Centering Black Women & Girls from Schenectady and the rest of the Captial Region
As a part of the Social Journalism program at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism, I am choosing to center my work on Black women & girls from Schenectady and the rest of the Captial Region
Here are my thoughts after my first semester:
One of the most important things that drew me to the social journalism program was its emphasis on serving communities. As a young adult, I spend a lot of time thinking about my childhood experiences. As a young Black girl, from a mixed-status, low-income, African-immigrant household, my experiences living in Schenectady were complex.
Racism was very subtle in Upstate New York when I was a child. Colorblindness had maintained a stronghold on the community’s general political sphere. Post-2020 summer uprisings, Schenectady is having direct conversations about race.
I believe centering the issues and experiences of Black women in Schenectady and the rest of The Capitol Region can fill a community void, and foster a platform for Black women in the 518 to be celebrated, cared for, and prioritized.
This includes Black girls and women from various age groups, cultures, and socioeconomic standing who all reside in the Capital Region. The Capital Region is made up of Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, and Washington Counties.
I believe that Black women living in upstate New York have an experience that is often ignored. I want to create news within this program that allows me to center the needs/issues of Black women.
Here are some quotes from the conversations I had with Black women in Schenectady:
“Non-black women don’t scare me or make me feel unsafe but I often feel belittled by them. Also, I feel like black families often place higher expectations on Black girls than boys. So I would say show up for young black girls in the same ways so they know they are necessary and valued.”
“I feel discarded in a room full of white people that make my hair the topic of conversation and see it as a learning experience like I’m obligated to teach or say backward compliments to make them feel secure. They ask tons of questions like “is it yours? How long did it take to do? How did you do it?” then they respond with “I could never”
“For the most part, most of the issues I have living in Schenectady are mostly with the police, they are very aggressive, they take a lot of things as a joke. I feel like black men don’t appreciate Black women as much as they should most of the time. I’ve also gotten you pretty for a dark skin girl too many times.”
“Black women in this town our complexion & darker are NOT protected. When a traumatic situation occurs, we are not provided support. Unambiguous black women in this town are expected to find a way through each & every single way, and if we find a way that does not match up with societal norms we are harshly ridiculed.”
“I wish there were more resources available’
“Open forums that are not of a judgmental atmosphere [are needed.]. More unambiguous black women who can put their pride/past issues aside to stand in solidarity.”
“When we speak on this [Colorism] publicly I feel like it is brushed off & seen as it is coming from a tone of envy which is a form of gaslighting.”
My community needs news content that allows them and their issues to be seen, heard, legitimized, and celebrated. They want to know how to better combat social issues in their communities, how to better support one another, and how to build a stronger community in Schenectady for themselves and their children. Black women in the 518 need information that is based on enriching their lives financially, emotionally, mentally, and physically.
Education is something that a lot of Black women stressed in different conversations. They mentioned that many of the issues they face as Black women in the community come from the lack of education and empathic understanding among folks in the community. They need information on how to better interact with other Black women in their community.
I noticed many of them mentioned the same theme of feeling uncared for, not considered, ignored, and overall, not appreciated in their communities. Many of them related to experiences of misogynoir in their younger years. One of the key problems that some mentioned is the feeling of alienation and loneliness in Schenectady. Some Black women in the community long for better relationships and friendships with other Black women.
From what I gathered talking to women in the community that is a deep sense of separation and disconnect among community members, Black women feel like the community in Schenectady is just not always the best environment if one wants to grow and expand their mind.
“Crabs in a bucket mentality” is what a woman mentioned to me and it stuck with me ever since. “It very hard to work to work with people in this community because many people are moved by ego, they can’t think outside of themselves” is what a Black woman in the community mentioned to me when I asked her why she felt there was a lack of community.
Throughout the semester, I spent a lot of time on Facebook, gathering research on Black women in Schenectady and the rest of the capital region. Facebook seems like the main social media site where many folks in the community are.
I was a part of a Facebook group chat on messenger with a few Black women from the community at one point and in that Facebook chat, we talked a lot about how it was being a Black girl in a community like Schenectady.
I also have had one-on-one conversations on the phone with some Black women in the community who spoke to me about their experiences. Many times, I was just listening and realizing how much these women have in common with each other.
Much of it was just asking about their thoughts and opinions on various social issues. I made an effort to let them know that I was here to understand them and their experience. I always emphasize the fact that my job as a journalist is to listen to them and find out the kind of news that matters to them.
Before the Covid-19 Pandemic, many community members held various community events where the community came and connected. Now with covid, many community members are on social media, specifically on Facebook.
With the recent uprisings over the summer, there have been more conversations surrounding racism and how it presents itself in the community. Many of the Black women I spoke to attended marches and protests that were held throughout the region. The conflict of racism in Schenectady became clearer and more people were interested in learning ways to combat it.
One major conflict that many Black women mentioned to me was with Black men in the community. Any women who were vocal about their criticism of the Black men in their communities were often gaslit and ignored.
A woman told me of times where Black men in her community that she had known for years were being disrespectful and rude on a Facebook post when she would voice an opinion that challenged their own beliefs. I think the biggest challenge through this time was being patient. Relationship building takes time and I was just so excited to create news for my hometown that I underestimated the time it would take to build interpersonal, trustworthy relationships with Black women from my hometown.
The first mistake I had was thinking that since it was my hometown that I’d easily get Black women to be on board and find the value in the work I am doing, but I realized that was not the case. Then I also had to learn how to ask better questions. I had to realize that I have to make an effort to show Black women from my hometown that the work I am doing is meant to be useful to their own lives. To accomplish that, I need to be actively listening to their needs.
Many of the Black women I talked to didn’t even know what they wanted to see in the news. Also just getting to speak to more different kinds of Black women was hard to do. Getting Black women who don’t know me personally to connect with me was very hard because I felt the resistance.
Moving past the feeling like reaching out to folk was pointless was also a big issue for me too. Due to the lack of responses from people, some days I was discouraged and even wondering if I wanted to continue with this community. But eventually, that subsided.
My plan moving forward is to start a podcast interviewing Black women in the 518. I also would like to conduct monthly online zoom forums. This could be a space where each month I check in with Black women in the community and we talk about things that are happening in their community and the world and how they are impacted. I want to make use of this as a space to bring different Black women in Schenectady and the rest of the capital region together to get to know them on a deeper level.
The Weaver Conversation Guide was the best approach I found to listening and connecting to community members. For the podcast, I am going to constantly use those questions, especially those on community building.
I still am working on finding more topics and issues that my community would deem newsworthy. Each time I speak with Black women in the community, I am learning more about the things that mean something to them.
My key takeaways from this course was that engagement journalism is something that is done with much time and patience. There is in-depth deep listening that has to happen. It’s one thing to just have an interview, but to sit there and engage with folks in a manner that shows them that you are genuinely listening is something that I will take with me forever. The best thing I always loved about being a journalist was the interviews and conversations I get to have. To sit down and learn about a person’s perspective is fascinating to me. Through this program, I am dedicated to centering the voices and experiences of Black women.
