{"id":5184,"date":"2023-02-16T06:13:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T11:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/?p=5184"},"modified":"2023-02-16T06:14:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T11:14:45","slug":"ciss-affiliates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/2023\/02\/16\/ciss-affiliates\/","title":{"rendered":"CISS Affiliates Reflect on Theme of “What Black Resistance Means to Me”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article<\/a> (by BU Today <\/em>staff<\/a> with photographs by Cydney Scott <\/a>and\u00a0Jackie Ricciardi <\/a>originally appeared in BU Today<\/em> on February 15, 2023.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Gemma Acheampong<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Since 1976, the United States has designated February as Black History Month to celebrate and honor the achievements of Black Americans. The theme of this year\u2019s observance is \u201cBlack Resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>Association for the Study of African American Life and History<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(ASALH), which oversees and coordinates the annual observance, notes on its website that \u201cAfrican Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms, and police killings since our arrival upon these shores.\u201d In explaining why it chose \u201cBlack Resistance\u201d as the 2023 theme, ASALH writes,\u00a0 \u201cas societal and political forces escalate to limit the access to and exercise of the ballot, eliminate the teaching of Black history, and work to push us back into the 1890s, we can only rely on our capacity to resist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resistance can take many forms and it means different things to different people.\u00a0<\/span>BU Today\u00a0<\/span><\/em>reached out to some members of the BU community with this question: \u201cWhat does Black resistance mean to you?\u201d Their thoughts covered pain and hope, joy and violence, faith and compassion. As the College of Arts & Sciences\u2019 Vincent Stephens writes in his response: \u201cResistance remains a vital trope of Black life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo resist is to work toward a collective rebuilding\u2014the articulation of a new vision\u201d
\nHarvey Young<\/a>, dean of the College of Fine Arts<\/span><\/h4>\n