An Interview With the Founder of @blackatamericanuniversity
by Maria Russinovich
The views expressed by the interviewee represent their own beliefs. They are not necessarily the beliefs of The Rival American or The Rival as a whole.
This past June, an Instagram account called @blackatamericanuniversity was created to share the stories of the American University student body. This account came after a number of racist incidents, including attacks on former AUSG President Taylor Dumpson and videos of members of greek life using racial slurs. In light of the national and campus wide conversations surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, we interviewed the creator of the Instagram account and talked about its creation, the process of running the page, the goals they hope to accomplish, and more.
NOTE: This interview was conducted 100% anonymously, using an audio recording of the interview followed by transcription. The Rival received approval from the individual representing @blackatamericanuniversity before recording the interview.
Why did you create this account and what have you been able to accomplish with it?
I made the account about a month ago, late June. I was on Facetime with my friend who goes to Rutgers and we were just talking about what it feels like to be Black women going to PWIs, and we were just talking about that and she mentioned to me about how a bunch of people have made “Black at” pages for their schools. She was like, “we should make ones for our schools'' and at first I said “no, I don't really want to do it, I don’t think it would get that much traction, because American is a pretty small school,” but then I ended up making [the account] and it’s gotten a lot of traction which I’m happy about. I feel like we’re starting to accomplish more now than before because I didn’t really see a lot of things happening. American hasn’t addressed my page at all or anything so I kind of felt like nothing was being done, but then the whole thing with Jubilee Witte, the whole story about him and how I posted that on the page and it got a lot of traction, and now they’re doing an investigation to get his Fulbright scholarship revoked, so I feel like that’s something. I’ve also been getting a lot of people wanting to interview me about the page, I feel like that is something also. Even though American hasn’t directly talked about my page, I do feel like the fact that people are interested in it, like coming to talk to me about my page, asking why I made it, I feel like that’s progress in itself.
What are the conversations you want to see happening as a result of this page's creation?
I guess it’s just that American, the way they market themselves, they market themselves to be a very inclusive school and a very diverse school and a very progressive school, but based on the stories that is far from the truth. I just feel like I want American to be honest with themselves and acknowledge their faults. Obviously based on things like Gianna (Wheeler) being dragged out of her dorm, or the thing with Zach (Mills) where AUPD was called on him for no reason, and he has PTSD now just because of the whole mess that happened with the police and stuff. So I just want American to re-evaluate the way they market themselves and acknowledge the fact that there’s a lot of issues that go on, on campus.
With that being said, what has been some of the pushback, if any, since the creation of this page?
I haven’t really gotten any pushback. I remember I posted a story about this girl named [redacted] about her fetishizing Black men and saying the n-word and she DMd me personally saying that the story wasn’t true and I guess I get kind of conflicted sometimes because its like people want me to use names which I feel is a part of the pushback. Before, I would redact names and people would ask “why are you trying to hide the person” and equated it to trying to protect a racist pretty much. I was (redacting names) more so to protect myself from legal repercussions, so I was redacting names. But now I guess I kind of pick and choose when to show names and when not to based on the validity of the story. You can kind of tell when a story has truth to it or whether it's a not true story. I also got a lot of pushback from a lot of Black people because they feel like (the account) is supposed to be a Black space and since I allow BIPOC to also submit stories they see it as me silencing Black voices. I don’t really see it like that, and for example I’m not trying to compare what I’m doing to Black Lives Matter, but for Black Lives Matter even though the main focus is Black people, they still help out other POC fight police brutality. So, I feel like my page is aimed towards Black people, and can mainly be about Black people, but I can still talk about other POC too without silencing Black people. It can still be a Black space, but other POC kids can submit stories too.
What are your thoughts on the new Office of Equity and Title IX?
I just feel that every time Sylvia writes an email it’s always just very vague and it doesn’t get to the facts, or the point that people really want her to say. I feel that it’s very vague to the point where you could interpret it to the point you want to interpret it, which I don’t like. I feel it should be more straight to the point, like what’s going to be done and what’s going to change. Actually address the issue, and I feel the issues aren’t really being addressed like that.
What are your overall thoughts on the emails that have been sent to the student body regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and racism on campus?
They just seem like very empty promises. It’s the same stuff that we’ve been hearing for ages. Like, “oh we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that” and no change ever comes from them, so it just seems like empty promises to me that they’re not really going to do anything. I want to see actual change. The fact that no one has come to my account, I know that the (Center for Antiracist Research) DM’d me and they tried to talk to me about my page which I appreciated. But other than that I haven’t gotten anything from the actual administration which is kind of frustrating. They could send out an email, not even addressing any of the problems, and you can’t even talk to the person who made the account that started the conversation. Talk to a Black person, it’s just ridiculous. I know the @exposingauabusers page, for example, I feel like with sexual assault since it’s all across the board, all races kind of experience it, I feel like thats why we don’t get as much traction. People follow their page and they’ve gotten more responses from administration because everyone’s affected by it in a way. So, it’s an easier subject to talk about and I feel like it’s gotten to the point where I feel like racism is a more taboo subject to talk about than sexual assault which it wasn’t like that before. And I’m not saying that sexual assault shouldn’t be discussed, but I’m saying that the fact that racism is becoming so taboo to the point that sexual assault is being talked about more it just feels very weird to me. I just don’t understand.
Do you think it’s helped your “validity” in a sense that there are other “black at” accounts?
I started [the account] on my own, but I got my friend to help me. He posts stories occasionally, but he doesn’t DM anyone, or he doesn’t answer DMs or answer messages. I kind of do that part because he’s Asian, so I guess it’s weird for him to be the main focal point of it if he’s an Asian male. He mainly just posts stories because the amount of stories never gets overwhelming, but I’ll be busy so he’ll just post a story for me for the day and he just does that.
With the success of your account, do you have any plans to collaborate with any other organizations on campus including perhaps other social media accounts, or on-campus orgs?
Yeah, I know the account @abolishaufrats [now @abolishifcandpanhelatau], and I want to talk to them more. I also got a message from someone who wanted to do a tuition strike, or have a list of demands to send to the administration, and if not then have a tuition strike. I’m not really sure what the plan is because it’s still being discussed, but I was on the zoom call with one of the people who wants to do it, so I know that’s another thing. I want to try to get more web organizations to work with me. I haven’t gotten a lot of messages from anyone, but I do want to work with them a lot. I feel like it would be helpful for the account.
I think maybe the main issue with organizations not reaching out to you is the fact that so many of these orgs that would want to reach out, are connected to AU via finances?
Is the Eagle funded by American?
Yes (It should be noted that The Eagle along with many other clubs and media organizations on campus receive funding through the University. There is no evidence that this funding has any effect on day to day operations or ethical decisions of the Eagle or any other organization.)
Okay, because they messaged me a while ago, back when I had 400 followers, and they asked to interview me, and I remember saying I wanted to stay anonymous, but they told me that I had to come out and say my name, and so I said it because I wanted more traction for the page, and I thought it would help to just get an article written about it, so I was like “fine I’ll say my name.” But then after what happened to @exposingauabusers2 when they got doxxed or something, afterwards I didn’t want my name to be out there anymore, so I tried to explain to (The Eagle) that I don’t want my name to be out there anymore, it's not good for me, and they kept asking “why, why why?” and it’s like well, what do you think? I’m a Black woman exposing racism on campus, so I don’t want my name to be out there. And they wouldn’t understand that. It really bothered me. It was very unprofessional, and it was like they were questioning why I would want to be anonymous, but also what do you expect? It’s the reason I don’t want my name out there in the first place. Just ridiculous.
When asked what final notes to give, @blackatamericanuniversity noted we should include these links:
@blackatamericanuniversity’s submission form: https://bit.ly/3gTfeme
Google Doc with email and links have Jubilee Witte’s scholarship revoked: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/10piy3pyJbWODTN3bpQiRZkC8yh-tJt0f8enPXeaZIsM/mobilebasic
Abolish Greek Life Petition: https://bit.ly/2ZsW54R
Submission of problematic faculty at American University: https://bit.ly/2Wkb9Q8