Myrcka Del Rio

[Mari K Smith]: I'm Mari Smith and I'm collaborating with Alyssa Navarette and 00:01:00we are doing a project to get kind of a pseudo ethnograph on what it's like to be a POC on campus. These are the sort of questions we'll be asking you. It will be These questions and maybe follow up questions based on what you say. I'm sorry if this sounds a little official, it's literally just because we're doing it through the college. That's literally it. So can you please say your name and your year?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Myrcka Del Río 2017.

[Mari K Smith]: So Myrcka what are your feelings on the POC culture on Antioch's campus?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: If I'm talking from within the POC group I think we have a very strong group. It's developed a lot since my first year here and I think the 00:02:00more I participate in it the more I love it and I see it as a family and a nice little safe haven on campus. Do you want me to talk more about the wider range on campus? I think that a lot of tissues that we face as POC aren't talked about enough. And I don't know if it's because these microaggressions are something to be embarrassed about. But at the community meeting everybody found out about what happened to the POC women on the floor and a lot of people were like I didn't know that happened that happened? And how do you not know that a woman was kind of attacked in the bathroom? In the shower? So I think that our issues are either something to be embarrassed about or something the campus doesn't want to talk about?

[Mari K Smith]: How do you feel about the statement race is not real?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: It's ridiculous. I mean I understand if you came from a community where it wasn't talked about or maybe everybody looked like you or maybe you grew up in an all Latino community and you don't know what it's like 00:03:00to have a race action taken towards you. Once you leave that community you really see all of these little things that add up that make you frustrated and angry. So I understand why somebody would say that but I think if we open our eyes and we educate ourselves you see that is still very strong in the United States.

[Mari K Smith]: What would you say to someone who believes that or has openly said that?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Wow that's happened a lot here at Antioch. I think the best thing to do is listen to them and then lead them into a productive conversation where they don't feel attacked or feel like you are educating them. You kind of have to lead them there. Because it is a very strong epiphany like "oh my god race is still real this is still happening.'' and people freak out. We've seen it happen in conversations. That global seminar conversation where somebody just blew up and we were like "oh man." so this is a tough subject that definitely has to be taken with a lot of caution.

[Mari K Smith]: Do you feel like you have an added responsibility as a woman of color to have to stay calm and have to acknowledge all of these other feelings that people that say things like this have?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Unfortunately yes. You have to, as a woman you're taught to be nurturing and caring and make people feel safe. it's also my nature to make people feel safe and needed and loved. It's tricky yeah.

[Mari K Smith]: What kind of social constructs do you feel add on to racism specific to our campus?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Well the fact that RAs or R alumnus or whatever they're calling them these days? Didn't take action specifically when a woman of color asked to be moved from her room and action wasn't taken immediately because her roommate threatened to kill her and they said "She isn't going to do it" and they didn't move her. I think she still wasn't moved and she still hasn't moved and a white woman on campus had 00:05:00an issue because she didn't like her room mate she wasn't moved right away so if the administration wont take our issues seriously then why would the rest of the campus take it seriously because "oh I guess it doesn't really matter because if adults don't even think of it then why would we?"

[Mari K Smith]: What sort of message do you think that sends to the student body and especially women of color?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: A very negative one because it perpetuates this thought that we are dramatic and don't have a reason to really be upset. And we do that was a very real reason. Her roommate threatened to kill her. And maybe she wasn't going to act on it but the fact that she wasn't moved immediately and the fact that Anna had to keep telling her her story just kind of it was unnecessary and I think eventually people were like "this is being dramatic you were moved stop it."

[Mari K Smith]: Please explain this action to us in your own words and why it was necessary. Well you kind of did that. If you could repeat the question or 00:06:00repeat the predicate you know.

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Please explain this action in your own words as well as why its necessary. The POC decided to get together and be in this room away from campus as a disappearance. We want to know if anyone is going to notice why we're gone. Are our friends going to text us and miss us at lunch at dinner? I think that's really interesting. I don't know if you read Mindy Kaling's book "is everyone hanging out without me." That's a good question that's always been at the back of my mind. But this isn't that. Are professors going to notice that we aren't there? POC women don't talk a lot in class. I just withdrew from a 00:07:00class of like 8 white men that dominate the conversation at like 8:30 in the morning. I was like "can't handle it" and then I have a class with that same professor early in the day but he takes attendance so he's going to notice. I think it's really important we do add a lot of life to this campus and Kevin McGruder sent us that really great email this morning where we add life in a place that cares only about money and dullness? And yea are people going to miss us at community meetings? I mean a lot of people, especially Meli who goes up there and forces people to clap and be happy. Are they going to be like where's Meli at though?

[Mari K Smith]: This is kind of, we're going to shift gears a little bit and talk about the POC hall. Do you feel a POC hall is necessary on a small liberal 00:08:00arts campus like Antioch and if so why? And if you could give a little more background I think that would be a little more helpful.

[Myrcka Del Rio]: I think a POC hall is necessary on this campus if we want it right? This is our decision and if we want it I don't think anyone who is a POC has a reason to kind of challenge that and I think I understand if they're like "OH this is self segregation" but if you had to endure the things you've had to, like if you had ramen thrown at you in the shower wouldn't you be pretty pissed? If you had condoms and lube thrown at you in the shower? If I were one of those students I probably wouldn't come back I'd be pretty pissed I'd be like "What the fuck is wrong with you?" and probably vandalize the school somehow because i'd be pretty pissed. Like this is my body, I am in the shower, you knew I was in here. You peaked at my body. No nothing about that is ok and for the administration to sit and think about this so long is ridiculous.

[Mari K Smith]: Would you argue this is a matter of safety? I understand the administration has thought about making other identity halls as well as the POC group but would you argue this is a matter of safety and what exactly separates POC from that?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: I think people don't understand what if feels, how it feels to feel unsafe constantly unless you've been attacked and for people to say this isn't necessary it's not going to happen again is ridiculous and it's not a comment that needs to be made if you haven't felt that pain if your roommate hasn't told you they hate these type of people or tells you she wants to kill 00:10:00you. You really shouldn't have an opinion and say this isn't necessary. Safety is a huge issue, it's an issue of life. Both you and I are in Toshindo to learn to protect ourselves right. When you're in a shower on campus that's supposed to be a community and kind and loving that this is happening there is an issue.

[Mari K Smith]: So obviously we've had a reaction from faculty and staff, but what do you feel is a necessary reaction and what do you think they could have done better in response to these requests we've had?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: I understand why these women who've had these things happen to them in the showers didn't want to make this public. But I think if the community knew right away this happened it needs to stop whoever did this needs to be held accountable. There might have been a different reaction but I completely understand why. I would feel a kind of shame if that happened to me and I was personally attacked but I think if actions were taken right away 00:11:00especially against that one roommate. This isn't tolerated, have a community meeting, you can't say these things to your room mate, this can never be tolerated. It might be harsh to say to the student. We don't use the word expelled, what word do we use? Let go? No its not a job. Suspended? Academic expansion? I think that would have sent a strong message, this isn't acceptable on our campus, you're not a part of our community. That all of nothing about that should fly ever. Especially a community that loves diversity so much but rarely practices it.

[Mari K Smith]: This is kind of widening the spectrum a little bit. What does it mean to be a POC in Yellow Springs to you? Like why did you come here to begin with?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: I knew almost nothing about Yellow Springs. I googled it. I knew there was a street fair and I was like aw man I love street fairs! I saw the art and I was like Oh man I love art! And I saw the benches and the trash cans and I was like aw man I love mosaic art. I didn't want to go to college but Antioch was like free education and I was like OK! and I saw the word diversity a lot and I was like I can do that. I'm diverse! And then I got here and there was like what three Latinos in my class? I don't know if it was hard. The food, getting adjusted to food was really hard. But the landscape was the hardest for me in terms of being very flat and not having anywhere to hike or nature to see. Everyone is like oh the glen is right that but I come from mountains the glen is not that much. The more, it's so interesting to me 00:13:00the more people of color we get on this campus the more you can see this separation of this push back on diversity and POC and the first few of us were like yea we're just trying to get here and get good grades. Now that we're integrating ourselves into the campus there is a lot of pushback. It's very strange I don't think Antioch knows what it wants in the community. We're still very young, we're still trying to figure out what we want. Our bylaws could instantly change and comcils always trying to fix itself and there is just a lot happening. It's like a parent that just had a baby is still trying to figure it out.

[Mari K Smith]: Do you know who Bassem is?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Yes I love Bassem!

[Mari K Smith]: I got him to ditch with us too by the way. He was talking to me and I was talking to him about what we were doing. He was saying that Yellow Springs back in the day we had all of these great stories and people came to yellow springs because it was a diverse place and because of Antioch and because it was a diverse place. They had a really really big Japanese community. How do you feel about that? Do you think we could ever get back to that place?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: OH man I thought it was the opposite. Like there was a barber who refused to cut hair for Black people in town. And then eventually people were like "you cut Black hair or else you leave." Didn't Coretta Scott King leave because of the racism of Antioch?

[Mari K Smith]: She left because she couldn't pass a test to graduate to the next level?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Oh man I've heard so many reasons for why she left.

[Mari K Smith]: That's kind of telling like we need to stop stressing people out like Coretta Scott King couldn't graduate.

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Isn't Yellow Springs one of the most expensive places to live in the country? And there was like this huge divide between the minimum wage and the cost to live here? And they didn't want tiny houses?

[Mari K Smith]: What? That would have been great?

[Alyssa Navarette]: From what I've heard from Tom Manly there is like some sort of reform restricting people from building more property? So they wont start building on land that they're trying to preserve like the crops in the fields they're not letting people build crops on fields.

[Mari K Smith]: Ohio has enough crops and we have enough corn.

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Yellow springs doesn't. Yeah so this town is so interesting itself like it's a bunch of rich people. I think most of our faculty live here but a lot of our staff don't'? They come from Xenia, Fairborn, Yellow Springs, Columbus Cincinnati.

[Mari K Smith]: Is there anything else you'd like to say?

[Myrcka Del Rio]: No I'm excited to see where your project goes and I`m excited that we're all here together.

[Mari K Smith]: It's really nice to look around and not see any white people. I hope that doesn't sound racist.

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Not at all.

[Mari K Smith]: But There is like this comfort in it I don't know.

[Myrcka Del Rio]: Yeah it's fine we're a whole class right? I think the most POC I've had in a class together were maybe four of us together? But no it was five of us but now I look around and I'm like hell yeah.