Who Is Showing Up for Black Lives Matter?
Meet psychology major Monique Queen.
Hometown: Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia
Thesis adviser: Glenn Baker [psychology]
Thesis: “Showing Up and Showing Out: Predictors of Black Lives Matter (BLM) Protest Endorsement and Protest Action Type in Portland, OR”
What it’s about: Looking at 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations in Portland, my research questions which attitudes, social (environmental) factors, and protest behaviors predict endorsement of or participation in protest. It’s significant as it occurs in the midst of ongoing calls for police abolition, an end to police brutality/racially motivated harm, and equal rights/equitably distributed resources for Black folks.
What it’s really about: How Portlanders show up regarding BLM protests—physically and in other ways—and what attitudes and behaviors predict this.
Influential class: Prof. LaShandra Sullivan’s Black Queer Diaspora course was relevant to my identity and how I show up in the world as a Black queer/quare femme.
Concept that blew my mind: Rest as resistance! Accessing dream spaces to dismantle oppressive systems and using rest to step into our full humanity.
Influential book: Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers speaks to the centuries of systemic violence and greed taking place in the forms of capitalism, patriarchy, anti-blackness, and white supremacy, genocide, and erasure of Indigenous peoples and their land and resources.
Cool stuff: Multicultural Resource Center (MRC) programming, SEEDS, Special Collections & Archives, Black Student Union, and helping throw Nasty Ball (iykyk).
Help along the way: Without the aid I received, I wouldn’t have been able to attend this school. I still have loans and am of the mindset that education should be free (especially for Black and Indigenous folks in this country).
Challenges faced: Being Black and low SES navigating a campus that was not designed for people who look like me presented an array of challenges, including institutional racism, experiencing discrimination on and off campus, and academic stress.
What’s next: Things happen for a reason and within divine timing—hopefully opportunities that allow me to farm and be able to tend and steward land.