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Jonathan Franklin
November 10, 2015
English 380
Dr. Hall
The Faces and Voices of Black Harvard
Imagine yourself not having your voice heard as if you were invisible or were
just a fly on the wall spectating what is surrounding you. Imagine yourself being a part of
a rich, diverse community that prides itself on the amount of socioeconomic, racial,
geographic, and ethnic diversity it brings to the table, but in the end feel shut out,
rejected, or disrespected by your counterparts. Imagine all of the above becoming a
reality that you cannot escape. As much as it hurts to think about such things, these
negative influences alongside others are what are affecting our college campuses each
and everyday. Likewise, if wanting to express such feelings of disrespect, discrimination,
and prejudice on a campus, youll get the generic cookie-cutter response, stating: Be
the change you want to see; If you dont like something, change the situation for you and
those around you. If you are wanting to gauge the attention for those around you in
todays society, there is one simple way to tap into the minds of todays generation: social
media. The Black community on the campus of Harvard University, encountering a
similar situation, decided to take matters in their own hands to illustrate the personal
experiences of Black students on campus with the Tumblr page I, Too, Am Harvard.
I, Too, Am Harvard is a sociopolitical campaign articulated in forms of pictures
that feature members of the Black community at Harvard University, illustrating and
projecting the personal experiences of Black students that they encounter daily as a
student of color on a college campus; using the hashtag #ITooAmHarvard. Taken the
home page of the Tumblr page, the overarching mission within this multimedia

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movement is to highlight[ing] the faces and voices of black students at Harvard College.
Our voices often go unheard on this campus, our experiences are devalued, our presence
is questioned this project is our way of speaking back, of claiming this campus, of
standing up to say: We are here. This place is ours. We, TOO, are Harvard
(ITooAmHarvard). Simply as this movement has done and has continued to do so, Black
students on Harvards campus now have the ability to have their voice heard one
photograph at a time.
With multimedia movements such as I, Too, Am Harvard, they are quickly
generating a message that needs to be shared at a faster, yet, straightforward way to tap
into the minds of this generation. Looking closely at the website to further examine and
analyze, there are several emotions, connections, and experiences commonly shared that I
have noticed upon navigating through it. Taking into account the circumstances that
Black students face at Harvard University are some of the same, or yet similar
experiences that majority of Black students and sometimes students who identify as a
person of color encounter on a daily basis at a predominately White institution1; (e.g.
Wofford College). With the micro and avert regressions happening daily on
predominately white colleges, there is no escaping the harsh realities given off by such a
cruel environment. I, Too, Am Harvard aims to strengthen the voice and be the agents
of change for Black students.
As you first log on to the I, Too, Am Harvard Tumblr page, you are welcomed
by the opening statement and fundamental purpose and its goal of the multimedia
movement. Progressing down on the website to the first couple of images, the harsh
1

Predominately White Institution commonly referred to as a PWI is used to describe

institutions of higher learning in which White students account for 50% or more of the
student population (Encyclopedia of African American Education).

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reality begins to sink in and the feels and emotions that these students are expressing on
the dry erase boards begin to hit close to home in terms of their voices not being heard
and the blatantly amounts of ignorance that occur with them. By the website not being as
interactive giving viewers the ability to click around on images, drop down menus, etc.
it allows the viewer to take into consideration the message(s) being portrayed from the
students and let the pictures and their messages make up for its interactivity. Additionally,
the variety of rich color whether it is a color image or a black and white image with the
person being in color alongside the large size of the images displayed on the page
alludes to the meaning of the students wanting their voices to be heard and that this
movement is something that one should not take lightly. Before we delve deeper into the
website, let us first study a few pictures to analyze their meaning and how it relates to
point of the Black students not having their voices heard.
One picture out of the countless amounts featured on the webpage speaks out in
particular regarding the medias representation of Black individuals and how we are
negatively portrayed, due to what exactly the media wants to focus on and not what they
should focus on. The student shown a Black female is holding the dry erase board
with a message stating, Are you all so fast because you spend so much time running
from the cops? With such a smirk look on her face while holding the board, it can be
interpreted that the student is not only a potential scholar, but could also be a current or
former athlete that participated in the sports track and field or cross country. It could,
however, be interpreted that just because she is Black and given the recent events within
the past year-and-a-half regarding police brutality and violence, that a non-person of
color would correlate the speed and endurance of someone who is Black to what they see

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featured in the media. Furthermore, this photographer uses the touch color feature an
image that is solely black and white focusing on one specific object in the frame in color
to convey the message given by the student that could be interpreted as living in a black
and white world and bringing forth color (reality) in the picture to give insight on what is
moral.
A female student introduces us to another picture featured on the webpage that
also relates the medias inaccurate portrayal of Black image with the message displayed
on her board stating, No, ghetto and Black are NOT synonymous. Looking at the
presentation of the young woman in the photograph alongside the dozens of other
Harvard students included in this movement, Black and the term ghetto are not
synonymous and are not shown based off their appearances and their experiences
featured. Based off of the medias perception on how they believe Black people carry
themselves, these misconceptions and false accusations begin to formulate labels
amongst the Black community as a whole based off of what they see being portrayed.
When looking as this image specifically, it seems as though the young woman is
trying to not only convey the message of ghetto and Black being not synonymous with
her board, but is also trying to relay the message with her eyes, as well as the camera
captures a sad and discouraged look from her based off of the facial expression given.
Progressing towards the bottom of the Tumblr page, the students that are featured are not
holding a message with a dry erase board but yet, are just featured candidly with the
hashtag #ITooAmHarvard or just simply the message I, Too, Am Harvard on a
chalkboard, as they are smiling with confidence.

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Based off the website and the students experiences that they have encountered on
the campus of Harvard University, it mirrors similarly what students of color on
Woffords campus go through in terms of not having their voices heard or not feeling
included in our campus community. I, Too, Am Harvard brings forth relevant and
important issues not just on Harvards campus, but also all predominately White
institutions across the country. As this project speaks back to the majority-minority
communities on college campuses and transmits the message of having more diversity
and inclusion within a student body, it also gives insight on what exactly minority
students face on a day-to-day basis when it comes to being in a community with very
little people who look similar to them. By creating this multimedia movement, my
thoughts are that it will hopefully promote, engage, and inspire students outside of
minority groups to think about the impact that their actions can make to a group of
individuals.

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Works Cited
"I, Too, Am Harvard." I, Too, Am Harvard. Tumblr, 14 Mar. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
<http://itooamharvard.tumblr.com/>
"Predominantly White Institutions.": SAGE Knowledge. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
<http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/africanamericaneducation/n193.xml>.