The entrance outside LAC’s A building was filled with bustling energy as barbers, food vendors and a DJ came on campus for a Black student success week event on campus.
R&B music and heavy beats played on speakers, as students and faculty were in lines for southern-style soul food, which consisted of grilled chicken, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and greens.
Event coordinator and counselor Erania Freeman gave a warm welcome to students and kicked off the event with a strong sense of community and common interests for black student success week.
“It’s an opportunity for them to connect with other men, to discuss things they are both experiencing and to gain support and encouragement. There is a definite need for these communities, it’s a need for people to feel they belong,” Freeman said.
The barber stations were just as popular as the food vendors. In particular, the LBCC basketball and football teams were found patiently waiting for their hair to be cut.
LBCC football player Mark Estelle, who was sitting at the first barber shop station, received the tapered haircut along with his other teammates. Many students specifically requested faded and tapered haircuts.
Political science professor Jerome Hunt gave a speech on the Black male experience and the importance of coming together as a community as Black men to not only bond but to be vulnerable with each other on touchy subjects such as race issues.
Umoja club member Elijah Bankston had much to say about the brotherhood and what it means to be a Black man, having a purpose and sense of self in a society where it is not the norm.
“The purpose is to get Black men out. Black men especially feel like it’s hard for them to be unique and truly themselves. They have to act a certain way, portray themselves a certain way. So they feel like they have to live up to certain expectations,” Bankston said.
In American society, stereotypes, and harmful perceptions have always been placed on African Americans. Bankston goes into depth of how triggering and harmful these things can be.
Bankston elaborates on black culture and what real brotherhood is, rather than how Black Americans are perceived through a societal lens whether that be through the media or news.
“As you can see at this event there are no guns, violence, talking about nothing crazy, we are just living our life. Men like myself-men of color that are good can be cool. Somebody actually told me something yesterday. This man asked ‘what does it mean to be hood?’ as in ghetto or something. Hood is short for neighborhood. When did the neighbor get taken out of the hood? Unity and community is what we are trying to push right now.” Bankston added.