I always have to go down those steps on tour and look up and say black lives matter then I’m on campus where I’m like do I really matter if I’m not a student athlete what’s going on guys I hope everybody is doing well and your week is
Going great Hey listen man I found this beautiful article from these two young ladies they were actually talking about their experience as CU I guess pre and post coach Prime Deion Sanderson this one while it’s not specifically about football it’s about the see you experience and being black and the black
Experience at at the University of Colorado and I just want to say that these type of videos don’t get that much engagement and attention I understand it but that’s what I like to do on this channel I’d like to give you a full perspective of the experience that is
Around coach Prime this is the full coach Prime effect and is going on all around the university you’ve seen interviews that I have made on the streets of Boulder and you’ve heard what the prime effect is all about I wanted to give you these girls experience because it gives you a different
Perspective of what’s going on on the campus being black having a small percentage of black black students at the University so that you can understand a different side of the Prime effect if you like this video I would love for you to please share it because it helps to get a different perspective
About the university and about how the prime effect is affecting other areas of the University we’re going to get that in this video right after shador tells you who we are around here go ahead shador tell them who we are around here so people can understand exactly who we
Are at TP Sports Club BWB wagon bu that’s right it’s your man harryan please do me a favor and smash that subscribe button make sure to give me the thumbs up and don’t forget to hit that Bell notification so that you can get the videos as soon as I upload it to
YouTube all right family I got to go ahead and get into this video real quick so that’s all the business I got you know what time it is let’s work all right guys so welcome back I want to thank these young ladies for actually doing this I’m going to try my best to
Breathe a little bit of life into this article if you stick with it guys you will understand the nuances of this article and why I think it’s a beautiful article without further Ado guys let’s go oh and if I don’t get the names correct guys if I botch the names please
Forgive me charge it to my head and not my heart you know I mean well on this channel all right guys so I found this article on kgnu kgnu dorg it says what it’s like being a black student who is not an athlete in cu’s coach Prime era so this
Is a photo of Kennedy Pickering the person that is responsible for this article what’s up Kennedy I want to say thank you very much for this article thank you for giving me the opportunity to share your experience with some of the bus fan base black students make up
Just 2.7% of Cu boers student population that’s roughly 829 students out of nearly 31,000 K’s Kennedy picker and sat down with her roommate Rola zabu discussed how that’s affected their college experience they also touched on the impact coach prom has had on campus from their perspectives as black
Non-student athletes and what forms of community they’ve been able to build despite the small population this is actually a conversation that they had but I’m going to try my best to give you the best version of that conversation in my voice so let’s go Kennedy yeah what
Do you think are some misconceptions you feel the black community has about CU you Boer are those misconceptions sometimes warranted roller says pre- coach Prime if you ask a typical Black Or Hispanic student if they wanted to come to see you they would have probably been like maybe not it’s probably in my
Choices but I don’t know if I want to go but now because of Coach Prime I would assume that has changed a little bit especially for students who are student athletes and students who don’t want to go into football or basketball but if you are a typical student who wants to
Just get a college education um playing out I think you’re probably thinking that you know if they gave me money I’ll go like you’re thinking about General consistencies like just like the stereotypical CU thing is that it’s mostly a pwi institution unfortunately when it comes to CU whether it’s gender
Studies ethnic studies or racial studies all these things you have to go to those departments and you have to go to those classes to be able to actually sort of understand who you are and where you come from those departments those small departments are the ones that are underfunded and underappreciated from
Kennedy right now being in the black feminist and women theories class I’m sitting here reading books by B hooks we’re talking about sjor truth I’m sitting here I’m like these are women that I’ve looked up to since I was a young kid but we’re not getting taught
This in any of my other gender classes it has to be this black professor that I’m teaching and she also had to spearhead to have this class I think she wanted this class since I was a sophomore I’m a senior now and it finally was available to this semester
Which is so sad because I think that these are the classes that I believe CU you Boulder as a whole needs to start looking into because sometimes when I’m walking on campus and I’m seeing students that don’t look at me or I’m walking and I’m giving tours to parents
That don’t look like me and they’re like I already see you know when they look at you they’re like these are preconceived notions like I can’t afford to go here that I’m here on a scholarship that’s probably related to Athletics and I’m like I have so much more I’m not worth
Just my skin color I’m so much more than that and I feel like even because a whole lot of light has been brought onto Athletics but where are the students that have been working their butt off in the music department gender department and journalism Department that are black
And we have worked our butt off too just to get to where we are from roller you’re absolutely right what was the last part of that question Kennedy do you think these misconcep ctions are warranted from rer no I think honestly the question answers itself with everything we just said so far they’re
Not they’re all unwarranted because what we just said is really what it’s like being on the outside looking in a lot of students who want to come to see you who are black students Hispanic students Asian students or any other ethnicity are probably thinking about all these
Things you know when I come to see you when I find my community would I’ll be able to find a community that welcomes me celebrates me and supports me because the thing is that’s different for a lot of us a lot of racialized students don’t immediately get that when they come to
See you we don’t immediately get a chance to join a sorority or a frat we don’t immediately get the opportunity to join a club an Acappella club or whatever it is out there like a lot of us have to literally work so hard to look for these clubs and organizations
And network and find these people that look like us and make relationships that way it’s not something that’s immediately given to us and so it can cause a lot of issues there you know I didn’t find my community and my people people until maybe the end of sophomore
Year so obviously because of Co but also because I felt pretty isolated coming to see you because no one looked like me and it was only one or two people that look like me so all these things affected me and so I don’t think I do think it’s unwarranted for sure bringing
It back you said something about sorties I know you know this about me I wanted to join a sority when I came here and I was looking at it I was really thinking about it and then I looked at everything all those sororities and unfortunately I
Would have been a sorority with a few people of color and I was like yeah yeah cuz cuz you know coming here you’re like you’re always going to be in the back of your head you’re like I’m the token black kid from roller yeah you’re right
You’re right it’s true the idea is that you want to make friends and you want to have make connections with people but it’s hard to do that when there are so many preconceived notions about who you are or what they think you are and that’s really the issue with going to a
Pwi most of the time I went to UNC Greensboro which is a pwi it was first an all women or all girl school which got integrated there’s a sizeable black community as it was in the heart of Greensboro North Carolina so I didn’t really have this specific experience we
Did have a big black culture there we had the Gospel Choir different unions there were black sororities there were black fraternities I can definitely understand the whole idea of a pwi especially if you only have 2.7% of black kids there so I don’t really know the percentage of blacks that were
Actually at UNCC grensboro when I went there is probably gotten bigger since I’ve been there I kind of understand some of the nuances of this story and what they’re experiencing as CU fact that coach Prime is there when they start winning more and more black students may feel more comfortable to go
To this school let’s keep going guys and that’s really the issue with going to a pwi most of the time and then my last question for you today is what is something in the future you want see you to invest in that we don’t currently have for black students I know we have
The center for African-American students but it’s not talked about enough the black Student Association the African American Student Association while other clubs get highlighted so much these clubs that represent us as a community don’t from roller yeah I mean unfortunately I personally have lost hope in terms of what can be done for
Students of color and black students on this campus mainly because from time and time again we’ve seen what the institution itself prioritizes you know in terms of what they think is best for the overall institution you see it’s funny every time I walk past the museum where it has black lives matter yeah
Yeah it’s so ironic to me because at the end of the today the school has hired neo-nazis and white supremacists to teach classes here it’s enrolled Nazis and white supremacists to go to the school and actively claim to identify as those things also just the mere fact that you know it’s always about
Diversity and equity and all these things but when you really look at it there’s no measure of diversity and Equity when you talk about the land grants and land acknowledgement and the whole school being built on indigenous land like all these things to me are the
Same because at the end of the day this institution will only do what it does to continue to be an institution and bring in as much money as a can for its research and for its Athletics and football and all this stuff that’s their priority it’s the same people who are
Consistently pushing for voices and spaces for people of color black students and all students from different backgrounds so I think that’s how it’s always going to be we can have hope that it can change okay I’m just going to interject a little bit here because I
Went to a pwi I’m sure the first body of students that went to UNCC Greensboro right after they changed everything around I’m sure that has similar experiences just like the leaders before us when you are Trailblazers you have to continue to fight the good fight you
Have to continue to do what you have to do and just keep hope alive that’s what happens you have to keep hope alive and you have to keep a positive attitude because later on years you will get a Harry be later on years you will get the
Gospel Choir there later on you’ll get a lot more things going on at the school if you just continue to fight the fight I know when you are the Genesis when you’re in the beginnings it seems like there’s not a lot of you and you’re kind of clamoring and you’re fighting for
Those little crumbs and stuff that you get is a little daunting but you are the Trailblazers you are the guys that are the Pioneers at the University so you had to just keep fighting and just keep hoping that’s why having people like coach Prime come through having more
Black faces on campus these are the things that kind of foster those things to happen at the University and that’s why I always talk about how important it is for Coach Prime and others to go to schools like these because people always saying oh you had a white school you had
A white school and you get the promic black voices and I start to keep using his name but like Dr Omar Johnson’s who why you taking your black money to pwi it has to start somewhere you have to start building relationships somewhere all of the efforts that Kennedy and her
Roommates are making is not going to go unseen that’s why I do articles like these so that I can give us some voice whether it’s just a thousand people that read it or the right person that reads it or that reads and hear it it may Inspire somebody to want to do something
So while articles like these and videos like these don’t give that much attention like the messy stuff as people want to call it on the channel it’s important that I do these type of videos as well so I can let people know about the university and hopefully because I’m
Doing this article and I’m shining more light maybe it will inspire some more black parents to send their kids to see you you never know everybody got to do their part and hopefully this is me doing my part let’s keep going all we can do is try to advocate for ourselves
As much as we can and highlight the spaces we already have molding them to be better and more accessible for incoming students and faculty cuz that’s all we can do there’s not much more from there I know that sounds a little pessimistic but it’s really how I feel
Sometimes I understand exactly how you feel young lady all right but just keep hope alive things are going to change okay sometimes when you are a Pioneer when you’re in the wilderness it seems a little hard but change will come if you continue to fight the fight and you
Continue to do what you do and don’t give up don’t let the hardships and the things that you’re fighting for the trenches the things when we talk about trenches in football you’re where we call the trenches you are in the valley you’re in the trenches the valley
Experience is not glamorous it’s not a beautiful experience but you’re fighting a good fight and if you’re watching this video I want you to please understand that you’re doing the right thing this is what you do you have to fight for everything you get every crumps don’t
Give up don’t be pessimistic just be optimistic about the opportunities while you may not see immediate results right now these type of things take time it takes years there’s going to be students years from now that’s going to be reading these type of Articles watching these type of videos and saying wow I
Remember rer and they’re going to remember Kennedy the work that you put in the time that you put in the fights that you fought Moses did not see the promised land but it’s okay let’s keep going guys from Kennedy I know what you mean because when I look at it I always
Have to go down those steps on tour and look up and say black lives matter then I’m on campus where I’m like do I really matter if I’m not a student athlete sometimes it feels like as a black student on campus if I’m not an athlete
Do I really matter because I just don’t feel it and it’s more of a show than enforcement black lives do matter black student lives matter everyone’s identity here on campus matters but when we’re black students who aren’t athletes sometimes we get pushed to the Wayside do these black students really matter I
Want to question what you did to support that doing a hard time from rer two years ago or a year and a half ago they had to read because it was doing Black History Month too I remember some of the letters were broken out like the glass
Was broken off I actually found it a bit hilarious because it was doing Black History Month I remember thinking this had to have been racially motivated I tend to feel alienated at this school myself as you said when you’re walking on this campus and all you see are
People who don’t look like you it can be complex and challenging to navigate that’s where impostor syndrome comes in feeling like you don’t belong here and this space was not made for you but that’s what it’s all about all the black students and racial minorities at this school are challenging that exact notion
That we do belong here and we do deserve to be here just because we’re not typical white students with privilege doesn’t mean we don’t belong here it’s a struggle for us but it’s a struggle that will lead to good things see right there that right there but it’s a struggle
That will lead to good things yes yes my friend yes ladies yes queens that is right it will always lead to good things you got to always remember that it will always lead the good things when you’re fighting a good fight keep the mission in front of you no matter how hard it
Gets always remind yourself take some time look at God’s earth look at the trees listen to the birds listen to the wind and see that you are on a bigger Mission put that before you put the mission before you and understand that things will change and when you do that
You know you’re fighting a good fight you don’t even have to see the results that’s what I try to remind myself every time I’m in a classroom and look around as we’re talking about racial issues then some kid says the most out of pocket stuff you’ve ever heard and you
Turn around like did that kid just say that it’s so offputting and really messes you up but you know it’s funny when you debrief with your other black friends and laugh about it keep laughing kids make sure to keep laughing and just understand they know not what they do
People at these universities are coming from different backgrounds some of them are coming from all white schools and they don’t necessarily understand the black experience they just hear you talk about it in political groups and they say oh you’re just talking why are you so angry pick yourself up by your
Bootstraps you know do better for yourself you’re lazy they don’t have the experience that you have they don’t know how hard you work they just see and hear the things that on political lines and political sides until you actually get a black person in your presence and you
Guys start to dialogue and you start to share stories and see where you have things in common then you’ll understand as individuals not as political groups you have things in common things that can change perspectives on other sides so you’re understand where white people are coming from you understand where
Black people are coming from you’ll understand where Asians are coming from Hispanics are coming from that’s why dialogue is important if we stay on our Sid and we keep letting these political operatives continue to poison our Airwaves and continue to poison our minds then we will not have these
Experiences if we never come together or be in the same space so that we can experience these things for ourselves then perspectives would never change and that way racism would never go away hopefully nobody sees this article and take it the wrong way this is a CU experience and hopefully nobody sees
This and be like why would you bring this article it’s just a few disgruntled black people talking badly about CU you if you see it that way then I really feel sad for you and I feel sorry for you because you’re living a sad life you need to be healed you’re not really
Understanding or allowing yourself to really experience everything so that you can can really have the full experience of Cu let’s keep going all right guys so here’s the last part we are almost done this is from Kennedy my professors do this a lot every time we’re talking about racial issues specifically
Pertaining to black history or black people I often see my professors look at me specifically like they’re asking for my approved or talk about it I think it’s hilarious or when you’re the only black student in the classroom and then every other student looks at you when
They use the word slaves and everybody’s looking at you like why are you looking like that it’s such an interesting thing I think I’ve been looked at so many times because if anything racial comes up being the only black student in your class is sometimes not the best thing
From rer and yeah you immediately are like your senses are on alert yeah you shrivel up and you’re just like here we go it’s like a reflex a sixth sense a reflex where it’s just like oh my God here we go from Kennedy thank you for doing this roller of course thank you
For having me this type of experience and this type of video is important especially for my channel understanding and like really educating you about buff life understanding the campus understanding the students the professors not just the football side you know this is obviously not about football but while we’re all clamoring
For information about Coach Prime the most juiciest information everybody’s trying to get breaking news what’s coach Prime doing what’s coach Prime saying the prime effect is an effect that’s happening around campus from top to bottom I tried to articulate and let people know why it’s important that this
Happens I want people to understand like look at the campus when you’re looking at the campus if you never been to a pwi you really don’t understand that experience if you went to a university where it was diverse it was Asian there was Whit there was black there was all
Kinds of people on campus and you really didn’t have this experience it’s important to understand other people’s experiences understand other people’s perspective they’re going through this I want you to take away this experience to understand why it’s important to have somebody like a Dion Sanders come to see
You you can be mad at coach Prime you can be mad at Deion Sanders from leaving the HBCU going somewhere like a CU you bring that experience and then I always say on this channel that coach Prim black is a different kind of black when it comes to Cor code switching it’s not
Often that you will see coach Prime code switch he’s authentically him he’s unapologetically black he’s a country boy he’s a country man he’s from Texas and he likes to fish and he has that side of him but you also see the rappers you also see the things that he likes to
Do as a black man so you understand why it was important that we have somebody like this there are black people in Colorado there are Hispanics in Colorado Asians in Colorado what if they wanted to have that CU experience what if they want to have a community as you it’s
Important that they have their Community there too whatever nationality you are or whatever color you are that you grew up in Boulder all of your life and you want to have that experience when you get to see you there has to be a community there for you there has to be
Something there for your kind okay somewhere where you can fit in and have that college experience and have a few friends that looks like you talks like you sound like you and you know what I’m saying so that you can feel like you belong there and nobody should make you
Feel less than because of the color of your skin no matter what color you are 31,000 students and only 2.7 % are black it’s important that we have these type of stories and I don’t want nobody to take this out of context again I want to thank Kennedy Pickering and I want to
Thank her roommate reru please share your experience if you are white asian or other and you go to an HBCU talk about your experience in the comments let us know how you feel about your experience at an HBCU or at a school where you are the minority I would like
To hear those stories in the comments but share your experience your college experience in the comments let me know what you think uh you are in the surrounding area let me know your experience with the pre effect how things have changed in your community the things that you are hearing the
Things that you are seeing I will go back to Bater if you haven’t seen my interviews in Boulder check those out on the channel and if I have an opportunity to go back to Boulder I will do that I will get back on the campus and do more
Interviews maybe I can connect with Kennedy Pickin maybe get him on video talking maybe we can walk the campus if y’all want to see a video like that hey let me know maybe something can come out of this I will try my best to find her
On social media and tag her in this video Kennedy or r if you guys are listening I really want to thank you for this article thank you for doing this me trying to read your voice me trying to read this thing I hope I did Justice to
It I appreciate it guys I’ll leave it right there okay
source