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In the above tripartite poem “The Bonds Which Bind Us,” Mark Welsh addresses our ancestors, ourselves, and the unborn. He speaks of seeds of survival planted within us to pull us through trying times. He reminds us to celebrate ourselves and our dreams. This video was recorded before many current Black UCSC students were born. This performance embodies the foundational idea of this exhibition: our Black lives and Black dreams will always matter as long as we keep them going.

What does it mean to be a Black student at an institution such as UCSC? The school’s remarkably low percentage of Black students can be explained away by factors such as Proposition 209 or the lack of racial diversity in the town of Santa Cruz. As this exhibition shows, official reports and initiatives from UCSC crop up repeatedly. Recruitment and retention efforts cycle through, failing to address the daily realities of Black life on UCSC’s campus. Black students throughout the years have faced similar barriers since the first handful of us were admitted. The narratives and documents listed here will show how students were subjected to conditions such as being the only Black student in their classes, not having the resources available to center their work around Blackness, and no recourse available when faced with racist behavior. 

One student narrative that was not included in this exhibition was from Dr. Ekua Omosupe. She earned her PhD in Literature in 1997 and was interviewed as part of the Regional History Project in 2002. Dr. Omosupe’s story of her time at UCSC is familiar: she experienced great love from some within the UCSC community and horrific racism from others. Throughout awful conditions she was expected to continue being a graduate student—and she did. When describing a particularly torturous experience where campus police targeted her 10-year-old son over the course of 6 years, Dr. Omosupe said, “there were so many times when my mind and my body were split. I had to go to those classes and do my work. I had to show good face to all of these people who were against me, who already said my son was guilty.”


But as Mark Welsh reminds us in his poem, “too often we concern ourselves with the negative aspects of our dwelling here rather than catapulting ourselves forward on the strength of our endurance.” This exhibition is an invitation to all Black UCSC students (past, present, and future) to share in each other’s endurance. A few years removed from UCSC, Dr. Omosupe reflects, “I thank the Great Spirit that through all of that I still have faith in what human beings can accomplish if we decide to do that right thing…I thank God that I have healed, and I continue to heal from so many things. Because as a black woman in the world, it is very difficult. It is very, very difficult to survive. History attests to that, past and present. I'm glad that they were not able to drive me out, that they did not press me into such a place of despair that I would quit.”

So what does it mean to be a Black student at UCSC? Each Black student who entered UCSC had a desire for education. They had plans and dreams that left a trace here. Regardless of whether or not those dreams were realized, they should be honored. Consider this exhibition as an opportunity to celebrate ourselves and each other.


   




Header image:
Photographs: Oakes College students 1975, undated. Box 7. Folder 46.
J. Herman Blake papers. MS 415. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Background image:
Stevenson College: Student.

Steve Rees photographs of the University of California, Santa Cruz . UC Santa Cruz. Special Collections and Archives.