After five years of Renegade Magazine’s existence, student-run publications like The Daily Orange have come to the fortunate realization that Black publications should not be the only outlets highlighting Black excellence.

Student-run publications should stand in solidarity with marginalized student communities with their coverage in order to be fully representative of all student voices.

Reneprom, the launch event for Renegade Magazine’s Feel Good issue — celebrated Black excellence on Syracuse University’s predominantly white campus, which encouraged publications to cover an event that made SU students feel good about the slowly changing racial climate.

As the unintentional segregation at predominantly white institutions adds to the on-campus racial tension, student-run publications should be the support system necessary for improving an unfortunately polarized campus environment.

The D.O. published an article highlighting Renegade Magazine’s “feel good” event. While the piece provided information about the magazine on a surface-level basis, it stood as one of only two D.O. articles in the history of the paper to feature one of SU’s only Black publications. The piece works to reinforce the light that Reneprom brought back to SU amid on-campus hate crimes and sheds a brighter light on a group of underrepresented students that are working to have their voices heard.

A few years ago, positive coverage of marginalized communities would have been seen as taboo at best. Stories on minorities are often negatively framed, appearing only at times of racial injustice.

“I wanted a platform that fully understood and represented me … [Black SU students] so often have to balance our identity with our environment,” said Jalen Nash, SU senior and current Renegade Magazine co-editor-in-chief.

When he encountered a story written about SU’s first Black publication, Nash was surprised, as he understood from firsthand experience that “there was a time when The D.O. would not have done something like that.”

The article highlighted a community that had yet to be represented in a positive connotation, proving that student-run publications are slowly, but surely progressing in the direction of integration.

The D.O. wrote dozens of articles covering the recent on-campus hate crimes. The article highlighting Reneprom stands as one of the few articles that shed a positive light on SU’s Black community themselves, instead of just their efforts to evade racism.

Nash said that one of Renegade’s main motivators for throwing a college-style prom was his peers’ collective feeling that “Cuse culture” was dying. For many Black SU students, spending several days protesting on the hard Barnes Center floor chipped away at their sense of campus belonging.

Thus, Reneprom worked to reinstate that sense of pride by taking a break from constantly fighting for Black culture and celebrating their identities instead. Coverage from publications such as The D.O. stood as a strong reflection of this mentality and a tribute to the Black excellence on campus that often goes unrecognized.

The positive recognition of SU’s Black community cannot just stop at a singular article highlighting Renegade Magazine and its one-time event. Being a school that has some of the top student-run publications in the country, these outlets need to continue to utilize their platforms to call attention to racial prejudice and also make marginalized communities comfortable in embracing their identities.

Nonetheless, Nash’s appreciation of The D.O. for “trying to take steps to write stories on what is happening to us” is understandable when it comes to the fact that the top college newspaper has such high standards to uphold. Publications that appeal to the general population and simultaneously work to recognize underrepresented communities are few and far between.

If student-run publications continue progressing in the direction of integration, they could be some of the first to place such a positive emphasis on Black excellence within the SU student community.

 

Cori Dill is a freshman studying newspaper journalism and political science. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at crdill@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter at @dillcori.

Published on February 4, 2020 at 10:11 pm