Jessica Samuels Item Info
Jessica Samuels
Topics:
Jessica Samuels:
Interviewer:Please state your name and your title or role at UI.
JS:My name is Jessica Samuels and was an Academic Success Counselor for student Support Services TRIO for almost 8 years. Currently I am the Assistant Director of the Office of Student Equity and Retention Specialist for the African American Student Center at Washington State University.
IN:What is your ethnicity or race? Do you identify as African-American, African, Caribbean, etc.?
JS:I am Black or mixed, as My mother was Hungarian and Norwegian, and my biological father is Black. Although I grew up being told he was a Black Puerto Rican, even though he is not. However, I was raised, my stepfather that raised me from the time I was 1, was Native American. I am a black woman, but as far as my ethnicity goes, I would say I am mixed.
IN:Where are you from?
JS:I am from Orofino, Idaho.
IN:Did you like growing up there? How big is that?
JS:It’s a very small rural logging town about an hour and a half away from here. I can say there were good aspects and there were negative aspects of growing up where I grew up. I do appreciate that it made me who I am today.
IN:What brought you to UI?
JS:A want to further my education so that I could improve my life for my kids, for community, and for my siblings.
IN:How many children do you have?
JS:I have four children.
IN:How old are they?
JS:My oldest is 19, and I have a son that will be 16 in December. I have a daughter that just turned 13 in July, and I have a 10 year old daughter as well.
IN:Have you had any previous experiences that you feel prepared you for UI?
JS:I think yeah. I think that growing up here in Idaho, that growing up in Orofino prepared me to be here at the University of Idaho. It allows me to… I think it prepared me for the culture shift that a lot of African Americans, or black people, or mixed people would experience when they come here, when they come from out of town or out of this area.
IN:Could you describe that shift?
JS:So, I mean just being the only black person. I'm used to that. I'm not sure what their experience is but I can only speak about my experiences. So coming to the University of Idaho, like, I've heard other people describe it as not being very diverse. For me, although in their perception it’s not very diverse, the University of Idaho and Moscow are very diverse in comparison to where I grew up. I'm used to being the only black person in a classroom because of where I grew up. I'm used to being, having to be that representative of the African-American community. Yeah, I feel like I was prepared to be here just because I'm used to being in this type of environment as far as being the only one. Or one among very few.
IN:Was it a tough transition moving to Moscow since it’s predominantly white?
JS:Actually, like I said in comparison to where I came from it was a more diverse. So no it wasn't a tough transition in that aspect.
IN:Was it easier then?
JS:I wouldn't necessarily say it was easy either. I came here as– there were parts of it that were easy and parts of it that weren't. When I came here I was a nontraditional student.
IN:What’s that mean?
JS:So I came here and started my Bachelor’s degree when I was 28 years old. I was married at the time, my oldest daughter was 18 months old when I started school. So that’s what a nontraditional student is. A traditional student is someone who just graduated from high school, has no spouse, has no children, or anything like that. I was transitioning into college after having been out of school for over 10 years. So there was a transition, but as far as transitioning to Moscow I didn't have the culture shock. Maybe a culture shock a in my economic background or a culture shock as in having to go to school.
But there wasn't a culture shock as in all of the sudden I'm the only black person. Or a culture shock as in getting accustomed to the University of Idaho, like the physical. I knew where things were and stuff. Because when I was in high school and in junior high, I was introduced to the University of Idaho as an upward bound student. So I attended summer school here throughout high school. I began after my eighth grade year. I went here for many years. And I also lived in Moscow for a short time when I was 23. My friends went to college, and I worked in Lewiston as a hairdresser.
IN:Do you feel like you'll stay in this community for a long time? Why or why not?
JS:I've been here for a long time. So, I'm 47 years old and I've been in Moscow specifically since I started my Bachelors degree in 2004. So, I've been here for about 18 years already. I've lived in Idaho my entire life. So as far as where my career will take me in the future, I might leave, but as far as being a Idaho person I will always be from here. My family lives here, my siblings are all here, my nieces and nephews are all here, my family is here. I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. But if it happens, it could happen. Have you built any strong relationships with any other black people or faculty at UI?
Yes, I have. I'm very close with the Freemans. I'm also very to a lot of people in the African community here. I'm the co-advisor for the Black Student Union.
IN:Have you had positive experiences related to your race at UI?
JS:Yeah, I would say that in my undergraduate years, so at the time when I came the Black Student Union wasn't established. I feel like that as we established the BSU back then, I had a lot of positive growth. I had a lot of good experience. I made a lot of friends that I still keep in contact with, some of them. I know that there was a BSU in the 60s and 70s because I did a little bit of research, but as to when we reestablished, yeah it was in 2004 or 2005. I know we won Student Group of the Year in about 2004 or 05 or 06. I know we did a great big event for Rosa Parks Memorial Celebration, that’s probably something in the Argonaut about that. There should be a few articles related to that from 2005 to 2009.
IN:Have you had negative experiences related to your race at UI?
JS:Oh, yes! So I just recently wrote a chapter on mixed race identity and within that I talk about a specific experience that I had here on campus as far as just working with colleagues and that was one. But I think my most negative experience was off campus, but it did affect a student on campus. It was when I first started working as an employee, it would've been in the spring semester of 2014. At the time I was a temporary staff in the Office of Multicultural Affairs as the secretary. I had just graduated with my Master’s degree. My children and I had to move off campus because we had been living in family housing from the time we had moved here from 2004 to the time that I graduated in 2013. I had a little bit of a break–you know, graduating– and then I had to try and find a job. It wasn’t until December that I actually landed the temporary position in the Office of Multicultural Affairs. We had moved into some section 8 housing and it didn't allow for me to take my washer and dryer. There was a little laudrying mat within our apartment complex but the little hoodlum kids around the area had been peeing in the washers and dryers and stuff so I took mine and my four children’s clothes down to the laundromat, down here.
The Sudzee, it’s right down here across the street from Taj’s. I had left my children at home, my older daughter was babysitting. I was there doing laundry and I was standing at the end of one of the things and it was over kind of my these washers and dryers. I was our folding clothes as the other clothes were in the washer and dryer. This man and his young daughter, she was only about 9 or 10 at the time came in. They were doing their laundry. So I was standing on the end folding clothes and he had to go around this way to get to these dryers that were over here and he was irritated and mad and angry. I wasn’t really sure what was going on. And then I sat down at the end because my daughter called and so I sat down at the end and I was on the phone and he started slamming the washer and dryer shut and all this stuff. And his daughter’s like, “Dad, what’s wrong?” And just then I was on the phone with my daughter and he like, “I’m so sick and tired of these fucking niggers. One of these days I’m going to shoot one of them. They just come in here and try to take over everything.” And I was like are you kidding me, and I’m the phone with my daughter at the same time and there’s people all over in the place. And there’s this guy who’s sitting over here who’s looking at me. And I’m, “Excuse me, hon, I have to get off of the phone. I’m being threatened here about my life.” And I hung up the phone and he’s like, “I ain’t threatening you.”
And I said, “Excuse me, sir, I heard word you said.” Mind you this man has a southern accent. He sounds like he’s from Louisiana or something like that. And I’m like, “I’ll have you know I heard every word you said. You said you were going to kill one of these fucking niggers because we’re coming in here and taking over things. For your information, my stepfather is 31/32 Nez Perce and this was tribal land.” He looked at me and said, “Well, I’m just crazy.” But prior to that he had literally not just slammed the doors, but also butted his head up against one of the doors. And that was why the little girl had asked. I was so appalled. I went outside and took a picture of license plate number. Nobody in the place said a word, not one word. They looked at me and gave me dirty looks for saying anything, like speaking up or anything. And I was pissed, so I posted it on FaceBook and had a couple people reach out to me and say you know you should really call the police and you should say something just in case he does something like this in the future from a couple of my friends who are police officers and stuff. So I did, I contacted the police and gave them the whatever and nothing really came of it.
But what did happen was that I came back on campus and I was sitting in the Office of Multicultural Affairs and talking about it. I was talking about it with a student about what had happened because part of me was upset, the biggest part of me was upset with myself for even being upset, for being shocked because I’m so used to that being the case. Like if I was out in Troy, Kendrick, or Deary, or Orofino, or Weipe, or Pierce, or something like that of course that’s going to happen. I was shocked because it happened in Moscow. So we were just having this discussion and then the guy left and then a day later he comes back and says, “Jessica, I just wanted to tell you, you know, I do work study the sociology department and there was a student in there who witnessed it, who was at the laundromat and had come to that professor crying upset because he had been through all of these diversity trainings and bystander trainings and trainings to stand up for other people. But he couldn’t say anything and he felt really bad about witnessing it and not being able to speak up and not being able to say something after he had been thought all these trainings that tried to teach him to speak up.
And they asked me if it was okay if he came to talk to me. So he came to talk to me and you know he apologized and we had a conversation. And I let him know that the guy was acting irrational to the point of you never know what could’ve happened and he shouldn’t put himself at risk, but at the same time now that days later he knows how he feels, you know that maybe you should stand up and say something if you know that this is going to haunt you so bad. And so we had a good conversation. The interesting thing is that a few years later the advisor for the BSU, the University brought in one of the leaders for Black Lives Matter, a few years back they brought her in. Before we brought her in we thought that it was important that we educate people so the BSU had a panel discussion and I actually spoke about that experience that I’m telling you about right now. The interesting things was that the guy, the student– I hadn’t seen him since– happened to actually be in the audience and he got up and spoke. He said, “Yeah, just so you know, that was me. I was the one that was there. And it haunts me, I think about it every single day.” So that was one.
IN:Can I have the name of your book, or can you tell me about that experience too?
JS:So the name of the book is called The Pain and Privilege of Mixed Race Identity. It’s an autoethnographic collection and I just wrote one chapter for the book. It’s a collaboration and I think there’s about 14 other contributors. I wrote chapter 9, is what they said it’s going to be. It was published in 2019. My chapter is entitled Sika.
IN:Other people I've interviewed have felt this frustration at having to be the ones that continually have to educate and console white guilt. Do you feel similar to that, have you experienced that?
JS:Uh, yeah. We always have to console, explain. It’s a real issue. I think one of my other frustrations. One of my biggest frustrations is like diverse populations are given this little chunk of the pie and then we're forced to fight each other for this little chunk of the pie. Rather than just being a part of everything. So even though we're supposed to be on the same side there’s a constant battle between us for resources to grow and enhance our communities.
IN:I've also had people mention that they have colleagues that say they don't see color or they're colorblind. Have you experienced anything like this?
JS:Yeah, I've had people say that they're colorblind and then you'll catch them on little things where it’s like obviously you're not colorblind. It doesn't even make sense. I look in the mirror, I look at myself and I see that I'm a brown skinned woman. I see that I'm black, it’s not even a question. So how can you tell me you don't see it? It doesn't even make sense, it’s ridiculous.
IN:Have you noticed any differences in people’s treatment of you since Donald Trump has been in office?
JS:Yeah, not just their treatment of me but their boldness. It was politically incorrect previously, so people hid it, but now it’s not incorrect so people are just flying it out there. And I won't just say people as in strangers. I'm talking about my own family. Remember that my mother is Hungarian and Norwegian, so I have a lot of white family. In my chapter I talk about an incident on FaceBook where at the end my aunt says, “Us white people are going to stick together.” Just straight out. Because I posted a podcast of someone talking about Donald Trump being a racist. We had this whole FaceBook argument, me and my aunt, and then at the end that was her last response.
IN:Thanksgiving is going to be spicy this year.
JS:She won't even come, we won't even invite her.
IN:What do feel you have contributed to your department at UI?
JS:I think that my perspective is different. Mainly because of my upbringing and growing up not only here, but also within multiple ethnicities and my diversity. Because I have learned to maneuver not just within white dominant society and then being black and working within in that community, but also I'm very versatile in working within the indigenous community because that’s where I grew up, but I'm also within the Hispanic community. I thought biological father was not only Black, but Puerto Rican and so based on my indigenous heritage I found that it was important for me to learn Spanish and I was married to a Mexican for about 9 and half years and I was within the Spanish and the Mexican community for a long time.
I think that, yeah, I bring a lot of diversity and background and I think that’s one of things that bugs me so much. The interracial discrimination between the Latino community and the African American, and the African community within the black community, and the Asian community, and all of the others just because I’ve been part of those communities and it’s so prevalent. You can’t tell me that dominant society isn’t racist and discriminatory because we are within our own communities from what we have been enculturated because of dominant society and how we have internalized the homogeneous ideas and views within our own communities.
- Title:
- Jessica Samuels
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- Preferred Citation:
- "Jessica Samuels", Black History at the University of Idaho, Black History Research Lab, University of Idaho
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