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Where
Are You Comin' From, Where Are You Goin' To:
Participation at Events "Throughout the rhythm of life there are many special events that require the participation of every member of the community," write Daniel and Smitherman (1976). When an event becomes the shared territory of a particular community, it becomes the experience that measures communal time. Daniel and Smitherman coin the term "phase" to refer to the African "predisposition towards recurring, harmonic cycles and towards a series of events which occur in relation to each other . . ." (p. 32). Events such as parties, dances, and step shows are moments when the community performs for itself, when communal Face is presented. Popular concerts and other events, such as the concert series at the USU, may draw greater numbers of people to nearby hangouts as well. For instance, I noticed that when the Wednesday afternoon concert series at the Union showcased certain Black performers or groups, Black students crowded the rim of the courtyard area near the stage, as well as the Union's TV room and entranceway hangouts nearby. Emerald pointed out that many Black students gathered at the Union when the groups Mac 10 and the Alcoholics performed at the Union courtyard. "When there's an activity, when there's a big publicized activity, more people come," she said. For instance, a week-long flea market takes place at least once a semester, and it also brings larger crowds of Black students to the front of the Union, notes Emerald. During the flea market, vendors sell jewelry, sunglasses, crafts and other items along the sidewalk that leads to the Union, causing the walking areas near the Union to become more congested. By physically placing oneself at popular community events, and making one's Face part of the communal Face, a person places herself or himself as a member of the community. In vernacular discourse (explained further in the Word of Mouth section), events are talked about before and after they occur, as important phases and shared territories of experience. Informants mentioned a variety of events they remembered attending or wanting to attend, such as inspirational speeches given by famous Black persons, including Maya Angelou or programs such as "Africans in Diaspora" sponsored by the Da Leideez sorority. Sports events such as football games and basketball games are also places to show your Face, as are annual sports events such as Midnight Madness, a midnight basketball game that takes place during fall semester. Olympia and Chris, both involved with the BSU and the BBA, attended TV tapings sponsored by the two organizations. Individuals can also participate as players, performers, or producers of an event, rather than as observers/audience members/attendees. Keith and Steve mentioned participating in sports such as basketball, for instance. The Summer Bridge program, a summer orientation program for students in the C.S.U.N. Equal Opportunity Program (EOP), and the MBP summer orientation program, are both one-time, extended phases that help students not only place one another but place themselves in the larger C.S.U.N. campus community. Programs such as these may emphasize the territory shared by Blacks and other minority students, and may provide Word of Mouth about services, events, organizations, and other local community gathering places. Participants may also meet people in the know, who will offer guidance about life in school. Olympia claims that her participation in the Summer Bridge helped to make her and other Black students "learn as a whole, made us know who we were, and if we didn't know who we were we could have easily been run over and trampled over." "And I think that was one of the most important things we could have had during that time," she added, ". . . [was] that we had a chance to learn who we were, and got a chance to know how it is to survive in a place in which we're not wanted sometimes." Chris appreciated his experience with the MBP orientation, which he said was a more in-depth introduction to college life than the more general freshman orientation. It took place over the weekend, and the MBP students were the only students going through orientation at the time.
One informant, Emerald, did not feel she shared ideological territory with the MBP orientation, which she viewed as separatist. Emerald grew up in Santa Monica, in an upper-income neighborhood that is predominantly White, not Black. In criticizing the MBP orientation, which she attended, she criticized the separatist ideology, and placed herself apart from it:
Because she didn't feel comfortable with the MBP orientation, Emerald attended the regular freshman orientation, too. She did not want to be part of the communal, racialized Face of the MBP, but wanted to join the communal Face of the general student body. In doing so, she claimed a different experiential, social, and racial territory, as well as pluralist/assimilationist ideological territory. One significant phase of experience lasts four or more years:
high school. Students at C.S.U.N. may come across the familiar Faces of
students with whom they went to high school. The shared experiential territory
of the high school can be very reassuring, especially to freshman and
transfer students. A new transfer student, Thanya, seemed quite cheerful
when she mentioned discovering a friend from her elementary school on
campus. Jake said that when he first arrived on campus, "I started
noticing the people that I'd graduated with [from high school] were up
here and I found out where they were." He found his high school friends
in the Square, a popular hangout before the earthquake, and that's where
he would go to meet more friends. In effect, Jake shared the physical
territory of a hangout where he had found others who shared the experiential
territory of high school. This is how he made the transition into the
campus community.
Next> Participation Over Time
Placing and Black Students' Discursive Construction of Community Copyright (c) 1996, Corinna J. Moebius |