Ishan Allen

[Mari K Smith]: Hello, Ok uhm Can you say your name and your year at Antioch?

[Ishan Allen]: Hi I'm ah, sorry I was about to grab them. I'm Ishan Allen and I'm a third year.

[Mari K Smith]: Thank you for meeting with me. Very short notice sorry about that. How do you feel about the statement race is not real?

[Ishan Allen]: When I think about that, I think about kind of this whole idea that has been brought up multiple times of the melting pot and how people say "yeah we can just blend everything together and it's all one thing" and uhm I do believe on a soul level we are all humans and that is what it comes down too. Not as much on race, but the fact is, our culture, our society. This dream that 00:01:00we're in is so built around race and things like that, so in order to survive it is a little tougher. It's not a good thing to say that race doesn't exist because it is so deeply implemented into our society. Like I said I think of it as a human way and if there was any other way that our society was any more accepting of that then yea I'd say race is not very important but with the society we're in I'd say yeah race is very important.

[Mari K Smith]: If I hear you correctly you're saying idealistically you want to say race should not matter but with the reality of the situation in our society 00:02:00race is very evident?

[Ishan Allen]: Yeah

[Mari K Smith]: How, other rhetoric's that I've heard are that my race and my culture are very important to me and I want to be real to other people. How do you feel about that concept?

[Ishan Allen]: I totally agree on that and for me. I respect my culture and my heritage and my race. I love being who I am. I think everybody should really love who they are. It shouldn't be a kind of negative attitude to who you are and where your ancestors came from. It's very important to know your history and how you came to be and things like that. Accepting and also celebrating who you 00:03:00are. I 400% support that.

[Mari K Smith]: What does it mean to have culture to you?

[Ishan Allen]: To have culture? I guess. To have culture, I don't really know? I don't think I've really sat down and thought about that one as much. I'd have to sit and think about that a little more.

[Mari K Smith]: Do you want to come back to that one later maybe?

[Ishan Allen]: Maybe yeah.

[Mari K Smith]: That's fine. So just culture in general but, negating that. What are your feelings or thoughts on the POC culture at Antioch?

[Ishan Allen]: I feel that, POC culture on Antioch's campus, I feel sometimes, like many things in the country, I think some things are very much, I'm trying to find the word. It's not numbed but like pushed to the side almost. As if race doesn't exist in a way? What I'm trying to say is the culture that race brings and the people are kind of placed to the side because being a minority coming here as a POC coming here to a majority white campus I feel like sometimes it's hard to celebrate your culture and things like that. You have to adapt almost. It's only it took maybe like 00:05:00later or something maybe you do get to keep your culture but I don't know POC culture here is kind of uhm. It's a little mixed up I guess. [Pause] It's kind of like there's people who celebrate their culture here and a lot of people who hide their culture here. I can't speak for everybody but for me culture is prevalent but it's not always shown I guess so yea. Or until you really get to know the person or people around you, stuff like that. The outer views are kind 00:06:00of put to the side usually. Unless they're first coming here. The adapting definitely changes it.

[Mari K Smith]: What was the process, I'm assuming you're speaking from your own experience, what was the process adapting to this culture from your own culture.

[Ishan Allen]: Well coming from a big high school to a small school that culture alone. Celebrating me first of all? I didn't know who I was when I first came here. A lot of the times I found myself. I still do sometimes, trying to please 00:07:00everyone. It wasn't until about my third co-op, it was like. This is me. My first co-op I really was like this is me but I had to remind myself being able to be alone with myself really helped me to see there is some culture and everything. Now I'm able to celebrate who I am even more because I know more about myself and my family. I think it comes down to really knowing yourself and your past. Really knowing your family and your relatives.

[Mari K Smith]: Do you feel as though the POC group has helped you not only feel 00:08:00like you can adapt in a comfortable way but also celebrate your culture?

[Ishan Allen]: Yes, I do. I do feel that there is a lot of love and respect. Because of that it helps with further enhancing that feeling of acceptance and everything. We're celebrating who you are. That's a really cool thing that should be taken outside of this college. Because I know for sure there are people around who are like "yea that's totally the opposite." if only people knew what it was truly like being able to celebrate yourself.

[Mari K Smith]: What is it like to celebrate yourself?

[Ishan Allen]: Happiness I guess. There are also like other emotions that come 00:09:00with it too and it's just like euphoric I guess in a way for me at least. Celebrating myself and so yea.

[Mari K Smith]: I also agree. I just know the first year whatever. There is a sense of appreciation I felt. Not even doing anything that significant. Everyone looks at each other and smiles. We kind of are just doing stuff because we want to be there. I can really agree with you there. In your opinion what social constructs contribute to racism on campus?

[Ishan Allen]: Two things. I think this culture of animosity? Or anonymous 00:10:00actions. I think because of that and the lack of I guess, well now recently more things have been put in place to fight against these kinds of things. I think the ability to anonymously do an action without a response. Kind of originally I guess caused a lot of bad. Then also I feel a lot of that stuff deals with also culture and anonymous stuff, things like Facebook and putting drama up on Facebook I could go on for days about how I feel social media affects us on a 00:11:00psychological level where we feel we can, or there are people who will like what we say and a lot of people are having their voices heard over social media which sometimes can be good and sometimes bad. Not even bad it's just not a positive out view on the world. That's kind of that whole anonymous thing. I guess another feeling is how fast things are going all of the time. With our quarter system the way it is, we're constantly on the move and things are not always being solved in the moment. There's people coming and people going and so we always 00:12:00have like nothing ever really getting solved here I feel. And a lot of that bad energy I think gets left and it affects a lot of people here and all of that. Just seeing people get so dejected and just bound. It causes that negative action and everything if we really have more time to sit and think about the actions that have occurred and be able to really go through everything that has occurred. I know I'm saying the same words a lot right now but if we had more of that ability to sit and think good things I feel that there would be less of 00:13:00these anonymous actions. I can't say because for some people that is just the way that they operate and we can't change everyone and if anyone, but they may learn something is the only thing.

[Mari K Smith]: So if I understand what you're saying correctly, you're saying the construct of animosity on our campus is perpetuated by the fact that people are coming and going constantly. Is that what you're saying?

[Ishan Allen]: Somewhat yea that and then also the whole culture of social media on our campus as well also perpetuates it so yea.

[Mari K Smith]: I've never gotten that answer as of yet but I think that was a good one. So please explain in your own words the day of disappearance action and whether or not you felt it was impactful?

[Ishan Allen]: The day of disappearance action. I feel it was more impactful for the people who were involved in it. In the whole day of disappearance. I felt very much impacted from that. I learned so much from the faculty and the people 00:15:00involved in everything. It was just being around people of color. Being able to express our opinions on the situation. I don't know if it was as impactful for people not involved. I don't think most people really even were consciously aware of the situation that occurred for people in the day. The day of disappearance was kind of like, do you want an explanation of what happened in my own words as well? We got people together. I feel that we also got a better understanding of each other's understanding on the matter. It was very 00:16:00informational. It was a very good session to gain a better understanding of what everybody was feeling including faculty and staff whose voices have really been unheard before that. Kind of coming out of that I feel the two things I took out of that day of disappearance was one don't assume and two if you've got a question go to the source and ask the question. You just do that. You might not like the answer that comes out but now you know what is really going down. Just 00:17:00kind of some really lifelong things that I took from that. It really reinforced my thinking on the world.

[Mari K Smith]: I definitely agree. A lot of people, Like I said there is a common rhetoric amongst a lot of people, especially on that day of it being impactful for us being there. Everyone got to experience hearing each other's voices and speaking. I feel like we've tried to do that a lot of times throughout this campuses life. Why was it that day of people meeting together and speaking that was productive and impactful to people of color? What was different about that day to you.

[Ishan Allen]: I think and this isn't put down any of the other days that we've had. I think it was a willingness to listen to each other's feelings and really 00:18:00consciously listen. Sit and talk. Through all of that. It's just a sort of simple way to be through all of that. Really consciously listen and just listen. From there discussing. Also the fact that it was all day caused a lot or changed a lot with that. I feel when we're consciously listening it was less of a heated feeling. Or like anger, there may still be anger towards things but I feel like 00:19:00there is more understanding and respect for one another.

[Mari K Smith]: Lets go a little bit further. Why do you think we were all a little bit more willing to listen to each other on the day of disappearance.

[Ishan Allen]: I think it was the timing of things like the fact that this is an important part of the school and being able to come together for a certain thinking and topic and the list of things that were needing to be handled. I guess knowing that there probably wouldn't be any other day besides that day to really talk and listen and understand. We had to take action right then or right 00:20:00after that. If we had waited a few more days. It would have been a totally different response by higher ups and everything and I don't know if we'd be in the same position we are today.

[Mari K Smith]: Sorry if I kept asking you I was just trying to get to it. This wasn't a question on the actual sheet so feel free if you don't want me to ask you this I should have asked this before. How do you feel about the word itself segregation?

[Ishan Allen]: I really don't like when people use that because it is a tool to use against any form of what we're trying to do and it's a different thing. 00:21:00Segregation is a force. You're forcing somebody to be in a separate environment. You're against that race and things like that. I feel when people use segregation it has such a negative history. That's not what we're trying to get at at all. Whenever it's used of course it puts it down it puts down what we're trying to do and give it a negative light. I feel that it is more important to see what we're doing and try to create something as a form of support. It's not segregation, it's a way to support someone who has a need. In order to support 00:22:00that need you have to give those people that support. I think that is the most important piece. It is a human thing. If there is a need then there should be support and it doesn't matter if it is a POC or white student there has to be a support system in place for anybody. Just the fact that it has POC in it doesn't mean there should be any less. That is the thing is if it was used, maybe it would be used wrong if it was all white students. The word segregation.

[Mari K Smith]: I feel like it is because it's not all white students. It's not something brought up. You don't say segregation commonly. That's not a common vernacular.