{"id":1944,"date":"2022-02-23T08:30:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/?p=1944"},"modified":"2024-07-24T11:04:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T18:04:47","slug":"community-support-black-cultural-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/community-support-black-cultural-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Community-building and support drive Oregon State’s Black Cultural Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Icon<\/p>\n

Center increasingly ‘committed to serving all OSU students’ \u2014 on campus and online<\/h2>\n

Flashback: It\u2019s 1975.<\/p>\n

The Black Cultural Center opens at Oregon State University thanks to years of student activism to combat discrimination and racism. That activism is fostered by Lonnie B. Harris, an Oregon State administrator whose goal is to increase the recruitment and retention of Black students at OSU.<\/p>\n

Flash forward: It\u2019s present day.<\/p>\n

The Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center<\/a> is considered “the hub for Blackness at Oregon State University.\u201d The center\u2019s mission aligns with that of its namesake: to provide resources that Black students and students of the African diaspora need in order to succeed, feel supported and remain at Oregon State.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, the LBHBCC gives students, faculty and staff an opportunity to \u201cjust be<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are unapologetically Black,\u201d said Terrance Harris, who served as the center’s director from 2016 to 2022. \u201cWhat that means is we\u2019re able to be ourselves without regard for others\u2019 opinions and without having to put on faces in front of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing at a predominantly white institution as a Black person, there\u2019s no reflection of you. So the BCC is a community where you can just be yourself, and we come together to learn about ourselves, to educate, to inspire and to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow the Black Cultural Center on Instagram<\/h3>\n

Stay in the know on all things related to Oregon State’s Black Cultural Center and learn how you can engage from a distance by following the center on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Black Cultural Center is also becoming increasingly accessible for students who learn online through Oregon State Ecampus. The center regularly hosts events that are streamed live online.<\/p>\n

Expanding outreach to distance students is one of the many efforts that the BCC staff makes to help Black students feel supported. Here is more of what Terrance Harris said about the value the BCC brings to the Oregon State community; what needs to be done to dismantle systemic racism in higher education; and more.<\/p>\n

The BCC\u2019s mission statement directly mentions serving Oregon State\u2019s online students. Why is it important to serve this growing population of students?<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re committed to serving all OSU students as best as we can. We have a platform to reach more broadly and serve people who are not able to physically be here. Because as an Ecampus student, you\u2019re still an Oregon State student.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there are other Black-identified students who are seeking community and want to be involved with us in whatever way they can. We\u2019re working to be more inclusive in that regard and still learning how to modify what we do in a way that is supportive of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

How important is it to have the BCC serve a means of representation for Black students at a predominantly white institution?<\/h3>\n

\u201cRepresentation matters when you\u2019re a marginalized population of people, but it\u2019s not the only thing that needs to happen. You have to recruit more Black faculty, staff and students, then do the work to retain those people. You have to have the services, knowledge and support systems in place to sustain those people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt OSU, we\u2019ve been making some great strides, but we can still improve the depths of what the institution can really do to knock down systemic walls that were put in place long before we got here, but we’re still feeling the ramifications of those systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are the main benefits of engaging with the Black Cultural Center?<\/h3>\n

\u201cI think it makes students overall more culturally aware and appreciative of not only Black culture but other cultures too. Black people have a linkage to every culture there is on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people think they know so much, but there\u2019s so many things that you don\u2019t know about Black culture because it has been forbidden. The BCC offers an introduction to that knowledge and a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does the BCC help confront forms of systemic racism and\u00a0oppression in order to create clearer pathways to student success?<\/h3>\n

\u201cAs a community, we talk a lot about resilience, but it\u2019s not to brag about our resilience. We\u2019ve had to be resilient due to the oppression that has come against us historically and that we\u2019re still facing today. But resiliency is a key characteristic in order to understand our history and to knock down forms of oppression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means speaking out, advocating, not being silent anymore and not allowing others to silence you. It also means supporting each other. It can be mentally exhausting to always have to speak out and explain. It\u2019s important to let students know that it\u2019s OK if you need to take a step back for your own mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

How can Oregon State and society as a whole do a better job of celebrating the achievements of Black people beyond Black History Month?<\/h3>\n

\u201cBlack history is 365. We celebrate Black history every day because Black history is American history. We have continuous conversations about inventors, scholars, horticulturalists, politicians, pioneers, activists \u2014 all these and more, these people who we are as a culture and how we’ve had to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople always want to look at the negative when it comes to Black culture. But it’s about changing the context of your language, how we say things, how we view Blackness and how anti-Blackness shows up in your daily lives. How do you dismantle that? You have to educate yourself each day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span> 4<\/span> minute read<\/span><\/span>The Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center is \u201cthe hub for Blackness at Oregon State University\u201d according to its director, Terrance Harris. The center\u2019s mission is\u00a0to provide resources that Black students and students of the African diaspora need in order to succeed and feel supported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,672,657,676],"tags":[262,264,591],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-ecampus","category-learning-experience","category-resources","category-why-osu","tag-cultural-resource-centers","tag-diversity-and-cultural-engagement","tag-ecampus-at-a-glance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Cultural-resource-centers-Ecampus-news-744x478-210408-Lonnie-B-Harris-Black-Cultural-Center.png?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BNSE-vm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1736,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/cultural-resource-centers-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":1944,"position":0},"title":"Oregon State’s 7 cultural centers build community near and far","author":"Tyler Hansen","date":"January 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"We work endlessly to find new ways for online students to connect with the larger OSU community from a distance. 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