The second season of Conversations for Change will feature casual conversations with some of the University of Michigan’s brightest students, faculty, and leaders and best.
In this first episode, #UMSocial intern Cam Turner, class of 2022, interviews Thomas Vance, U-M class of 2021, double-major in political science and Afro-American and African studies. Vance is also the Speaker of the Black Student Union, which is a role he says has introduced him to a lot of great people and innovative ideas.
“For me, being Speaker is really about being the chief community builder on campus. In pretty much every meeting, I say, ‘I can’t speak for everybody. I don’t want to speak for everybody.’ As much as people like to say Blackness isn’t a monolith, some people pretend like it is. So it’s really important to me to make sure that I’m not speaking for others, but rather that I’m trying to speak to what I think some Black students might like, based on conversations I’m having with my peers,” he says.
Turner and Vance dive into what it’s like being at a primarily white institution and holding a minority identity on campus. Vance shares jarring experiences and challenges he has faced, and how he found a supportive community in the BSU, as well as in the Department of Afro-American and African Studies, to help him make sense of what was happening and how to move forward.
“As a Black student raised in South Atlanta, but experienced teenage years in North Atlanta, it’s super different. You go home and you’re surrounded by Black folks, but you go to school and you’re surrounded by white folks,” Vance says.
Turner asks Vance what members of the community can do to move Black students forward on a campus when their voices seem small.
“We have to just support each other. There’s no room for anything else than that, we’ve got to stick together.”
Vance adds that his proudest moment at Michigan was being interviewed on Conversations for Change in the summer of 2020 because he was able to use the platform to talk about the importance of intersectionality and being an ally, as well as share the important work the BSU was conducting, including distributing more than 200 care packages.
In response to Turner’s question about the legacy Vance hopes to leave as the Speaker of the BSU, he says he wants the community to still uphold the BSU as a pillar they can lean on, and that the organization continues to break barriers and innovate.
“I stand on strong shoulders and the people that come after me will stand on strong shoulders. This org is nothing without the community and even though the community can make it without us, I think that the BSU is a pivotal part of the community.”
