From civil war to civil rights: Towson senior takes on race

By Sherline Hawkins

The sound of dishes clanking together and running water fills the air as Bilphena Yahwon, a senior at Towson University, washes the dishes and laughs with her roommates.

“I’m glad you ate that last slice of pizza in there,” she says to one of her roommates as she rummages through the refrigerator.

She walks over to the living room with a welcoming smile on her face with her black twits pulled back in a high pony tail and her black rimmed circular glasses sitting high on her face, giving her the appearance of a laid back professor.

“You may want to record this,” her roommate, Yeji Yoon, says to a reporter. “When she starts talking she goes off on a tangent.”

Writer, spoken-word artist and social justice advocate are a few of the names Yahwon has been called by those closest to her, but it wasn’t until recently that she began to identify herself with those labels.

“People gave me those titles,” Yahwon says. “But once I became comfortable with myself and being confident in the things that I did I began to embrace those title. It comes from my childhood experiences to my cultural experiences. I think that’s where all of it stems from.”

Yahwon is a Liberian refugee. She was born during the country’s first Civil War. Her family moved to the Ivory Coast when her grandfather became a target of the government because of his public views on the war.

“My grandfather always taught us to never be neutral in the face of injustice,” Yahwon says. “If you choose the neutral role you’re basically on the side of the oppressor.”

She said that while her grandfather’s political positions made his life more difficult, she admires the fact that he stood up for his beliefs.

“I look at my grandfather – who was put in prison for five years in one of the worst prisons in the world, who was to be beheaded, whose house was set on fire with us in it because of his social justice work – and know his blood is running through my veins.”

Coming to Towson helped Yahwon discover her vocal interest in social justice. As the Council of Diverse Student Organizations co-chair and partnering with Center of Student Diversity, Yahwon became a student leader voicing her opposition to social injustice both on and off campus.

“I am for everyone to make sure that no one is being oppressed or marginalize,” Yahwon says. “But as a social justice advocate I understand that there are lives that are more at risk than others. So when we’re talking of instances of police brutality and issues of systematic oppression, I’m for black lives matter because that’s the conversation.  You wouldn’t go to a cancer walk and say there are more diseases that are more important than cancer. So I think that when you’re having a conversation that pertains specifically to black lives, it’s black lives matter.”

Following the riots in Baltimore Yahwon put her leadership skills to the test by participating in protests in the city and organizing one of four teach-in dialogue events on campus. The race matters teach-in featured group discussions from students speaking out about their ideas and experiences on racial issues.

“Honestly, the teach-in I helped organized is the only one I feel was effective.” Yahwon says. “The biggest problem when we have this conversation at Towson, which changed yesterday, is that we try to use the word diversity. Everybody wants to say it, but we don’t talk about actual race issues at Towson because we want everybody to be comfortable. No one wants to ruffle the feathers, but as soon as we start talking about race, that’s when everybody gets uncomfortable. We’re gliding over the issues for the comfort of white students.”

Although the event sparked a positive dialogue, some students who disagreed with the conversation walked out of the event.

“We asked what racism looks like at Towson,” Yahwon says. “There were a lot of white students that walked out because they’ve never been forced to see this reality. But there were also a lot of white students who came up to me afterwards saying, ‘I’m so glad you had this event’ and that they didn’t know these things happened at Towson.”

Some angry students took to the anonymous social media app YikYak to complain  that Yahwon’s event perpetuating whites as blatant racists. Though frustrated, Yahwon plans to work with staff members of The College of Liberal Arts to create a social competency course for students and professors that will teach them the importance of racial and social issues minorities face.

“What happens, unless white students take African American Studies, they’re not learning about race issues so they don’t understand the importance of the creation of [the] Black Student Union. While it’s frustrating, I have to remind myself they don’t know better.”

With Yahwon’s vocal approach to social issues in Baltimore she has faced both positive and negative feedback that even some of her close friends don’t know about.

“What people don’t understand [is that] social justice work takes a toll on you,” Yahwon says. “I’ve gotten death threats from the Arian brotherhood; someone sent me a message last week that said, ‘It’s N—gers like you that make our job easier.’ And people don’t know unless I share it. I had to have TUPD follow me to classes because of this.  I’ve had videos of me placed on white supremacist websites.”

Yahwon admits that she went silent in the beginning of the year because of how stressful the work became. However, social justice work is not something she plans to back down from.

“Social justice work can kill you sometimes if you don’t do it correctly,” Yahwon says. “But I will never walk away from social justice work. In society I have to fight to exist and I will fight for others to exist. This is the work I’ll do until the day I die.”