University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students from the Black Student Union organization attended the State of Black America forum in Appleton the evening of Oct 29.

As race relations dominate national news headlines, as well as many discussions in the Black Student Unions club meetings, several students were given the opportunity to attend the area’s first-ever State of Black America forum. At UW Oshkosh, the Black Student Union is an organization focused on promoting cultural awareness at UW Oshkosh and within the community.

At the Oct. 29 forum, the conspicuous voice of Aretha Franklin filled the room, enchanting the word “respect” as hundreds of bodies filled the room to begin a demanded candid conversation led by Julianne Malveaux and Joe Madison.

Malveaux, economist, author and political commentator, and Madison, a former executive director of the Detroit NAACP and current SiriusXM satellite radio host, hosted this special discussion on what it means to be black in America today.

The event, hosted by African Heritage Inc. and sponsored by the ThedaCare-led Community Health Action Team fund, was free and open to the public.

The forum attracted many prominent leaders in the community. Members of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. were front and center for the discourse. UW Oshkosh’s own Sylvia Carey Butler, assistant vice chancellor for academic support of inclusive excellence, and Ameerah McBride, director of equity and affirmative action, joined their sorority sisters to engage in the exchange.

McBride said she hopes the students who attended the event took a lot away from the challenging conversation.

“I want to students to be able to understand that race relations in the U.S. is a difficult, yet necessary conversation to have,” she said.  “It’s important to engage each other in constructive dialogue in order to progress socially, economically and politically.​”

As vice president of the Black Student Union at UWO, Darrien Davis said he expects an educational exchange of ideas and thoughts about the current state of African Americans.

Malveaux and Madison addressed several matters, including but not limiting the notions of fighting institutional racism, laws that lead to mass incarceration, uneven levels of education funding and disparities in real estate and banking opportunities, that all have long given advantages to white communities.

Malveaux and Madison agreed that race is not an easy subject to discuss. Malveaux said that many people often fear that what they say may be misconstrued or misinterpreted, therefore they shy away from the conversation. Madison admitted and added that this shall not be used as an excuse to avoid these discussions, because these dialogues are vital to a community.

Jeanette Ward, a student majoring in nursing and minoring in business administration at UWO said she gained a lot of insight at the event.

“The state of Black America to me is the struggles and endeavors people of color must go through, but it is something we must put action into, to change,” she said.  

McBride said the State of Black America is a complex issue that is largely influenced by historical acts that the new generation of leaders have to understand in order to overcome.

“The state of any group of people is largely dictated by their interaction with  societal systems and structures,” she said. “As long as we are aware that longstanding systemic issues are barriers to progress, we can certainly do our best to eliminate those barriers and provide equity.”

Norlisha Crawford, associate professor and director of the African American Studies Program at UW Oshkosh, attended the event as well. She said she hopes the students felt confident and understood many of the issues brought up in the discussion.

“I hope they felt welcomed and secure being in the company of Black people, with so much diversity in expertise, ages, national origins, levels of professionalism, and experiences,” she said. “I hope they felt like members of a shared community with other black people. I hope they recognized that they have to contribute to addressing the issues they heard highlighted as problems in black communities in the U.S.”

Davis said the event was something to bring back to campus and back to his organization to discuss.

“The Black Student Union’s goal is to provide a comfortable atmosphere for student interactions among everyone,” he said. “We are about cultural awareness, we are about education and ultimately we are about change.”