WEDNESDAY
SEPTEMBER 26,2D18
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Members of Elon's Afro-Latino
community offer a unique
perspective on ethnic identity
Alexandra Schonfeld
Elon News Network | @asctionfeld096
N HIS HOUSE, WORKING
hard was never an option.
Tyrone Jean, assistant dean of
students and director of the
Center for Race, Ethnicity and
Diversity Education (CREDE) at
Elon University had this message
instilled in him from a young age
by his mother, born in El Salvador,
and father, born in Haiti.
“The messaging that I received
growing up was centered around
my cultures, around my race, and
so I constantly got messages from
them about having to work hard
er, having to prove myself - not
for me, but for others,” Jean said.
“Those messages sort of stuck
with me all throughout my own
college experience.”
When it was time to set off for
college, Jean tried a few majors
before settling on African-Amer
ican Studies where he could dive
deeper into his passion of ex
ploring identities - particularly
his own.
“I felt like I was learning some
real critical skills regarding the
way I thought, the ways in which
I understand human connection,
the ways in which I interacted
with difference, and that just con
tinued to cultivate that passion
within me,” Jean said.
He later pursued a Masters
degree in Educational Leader
ship and Policy studies at Virginia
Tech, during which time he took
every chance he could to write
about and learn more about peo
ple of color. His interest and pas
sion in exploring race and ethnici
ty sprung out of these experiences
and only strengthened over time.
“I think within the past 8-10
years, its really more about
looking at outcomes,” Jean said.
“When you think about race and
ethnicity, and you look at out
comes across racial lines in terms
of healthcare, the criminal justice
system and education, blacks, Na
tive Americans, indigenous folks
and Latinos tend to still be on the
lower end in terms of racial out
comes.”
For Jean, its a larger systemic
issue that needs to be addressed
and he has committed himself
to breaking down some of those
barriers through his work as
an educator.
While hes only been at Elon
for just over a year now, his im
pact has already been felt through
campus.
Coming from parents who
identified both as black and
Latina, Jean tries to be an ad
vocate for students who
identify as more than one race
or ethnicity. Jean also hopes to
be a voice for students who may
be undocumented and have
DACA status.
“I identify both as Latino and
as black,” Jean said. “I never use
percentages. I don’t say I’m 50
percent this or 50 percent that.
I am fully Latino, and I am fully
black. For some people that might
be challenging to understand as a
concept, but that is not my chal
lenge to deal with. I know who I
am.”
“I think what has been very
important to me and I think it
has been important for me to self
identify openly with a variety of
different students because I think
my experience of self-identifica
tion gives permission for others
to do the same,” he continued.
Junior Megan Hernan-
dez-Greene, who identifies as
Afro-Latino, says having Jean as
a support and resource has been
instrumental in her journey to
ward exploring her own identi
ty. Hernandez-Greene says both
Jean and Sylvia Munoz, associate
director for the CREDE, helped
her find language that she had not
identified previously to describe
herself.
“I would always tell people
T’m half Mexican, half black,’”
Hernandez-Greene said. “Sylvia
was actually the first person to
tell me, ‘You’re not half anything
- you’re both black and Mexi
can,’ and that just really hit home
for me because I feel like society
pushes the whole thing, the mak
ing of different numbers - you’re
50 percent this, 50 percent that. It
doesn’t make sense.”
“To hear that from her and
Dean Jean, and having those voic
es to tell me that, it meant a lot
and really changed my perspec
tive of how I seew my identity,”
HISPANIC HERITAGfl
From left to rigfit: Megan Hernandez-Greene, Mirella Cisneros, Denisse Cortes & Lucia Lozano, Maritza Gonzalez & Max Herrc
Latinx/Hispanic Student Union stand in front of the Moseley Center for an executive board photoshoot.
a
I NEVER USE PERCENT
AGES. IDONT SAY I'M
50-PERCENTTHIS0R
50-PERCENTTHAT. I
AM FULLY LATINO, AND
I AM FULLY BLACK.”
TYRONE JEAN
ASSISTANT DEAN OF STUDENTS
she said.
Hernandez-Greene says she
understands the complexity of
identity and that there may be
a time where she finds new vo
cabulary to self-identify herself
with, but that Jean and Munoz
have both been “safe spac
es” to help her start some of
that exploring.
Hernandez-Greene was able to
use the CREDE as a platform to
organize some of her own events
to bring together other self-iden
tifying Afro-Latino students and
hopes to continue to do so when
she returns from her semester in
Japan.
Last year she served as the vice
president of the newly-formed
Latinx Hispanic Counsel at Elon,
where she was able to facilitate
conversations about black com
munities in Latin America as part
of the Black History Month pro
gramming.
“[The programs] brought
up dialogue and addressed an
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munity that we are st
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higher education.