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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
the student voice since 1960
Thursday, March 2, 2023 Vol. 76 No. 21
Americans think that mental illness is a sign of weakness or a personal failing,” Bennett said. While racism and ableism “There is that fear of failure, and are widely discussed topics sep- that’s compounded in academia.” arately, it is not often they are Bennett also touched on spoken of together. That’s what methods by which stereotypes New Horizons, an organization about Black people have been dedicated to disability awareness furthered throughout history. on campus, wanted to discuss. These methods span everything Masonya Bennett, an assis- from cartoon caricatures to the tant professor in the department very public and visible lynchings of anthropology, led the presen- that were so widespread in the tation on intersectionality in the pre-Civil Rights U.S. Student Success Center. “We’re also talking about “I’m Black, I’m a woman, Black bodies as [triggering] I’ve experienced some mental disgust or fear,” Bennett said. health issues like anxiety [and] “These are all these people who depression for various reasons, have been framed over time as but I don’t necessarily identify as people we should be afraid of. a person with a disability,” Ben- Black bodies have also been there nett said. “So for spectacle I said, ‘How … [We’re] can I apeither invisproach this to ible or hyinclude some per visible. These are all of these expeThis is used these people who riences?’” as a means Bennett of control.” have been framed often referred In reover time as to her own sponse to family histoa question people we should ry during the about caricapresentation, tures widely be afraid of. using as exused in oldBlack bodies amples her er cartoons, blind grandBennett conhave also been father and a nected them there for cousin who to how wider had autism society often spectacle … and their viewed Black struggles to people as [We’re] either live a “nor“sub-human.” invisible or mal” life. “None of “As a these images hypervisible. cultural anare Black peothropologist This is used as a ple depicted and ethnogas humans,” means of rapher, I’m Bennett said. really big “They are porcontrol.” on critical trayed as lazy, re f le c t iv it y, Masonya Bennett, assistant as dumb.” professor of anthropology and also stoBennett r y t el l i n g,” said Black Bennett said. people with “When you grow up in such a both mental and physical dislarge Southern family, there are abilities are often excluded from just a lot of experiences, not just conversations of racism and civtrauma but cultural practices that il rights. Bennett also said the connect with a lot of what I talk Black community to this day is about in my courses.” “pathologized,” where a lot of Bennett connected her own the issues that Black communities family history to other wid- face are seen not as symptoms of er trends through history as injustice, but as something inherwell, including what she termed ent to those communities. “Black Emasculation,” as well as “More than often, Black the anxiety and depression that people are being blamed for comes along with it. those circumstances, instead of “Sixty-three percent of Black looking at the lack of resources,” DYLAN HEMBROUGH reporter
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Bennett said. Bennett used some statistics to reinforce her point, citing studies in which Black youth were determined to be 69 percent less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than white youth with the same symptoms. New Horizons sponsored Bennett’s presentation. New Horizons president Emily Milano said several students had proposed an event highlighting the issues faced by people who experience both ableism and racism. “We had some students come up and say, ‘Hey, I’m kind of struggling with this, and some of my peers don’t understand that my experience is completely different from other people’s experience,’” Milano said. Milano, who had taken Bennett’s medical anthropology class, said she reached out to Bennett because of her experience studying people and cultures from different perspectives. “I knew from my experience in that class that she understood that different people have different experiences,” Milano said. Milano said she was pleased with the turnout, but that the event doesn’t necessarily end when the speaker is done presenting. “I just really want to help people who need it, so I don’t count success as, ‘I had a huge, full room,’ I count success as being able to reach students who really need it,” Milano said. “Even if just one person showed up and was happy [with it], I think that’s really good. My goal is to help as many people as possible, and sometimes that’s just one person seeing representation … in my opinion, that’s a success.” Milano had also prepared biographies of some historical figures who represented that intersection between experiences of racism and ableism, which she presented at the event and will be hanging up in the MUC for people to see. “I’m actually going to hang those up in the Hub office for people that weren’t able to make it, because we did have several students who wanted to come but couldn’t due to prior commitments or classes,” Milano said. For more information about New Horizons, visit their webpage on GetInvolved.
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