We, Najma Sadiq, Myah Rodriguez, Lyneisha Smith and Naldo Martinez, four participants of the Black History Month Kickoff & Open Mic Event, are writing to you in regards to your problematic article in La Voz Feb. 18 entitled “Open Mic Encourages Self-Expression and Celebrates Black History” by James Blank. We are extremely upset about the content and condescending tone in which the article was written because it took away from the meaning of the event.

The event was intended to empower and acknowledge the accomplishments of black people and to celebrate our culture. By calling it a “variety show,” you completely demeaned everything we were working for and everything we stand for. For example, “After the rap performances, a group of black women took over the event and advocated their feminist causes.” This misogynistic statement, with a heavy tone of racism, to us as readers this seems like the writer only saw a group of stereotypical angry black women storming onto the stage in a pack. Even though each artist went up individually, advocating a number of causes and despite having said that we were “slamming and rambling,” we were actually speaking/singing/reading from our hearts.

The blatant disregard for factual information and the disregard for faculty in attendance (LaQuisha Beckum, not Keisha) on campus is also very upsetting to us. This event was the kick-off for Black History Month at De Anza College and this article makes it sound like a minstrel show.

Furthermore, we’d like to point out a particular sentence, “They said they put a lot of time and thought into their craft.” Our hard work is being belittled and our efforts went completely unnoticed. Quite frankly, this entire article was disrespectful to the artists, to the audience members, and to the event. All in all, this article is an inaccurate representation of the entire night.

We could go on about how racist the article is, and how it completely belittled the entire purpose of Open Mic Night, or how it was a bastardization of the concept of Black History Month and black culture in general; however, we would like to inform you all of what this event really meant to all of us who attended.

First of all, this was not just a “black” event. Open Mic Night was hosted by Diana Argabrite, the director of the Euphrat Museum of Art. Letha Jeanpierre, the vice president of finance and educational resources, was the keynote speaker and opened the event with a powerful and inspiring speech. Other members of senior staff were also attendance to show their support of the event including Stacey Cook, vice president of student Services; Christina Espinosa-Pieb, vice president of instruction and Donna Jones-Dulin, vice-president of college services.

Additionally, there were several other faculty and staff there in support including Veronica Neal, director of the office of equity, social justice and multicultural education; Michele LaBleu-Burns, dean of student development, professor Jessica Hamilton and Julie Lewis, department chair of African American Studies. The event was a passionate expression of talent from a variety of members sharing their experiences.

We invite Blank and everyone else on campus to know that this event meant a significant amount to many different people and this article was a distasteful and a false representation of the event. The purpose of the Open Mic was to celebrate African American identified students on campus and to give them a safe place to express themselves. We invite all of you to attend the next Open Mic.

Sincerely,

Najma Sadiq, Myah Rodriguez,

Lyneisha Smith and Naldo Martinez

De Anza Students