Photo courtesy of In Color Magazine.
2020 was a year to remember as the world was hit by an unforeseen pandemic, and the United States experienced a long-awaited social and racial reckoning. After the deaths of individuals like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, a series of protests unfolded throughout the nation objecting to police brutality. As a result, many places were called to re-evaluate their diversity and inclusion policies, including Connecticut College. Now, it is important to understand that these issues did not magically appear last year, but people were simply tired of continuous impunity. Luckily, 2021 is a year for change, which is where the newly created club, POCA, weighs in. The People of Color Alliance was created in October of 2020 when its founder and current president, Lyndon Inglis ‘24, noticed the need for an organization at Conn for all people of color to come together. Whether someone identifies as Black, Hispanic, Asian, or any other race, they are welcome to join POCA.
In an interview with President Inglis and Vice-President Junice Caminero ‘24, I got all the information about the club and their soon-to-be-released magazine.
Why was POCA created?
Inglis: Well, the main goal of it is to bring unity. I feel like there was a lot of separation between affinity groups, and I don’t know if this is a consensus for just the freshman class, but there was a lot of overall disconnection this year. One of the other main goals of POCA is to be able to speak up about our concerns to non-POC people. Essentially, we want to have a voice and in order to achieve this, we have come up with big ideas. We are always thinking big! Unfortunately, it was hard to achieve this goal now that we are in the middle of a pandemic. Also, I want to point out that we have a lot of people working in this club: we have an executive board and committees. Within those committees, we have directors that have their own people.
Caminero: I agree with Lyndon. There is nothing wrong with affinity groups, but we felt the need to form a group that’s not based on gender or a specific race. Also, some people identify with more than one race, so this club welcomes anyone who identifies as a person of color. I, myself, am mixed. Another thing about affinity groups is that there is a certain feel of clique within them and nothing wrong with people being super close, but the thing is that all of these groups should not make new people feel like they are intruders. I have reached out to some students of the class of 2025, and incoming students of color have already followed the POCA Instagram page.
Did COVID influence the creation of POCA?
Caminero: COVID certainly made a big difference because many of the affinity groups did not have meetings due to the pandemic, but I feel like even if the pandemic weren’t happening, we’d still feel isolated. Many of the people of color on campus are upperclassmen, and they already know each other, so we freshmen coming in an isolated environment definitely made it harder to feel connected to our groups. The pandemic also allowed us to see the things that other clubs needed to work on. It took us a while to schedule our first meeting but we hope to be active on campus now that everything is getting back to “somewhat” normal.
What about the social awakenings? Did they have an influence?
Inglis: I think it’s important that POCA is happening now. We need to be aware of the fact that these things happen. We need to fight against injustice together and affinity groups cannot be together all at the same time. I think our generation is a generation of change. I think that with all the things that have happened over the last months, more awareness has been created, which is good.
Caminero: Because things happened during the pandemic, we were all forced to watch it. It made me think about the role I play in society. I need to speak up, and I feel like we got here and nothing happened. I feel like the only time we spoke about social injustices was during our Genesis class. We do not just want to raise awareness amongst POC but all people on campus.
In terms of your upcoming magazine, can you tell me more about it?
Caminero: First of all, we wanted to make a magazine because it’s fun. This year there weren’t many fun activities due to the pandemic, and we as freshmen want to feel like we did something meaningful while enjoying the process. The point of In Color is the same as POCA: it’s a project meant for us, and for incoming freshmen, too. We wanted to make a magazine to highlight people of color. We want to show everyone else who we are, and that we are proud of ourselves.
Also, we wanted to make a magazine that is different from the rest of the other magazines. How many times have you heard of a cultural magazine? Not many. We are aware that we have another cultural magazine here on campus, Awkaaba, but then again they are mostly upperclassmen. We want to be able to say there is more than one point of view, and there is more than one cultural magazine.
What are some of the things students can expect to see in the magazine?
Inglis: We have articles written by President Katherine Bergeron, who, by the way, is really excited about this project, Maurice Tiner, and pieces from upperclassmen and freshmen. We don’t only have statements from people of color, we have other articles that are very interesting, as well. We have Black fashion, Black culture, the importance of financial literacy, poems, among many other things. I’m not going to spoil everything because I want it to be a surprise, but we are really proud of what we have created. There is a piece in the magazine that talks about equity and inclusion, which is my favorite.
You have drawn some criticism with your promotion of the magazine. What do you have to say about this?
Inglis: There was a recent post on @blackvoicesconncoll apparently written by the classes of ‘21-’23 that’s basically attacking POCA. We do not have anything against upperclassmen, but it seems like they do have something against us. I want to remind them that I’m Black and that this project was initiated by freshmen who did not feel entirely welcomed by other people of color on campus. Our goal is to have as much diversity as possible, but it’s hard to get everybody right now. POCA just started, and it’s hard to judge an organization that hasn’t even had its first meeting yet. Quite frankly, it’s unfair.
Caminero: We do not need to turn other people of color down. What’s interesting is we have not gotten any pushback from non-POC, so why do other affinity groups have a problem with us? We have an awesome group of people.
Is there anything else that we should know about?
Inglis: We have tons of photos. There is a theme where everything is pretty much black and white except for the photos. The magazine itself is about people of color on campus, and the pictures are representing students of color shining. They are the color of the magazine as well as the color of campus. Flowers are also a big part of it because I think it brings life.
While POCA was created back in early October of last year, they weren’t given official recognition by the college until this semester. Keeping in mind that it takes time to gather people and have them sign up properly on ConnQuest, POCA is going to have their first meeting on April 24th from 2:00-3:15 PM EST, and the release of the magazine will be the following day. Their team expects to release more issues next year. In the meantime, some sneak peeks have been posted on their Instagram page, @incolor.poca, which showcases the creative side of this motivated group of camels. Stay tuned!
