#starrkingschoolfortheministry

[rememberebonyjanice]

It hasn’t been a full week since I completed all the requirements to receive my Masters degree. I didn’t attend my #graduation because I decided to #Boycott in #protest of my experience as a #BlackWoman being erased, silenced, and only acknowledged in moments of folk consuming my knowledge and my body when domestic labor was needed. Still waiting on #starrkingschoolfortheministry to properly address this matter but in the meantime I am thinking about @blackgirlmixtape LA this weekend and the joy of being able to share, on a deeper level, some of the foundation of my #HipHopWomanist methodology. This is one thing I take with me from my personal #womanist course creation at SKSM... how am I using #HipHop in a theological and sociopolitical conversation? And whose voices do I hear as I attempt to break this all down? #ToniMorrison, #EmilieTownes, #ZoraNealeHurston, and #JayZ have long been my #BIG4 || What I am most proud of is that within this degree program, and even the work I’m doing now as a #teacher, #preacher, and founder of #BlackGirlMixtape - most of all #IDidItMyWay || #BGMInstitute is coming Fall 2018! The teachers, the classes, the intention... may we never be the same! (at Wallis Annenberg Hall, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism)

[rememberebonyjanice]

My mama use to say, “Where you show out is where I show out.” This is how I always handle “micro aggressions” (because I don’t believe in micro aggressions - this is an attack... no matter how “micro” it may seem). . . . Just because I haven’t talked about the fact that my grad school was (probably still is) unsafe for black People (specially black Women) doesn’t mean I don’t still have it on my regularly scheduled program to say that #StarrKingSchoolForTheMinistry (and so called liberal/progressive spaces like it) do not actually have a plan for how to “dismantle White supremacy” (those words are in their mission statement) and until they do right by the black women they have harmed they will never be genuinely committed to that truth. . . . I keep this on my tongue every few months because what I experienced there was violent and traumatic to my spirit and though I have so much love and support from my community and God has a great plan for my life outside of that institution — what happened to me there may never fully leave me because you go to seminary at a school with a #BlackLivesMatter sign on the front of the building and something in you just thinks, “I could be safe here.” And then you aren’t and you realize, “I have student loans and thousands of dollars of debt to endure this pain...” and no one will ever even acknowledge me personally or apologize or TRY to make it right... and the grief of that comes in waves. . . . If I didn’t speak up for myself and continue to say #SKSM didn’t make me safe... they’d let time go by, slap my face on a banner and be publicly proud of me, exploiting my name and never repenting for the pain. It was there before me. I will certainly not be the last. I’m not going to let anyone kill me and tell y’all I loved it! I did not. Starr King is not safe for black Women. Still. 🤷🏾‍♀️ #TheFreePeopleProject www.thefreepeopleproject.com (at Starr King School for the Ministry) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnRMHrl3IZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=77bh9wz42efm

[rememberebonyjanice]

I graduated with my M.A. in Social Change and Spiritual and Religious Leadership in May of 2018 from a school claiming in it’s mission statement to be doing work to “dismantle white supremacy.” I was the only cis blk woman in full time high residency there so 🤔 - To be clear... you aren’t dismantling ANYTHING without black women. - Particularly black women who are not beholden to titles within a racist denomination or system. Nevertheless, when I graduated and posted my 61 minute masters thesis in video form on YouTube saying this institution was not safe for black women all of the so-called white allies at my school did one of three things: - Privately apologized for how they were complicit in my harm. - Used words like, “choosing sides.” Or “the vide comes off so angry/aggressive and there has to be a better way to work within the system to fix the problem.” - or... Said nothing at all even tho we were supposedly homies. 🤗 . . . What I got from that experience is I was supposed to take that harm and channel it into a sweet essay on how I loved being harmed but it would have been nice if they would have been a little less harmful. 😶 Oh. . . . #StarrKingSchoolfortheMinistry and it’s entire board (to the exclusion of no one) still has not (and likely never will) apologized to me for the toxic environment it left me in while I was there. They have made no efforts to publicly address my public claims, particularly with me, they have replied to none of my civil and gracious communication abt how they harmed me, and they have continued to benefit from my work to call them in to correction while not acknowledging me as the source of that learning. . . . I started a school this year. BGM Institute has three courses and going into 2019 we will be adding our 4th and 5th. We are doing the work to decolonize EVERYTHING, particularly authority and education! I am not bitter. I am better. I keep their name on my tongue because until black women (ppl) are safe in thats space I won’t allow anyone else to enroll without knowledge that it is unsafe there for us. Particularly when they want you to make the ones who harmed you more safe than you have been, yourself. No! (at Starr King School for the Ministry) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAjhwIFGBZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vx2l3k6takt5

[rememberebonyjanice]

This was a Zoom discussion with the students from my cohort at my grad school #StarrKingSchoolForTheMinistry (which is still unsafe for Black Women). I decided to post this little clip because I’m thinking about @serenawilliams demanding an apology for the way she was harmed and then gaslit by that ref (and now the media) and I identify. Here’s the thing... the world wide web is full of #BlackWomen sharing their experiences on this daily (which means its notnjust about tennisnits about a society rooted in and thriving on the back of black womens labor and inability to emote <- which is unhealthy and killing us). And y’all be quick to be like, “Not all” or “But what’s the rest of the story” or “Me too also.” Hey! 👋🏾 Hush! Black Women didn’t get together and have a Black Women’s Oppression Stories Workshop and all agree to say the same things! Believe folk when they say you are harming them. *DONT MAKE YOURSELF THE VICTIM! Just correct and adjust your behavior and then go collect your cousins by telling them to cut it out too! #ProtectBlackWomen #ListenToBlackWomen #TrustBlackWomen #TheFreePeopleProject https://www.instagram.com/p/BnjVjcBFs2R/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=977k0n5hfg2y

[rememberebonyjanice]

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A post shared by I Go By EbonyJanice (@ebonyjanice)

I’m only still talking about this because I pray no Black woman enrolls thinking she is going to a school that is actually committed to “dismantling #whiteSupremacy” and educating to counter oppression. I’m only still addressing this because I don’t want even one more black woman to be duped into believing that this is a safe space for them. I’m only still addressing this because that #BlackLivesMatter sign is still up and I’ve asked for it to come down until the black students collectively agree it can go back up (we don’t want it there - it’s trigger af... take it down). I’m only still addressing this because I paid the same as every other person there and did not get the same education or safety they received. So be clear #starrkingschoolfortheministry // until I am satisfied that you are different and actually who you claim to be... Imma just be calling out your name with a strong NOPE! || #FreedomTime (at Starr King School for the Ministry)

[rememberebonyjanice]

“I did not come here to play. But I did not come to observe.” - #JCole . . . I had a conversation with my coach yesterday that changed the game for me. I was telling him how disappointed I feel in my school - so much so that I’m not going to my #graduation next month as a #protest because I just can not go sit and listen to #StarrKingSchoolfortheMinistry lie for a couple hours about being committed to #justice when they made me invisible and silence #womenofColot on the regular. I felt very sad and very disappointed. And my coach kept saying, “Why are YOU disappointed?” And I kept tryna tell him why until I ran out of reasons for ME to be disappointed. EYE don’t have anyyyyything to be disappointed about. THEY have everything to be disappointed about. EYE am who I say I am. THEY aren’t. And also... How you lose #EbonyJanice? (smh) Too bad too sad <- for them... not for me. Cause I did not come HERE to play... but I certainly didn’t come to observe! 👸🏾 . . . I’m growing a tour and building a school so until I have a full time team I can’t do merch any more for a while. So everything on my site is on sale thru midnight tomorrow April 21st. Pull up! www.thefreepeopleproject.com || #TheFreePeopleProject #BlackGirlMixtape #thisiswhatrevolutionlookslike #FreeGirl #FreePeople #Ministry #Liberation #Theology #Womanism #HipHopWomanist #BlackGirlMixtape #illionaire #Billionaire #Mogul #WhatWouldErykahBadu #Beyonce #BeyonceKnows #ErykahBadu

[rememberebonyjanice]

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A post shared by I Go By EbonyJanice (@ebonyjanice)

A few weeks ago I called out my grad school, #StarrKingSchoolfortheMinistry as an unsafe space for #blackwomen. Time has passed and I'm still waiting for an appropriate response. But centering blk women is my life's work so this isn't just going to fade out and go away. I got time. || The day before my graduation (which I had to boycott in order to FORCE this conversation) I got the chance to speak via @zoom with many students from my school to address them corporately about the ways #toxicWhiteness and #patriarchy held me in bondage and harmed me while I was there. There was a brief discussion about a petition which kind of fizzled (I think) because a white student told me (and others) that they couldn’t support the petition as is because they, from their lofty place of privilege, have seen administration working hard behind the scenes to respond to these issues. 🤔👀 You mean after 3 years of me being transparent abt my harm someone finally decided to do something because they’re being publicly shamed and you want me to be like - “Ok! Thanks! I’ll be quiet now!” Nah! || I have spoken to so many #blackWomen, particularly millennial women in the academy since my thesis project went public and so many of us have the same story. Silenced. Erased. Mansplained. Whitesplained. Ignored. Used for out emotional and intellectual labor - then discarded. Gaslit. And and and and and... I wrote a bit about it HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-academia-unsafe-black-women-ebony-janice-moore/?published=t || You can continue to support the work I am doing with @blackgirlmixtape by donating to our gofundme.com/blackgirlmixtapetour fund! || If my grad school must continue to insist that it is dismantling white supremacy I will help them by continuing to call them out until they publicly address my expectations and my experience. An institution that harms black women is no institution at all. (at Starr King School for the Ministry)