much that we want to teach people something at the panel, we just want people to be engaged,” Butler said.
Butler said the panel also wants to address the differences between African-Americans and Africans that come to live in the U.S.
“I’m not your typical African-American,” said Romuald Afatchao, associate director of the Martin Institute and panel member.
Afatchao is originally from Togo, Africa.
“I bring a background that is different from a typical black American and although we all have to deal with the same issues, I have a different take on those issues and I think it can bring another perspective to the issue,” Afatchao said.
Afatchao said growing up in Africa provided him a different view of diversity in the U.S.
“You don’t really see from our perspective the struggle that people of color in general have to overcome within the U.S.,” Afatchao said. “It’s usually a very rosy picture that they paint about it for us. The U.S. has always been represented as this huge success of (a) melting pot. Having lived here for almost 13 years now, I can see that yes, it’s better than most countries — but we still have a long way to go.”
Butler said Black History Month is about personal struggle.
“I grew up in a society where I was afraid or I felt ashamed to be black,” Butler said. “Growing up I realized that being black is not something to be ashamed of, it’s something to be proud of. It is painful, but it’s also something that I am proud of now and that as a child I wasn’t.”
To Afatchao, Black History Month means the struggle of all black people, not just those in the U.S.
“Personally, Black History means the struggle for black people in general — not just in the U.S., but around the world,” Afatchao said. “How black people fit in this globalized world and what are some of the issues that we’ve overcome and what are some of the issues that people of color in general still need to overcome.”
Iris Alatorre can be reached at a[email protected]