By Steve Seepersaud
As an African American adopted by a family living in mostly white communities on Long Island, William Rayfield '17 felt the sting of racism for much of his childhood.
"I had kids call me 'dirty' simply because of the color of my skin," said Rayfield, board member for The Binghamton Marketing Collective (TBMC), social activist, media strategist, storyteller and content creator. "I had white brothers who were invited to swim at friends' houses but I was told I couldn't come because I'd dirty the water.
"Even being a professional in the workplace, I've seen that inclusivity and representation doesn't really exist yet, and we need to uplift people more."
Rayfield was one of several speakers at a Sept. 16 virtual alumni event who told uncomfortable stories and answered tough questions about racial inequality. "Let's Start Talking" was a panel discussion that TBMC, an alumni affinity group, sponsored in conjunction with the Binghamton University Alumni Association. The speakers hoped the audience of more than 200 would hear the stories, self-reflect and take action to create a more just society.
Donald Nieman, executive vice president for academic affairs, provost and professor of history at Binghamton University, drew various comparisons and pointed out differences between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and Black Lives Matter in the present day.
"Black Lives Matter and the civil rights movement have been successful because they engaged youth," said Nieman, author of Promises to Keep: African Americans and the Constitutional Order, 1776 to the Present, published in 1991 and updated this year. "It was college students who staged the first sit-ins...This brought civil disobedience to the fore. As we look at Black Lives Matter, it's infused by a lot of young energy.
"[However], Black Lives Matter has been much less eager to engage political leadership. The protests are a call for change, but the willingness to use those to mobilize support and then directly engage leadership in conversations about specific changes, I think, is something very different than the civil rights movement."
Sephora Saint-Armand '21, a current student majoring in business administration and management, minoring in Africana studies, shared her experiences as former president of Binghamton University's NAACP chapter.
"There are so many lessons I learned in that space, particularly when it came to student organizations and advocacy," Saint-Armand said. "It had to do a lot with capacity building as a young chapter. We also worked to provide students with the tools to understand how to organize and when."
Curtis Kendrick, dean of libraries at Binghamton University, planned to discuss how campus resources, the libraries specifically, are helping to educate the campus community about anti-racism. However, the virtual event ended abruptly because of an emergency at the production studio. Kendrick's comments will be recorded and posted to the Alumni Association's website along with full comments from the other speakers. Karen Jones, Binghamton University's first vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, was moderator for the discussion.
