Blog Post #6: Whiteness? On My College Campus? It’s More Likely Than You Think.

Lynette Adkins uses her YouTube video “Being Black at a PWI” to start a conversation surrounding the intersectionality and the pressures put upon the black community, specifically in being asked to be an advocate for their entire identity group. Here, Lynette Adkins tackles this project of interviewing black students at University of Texas as a fellow student seeking answers about the experiences of her peers. We can tell that she is evaluating these circumstances from a level playing field because of the style she chooses to interview in. She constructs a very hands-off approach to her interview, allowing the answers of the interviewees to be the focal point of her video.

Here, Adkins allows her purpose to be giving voice to the black students of University of Texas. She addresses this purpose right at the outset of her video as she begins with an interviewee saying, “People keep on talking about how like Austin is like a really liberal place and it’s really diverse, but it’s not,” (Adkins 0:01). With this introduction, she attempts to dispel any of the misconceptions people have about the Austin, Texas area and allows this situation to speak more generally for the countless other universities that attempt to use diversity as a plug for incoming students while grossly under-delivering on their promise. In touching upon topics of how marginalized identities overlap and intersect, Adkins video becomes a conversation not just for the white students of her school, but for all of the students sharing space with these people of color. This is best illustrated when one of the interviewees says, “The gay community is very racist…and the black community is very homophobic…it’s like where do you fit in?” (Adkins 4:17). In including these statements, not only is Adkins showing that her purpose in creating this piece is to represent authentic black experiences at a white school, but also to show the ways in which even within already marginalized communities, internalized biases and prejudice can persist. By allowing this into her conversation, the audience therefore opens up to include the people in these marginalized spaces as well.

Adkins chose YouTube as the medium for this piece because it not only provides a platform to reach a larger audience, but the piece also takes on a new tone when displayed in a video format. The interview and response style allows for more candid, less scripted and edited responses, making it appear to be a more slice-of-life genre of video. It also allows for people to better connect with the topic of identity when you are able to see the person on screen talking about their experiences being marginalized. In putting a face behind the words, it helps to elevate the purpose of black people’s voices being heard in a space where they are a racial minority.