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The Spelman Spotlight
VOLUME XVI N0.9
Student activism finally comes to Spelman
Jaela Neal
Features Editor
A panel discussion and
forum titled “Ludicrous and
Ridickulus: Images of Women in
Popular Culture” was held on
Wednesday April 3 in Cosby Au
ditorium. This forum, sponsored
by the groups SHAPE, PEPPERS
and RAW (Raising Awareness in
Women), was created in order to
stimulate dialogue amongst
Spelman students about the images
of black women that are being por
trayed in hip-hop, television as
well as within other aspects of
popular culture.
Dr. Tarshia Stanley, mod
erator of the event and member of
the English Department, began the
event with a screening of a video
of her own creation that pieced to
gether various well-known deroga
tory images of black women,
which can be found in everyday
life. Well- known images such as
a number of popular but visually
offensive rap videos, concerts and
even movies were flashed onto the
screen while the spoken word
poem “Thickness” by Jill Scott
played. This video, which
shocked, outraged and even em
barrassed many a member of the
audience, was the perfect opening
to an extremely thoughtful and
compelling panel discussion.
The panel, which was
complied of Spelman students,
was asked to address specific as
pects of popular culture. Tania
Gethers, Spelman senior and rep
resentative of the organization Sas
safras was asked to comment on
the power of popular culture. She
chose to talk about film and the im
ages of black people, which have
been presented to America through
such films as The Best Man and
Baby Boy. Gethers contended that
while the black community sup
ports and generally enjoys these
movies, they have also served to
perpetuate certain stereotypes
about the black community. For
instance the image of the strong
black career woman played by ac
tress Nia Long in The Best Man,
represents the black woman who
is without, nor in need of, a man
because she has a career.
Another panel member
was Spelman junior April
Brussard, who represented the Pro
gramming Board, which is a new
organization composed of students
that will plan all of Spelman’s so
cial activities. Ms. Brussard spoke
about music and what role it plays
in the conveyance of negative im
ages of black women. She com
mented in part that music has be
gun to primarily use sex and catchy
hooks with no actual lyrical con
tent
to sell records. This is of course
nothing new to anyone who listens
to any popular radio station or
watches MTV and BET. But she
did go on to relate this idea to a
much larger and even scarier pic
ture. She contended that these im
ages of black women, namely
gold-diggers with negative atti
tudes who are viewed as sexual ob
jects for men, are being relayed
through television to the rest of the
world. This does not bode well for
all African-Americans because we
are not an analogous group. In
other words, all black people do
not look, think, speak or act alike
and so there is no need for only
one image of black people within
this world.
All of the panelists that
participated in the forum reiterated
a lot of the same ideas. They all
espoused a belief in the power of
the individual to change things.
Activism, which has seen better
days at Spelman College, is one of
the ways that black women can
begin to combat and hopefully
eradicate these offensive and de
bilitating images. Other forms of
combatance as suggested by the
panel include education, dialogue,
awareness and even love. Love
can be used as a combatant if used
to build up self-esteem and respect.
Love for oneself and for others can
only lead to the building of better
relationships, which in turn can
change the ways the black people
view themselves and each other.
This forum is only the be
ginning of a series of forums, •
Continued on page 2
English determines graduating honors
Students Complain
About This Year’s
Senior English Exit
Exam
By Natashia McGough
Graduating senior En
glish majors at Spelman College
complain about the lack of time
needed to take this year’s Senior
English Exit Exam. The serious
test determines whether or not
these seniors will graduate with
honors.
The test is designed by
members of the English Depart
ment faculty. The faculty mem
bers choose a set of readings,
which are released to the stu
dents before the examination
date. The readings are selected
based on common readings as
signed as part of the curriculum.
The exam is intended to
offer a skills measurement that
reflects the English
Department’s curriculum. Its
setting also gives the depart
ment an opportunity to survey
exiting students about post
graduation plans and to solicit
the students’ opinions and com
ments about their experiences in
the department.
“The exam results offer
a picture of our students as
thinkers, writers, and persons
able to apply their literary train
ing in an on the spot writing
situation,” said Opal Moore,
chair of the English department.
Many students ex
pressed their anger over the lack
of time the department gave to
take the test and also gave other
solutions for the test that could
alleviate some of the discomfort
for rising senior English majors.
“We need more time,
preferably to have it as take
home or webct with a deadline.
Trying to squeeze it in 3 hours
is not well-planned,” said
Brittny Meekins, senior English
major.
“I would allot more
/
time for the exam, like at least
three hours and I would have it
held on an earlier day in the
week,” said Courtney Young, a
senior English major.
“I would add evaluat
ing other papers that we have
written outside of class to gauge
the effectiveness of the depart
ment,” said an anonymous stu
dent.
“I would say add more
time because it might alleviate
some pressure from those who
have a bit of anxiety when it
comes to test taking,” said an
anonymous student.
Dr. Moore emphasized
that the test will be administered
in the fall rather than in the
spring semester, which should
assuage some of the pressures
off of students.
“The purpose is to give
the department an opportunity
to respond in some manner to
students who perform poorly on
the exam. The department is
concerned about preparing our
students as writers. Therefore,
we feel that an unacceptable
performance on the written es
say examination can tell us
something about the needs of
students in the area of writing
and critical thinking,” said Dr.
Moore.
The earlier test results
from the past exit exam have
been employed to design the
current exam. The changes to
next year’s exam will ultimately
depend on the comments and re
sults of this year’s exam.
Founder’s Day 2002
Tiffany C. Austin
Contributing Writer
This years’
founders day marked the
121 st anniversary of our
institution and in a long
standing Spelman tradi
tion, Sisters Chapel was
filled with Freshmen in
white dresses, seniors and
faculty in full academic
regalia, and hoards of
alumnae displaying their
undaunted spirit through
out the campus.
However, unlike
the spirited alumnae,
many current Spelman
women seem to have lost
their respect and appre
ciation for our founders.
Describing the event as
“Just another convoca
tion, nothing special” one
freshman who wishes to
remain anonymous con
tinued by saying that she
went because she had to,
and did not see the big
deal.
The April 11 th con
vocation that usually
serves as an uplifting rite
of passage for all fresh
men and seniors, marking
their respective entry into
and exit from Spelman
was described as “boring”
by another anonymous
freshman. She continued
by saying it was “Cold
and raining outside and I
didn’t really enjoy it, but
the convocation was nice
and short.”
And short it was.
This year’s speaker Dr.
Shirley F. Marks, class of
1969, surprised the stu
dents and staff by giving
a brief speech about the
history of our institution
and her accomplishments
since leaving our gates.
The brevity of the convo
cation surprised many
faculty members who
said that they expected
the convocation to be
very long because of Dr.
Manley’s retirement.
However, many
freshman did not appre
ciate her attempt at brev
ity.
“She was simply
reiterating the history [of
Spelman], but it would
have been better if she
would have told more of
her personal story” said
our anonymous freshman.
Fortunately, everyone on
campus does not share in
this lack of appreciation
for our founders.
“I thought the
speaker was very good, a
whole lot better than last
year” said sophomore Joi
Kilpatrick, “This year I
really felt the spirit of sis
terhood that is sometimes
not realized on our cam
pus.”
“I think that many
freshman didn’t like
founders day because you
don’t really begin to ap
preciate the school and it’s
history until you have
been here for awhile.
Stuff like that doesn’t
happen overnight, it takes
awhile for the these things
to develop,” said sopho
more Aminah Perkins.
Despite the unde
veloped spirit of many
members of our commu
nity, the undaunted spirit
of the alumnae was an ac
tive force throughout cam
pus during this period of
respect and recognition.
We can only hope that af
ter graduation members of
our current community
will adopt their spirit as
well.