Interview by Nicholas Brown, Visual Arts Major
with Javay Fraser, President of In Living Color at SUNY New Paltz, Linguistics Major
What is your name and pronouns?
My name is Javay Fraser. My pronouns are they/them.
What is your age and major?
I am 23. I’m a linguistics major. I like my linguistics major. It is sort of a concentration of semantics and etymology.
Where are you from?
I’m from Brooklyn, specifically Canarsie. It’s a really small part of Brooklyn that a lot of people don’t really know about unless they live there.
What kind of hobbies or activities are you interested in?
I like to play Dungeons and Dragons quite a bit. I usually play online. I’m currently in the process of setting up my first in-person game for people. I’ll be the DM (Dungeon Master), which should be pretty interesting. Other than Dungeons and Dragons, I like to cook. In fact, I just made something last night. My family is Jamaican and Guyanese. There is a Guyanese treat called mithai that I haven’t had in five years, and I thought I should make some. It was still pretty good even though I hadn’t cooked it before.
Has campus made you feel welcome as a member of the queer?
It’s half and half. There are moments where I don’t feel welcome on campus and there are moments where I do. It really depends. I’d say currently right now, as I am, I do feel welcome. But I feel like a part of the reason why I feel welcome is because in the process of helping found the club that I found, like with other people that’s been a space where I feel like I’m welcome here if I can do that also on other spots on campus as well. Outside of that, though, when I’ve done other jobs on campus or even just in general, like, certain classes, I’ve had some professors. I’ve just had moments where I just feel like, I need to be a completely different person because either I don’t feel welcome because I’ve got to mold myself into this person or I don’t really feel like sharing anything, so I just tend to “go ghost” on those classes. It’s kind of a mixed bag.
How does the community here at New Paltz differ from your home?
New Paltz’s community is much more welcoming than what I have back in Canarsie. Most of the people living in Canarsie are an immigrant community. Part of that is because I happen to be non-binary, queer, y’know a lot of that’s not necessarily the most “cool” thing in the community. You get a lot of mixed reactions from people. There is definitely some respect, but you see that more from younger people.
I’d say here on campus, I do feel like there’s more of that welcoming atmosphere, and I don’t have to worry about the fact that I can paint my nails and walk around campus and not have to worry about what someone’s going to think or say or do about that. I really like that about campus.
So what personal journey brought you to your current role as the President of your club?
It all started around the time when I realized that both on social media and media in general, that when it came to the queer community, a lot of it tends to be very specifically focused on either the view of AFAB (assigned female at birth) white women. While that is an experience, I feel that it wasn’t necessarily my experience. I feel like one of the things that you have to think about is that your identity is that it’s not just like one aspect that defines everything. So I was thinking about that, there’s no way I’m the only person that’s been thought this.
I feel like within the black community, one of the things I face is that people view being queer like a “white people” thing, which is a problem. So felt that I can’t be queer and black in this space, but I can talk about my queer stuff, but it’s kind of hard to also talk about the issues that I face within my local community when I’m at home. So, I set up In Living Color with other like-minded people in order to have a space to talk about our experiences. We made it to be a safe space, regardless of whether they are or aren’t queer, or are or aren’t a person of color.
What issues or challenges are you confronted with?
I’d say the big thing that I worry a lot about myself is the stigma around mental health within the Black community, because that’s another thing that also I feel a lot of Black people, regardless of if they’re Caribbean, African, or whatever that I’ve met, a lot of them tend to have this focus of, like, “Oh, you know, mental health problems, that’s something we only really see on TV.” Especially if you come from a lower income bracket. They’re kind of raised to think that it’s something people with money are allowed to worry about. We don’t have time to worry about that. Those kinds of things are important because I struggle with my own. I got a couple of things going on, but we’re trying to work them out, but I feel like it’s one of the things that is hard to talk about with people. It’s easier with younger generations when, for example, I can talk to my parents and be like, “Hey, I really feel depressed right now. Let’s talk about that.” But if I try to talk to older people who are also in the same city and same race as me, it’s kind of hard to talk about it because it feels like if I mentioned this they’ll probably dismiss it and think that it’s not really a thing.
Why do you think these challenges exist?
I’d say it’s a two fold sort of thing, like, part of it is a lot of people of color just don’t really trust the medical industry that much. Everyone, if they haven’t heard about it, has probably heard about the whole Tuskegee incident. That’s one of the big things, a lot of people don’t really trust the medical community. A lot of it also has to do with a personal focus. There is stigma that come with it. I think it’s a combination of that. I’d say part of it also has to do with representation within the media. Not only representation of what people are being put in roles, but rather how they represent mental illness. It’s definitely important. I remember as a kid, my mom had a VHS of “A Beautiful Mind”, and the whole time I was watching it I felt kind of like, you know, this feels like, well, this guy’s got a lot going on. And then later, as I grew up and learned more because I remember someone in high school did a presentation on the movie and also just on schizophrenia, and I was shocked. This movie did a lot of things that were kind of not the best way to represent that. I think those are the two things that play hand in hand with that. If we can reduce that stigma within the media and change how we represent it and also make sure that most communities can feel a little bit more trust in the medical industry. For example, my dad, I’ve had to explain to him before that a therapist is someone who’s a doctor, they have a license to practice. He didn’t understand that that’s a medical profession. He thought it was just like, “Oh, I’m just paying someone to talk to you? You can talk to anyone.” I think there’s a lot of that that goes on. We can fix those, I think it might be something to work out eventually, over time, like most things.
So what are your most important sources of success and change?
One thing that was a good ego boost for a while was something that happened in high school when I used to do ensemble band. I was pretty new to it compared to a lot of the other members and was not too confident in my skills, but I really wanted to play a [Legend of] Zelda piece because it was the reason why I got into music in the first place. I constantly tried requesting the games’ music, and they would give pushback everytime.
Then later, one of the teachers mentioned that they had previously worked in a symphony that played music from The Legend of Zelda for an official project. After that he got the sheet music for me, and then they helped me change up the music into something our band could play. What surprised me is that we ended up playing the final version, and I was asked to talk about the process during the concert. They also gave me an award, named the piece after me, and most amazingly, they gifted me a flute. That was really special as a poor kid who wanted to play music but couldn’t fork over $3,000 at any given moment.
What are changes that you would like to see and be a part of?
I’d like to see two main ones. One of them surrounds accessibility. There are a lot of places where people who might have a disability still have trouble accessing areas on campus. It is weird to me that there are only a certain select number of halls that people can live in if they have a physical disability. I remember seeing a student in a wheelchair needing the help of three other people when they tried getting up a steep hill trying to get to their next class during my freshman year. I feel like stuff like that needs to be accommodated for a bit better.
Also, I find it odd that some students aren’t aware where certain departments are on-campus. Some people don’t recognize the place that houses the Black Studies department, and I didn’t even recognize it until someone else pointed it out for me.
Some of the places where departments are don’t look like it’s a part of campus, and I think those areas should highlight where they are to show that they really value them.
Who else needs to be pulled into the conversation?
I have to say the new President of the university coming into the discussion is going to be important, as well as the administrative people on campus in general. I feel like a part of that goes into understanding how a company like a university understnds its different levels. You can’t really say that you truly understand how your business is, and I mean for the administration, the schools of business. So, it’s as if you can’t truly understand how it is until you understand the client experience, or what it’s like working at the lowest level. They need to ask how they can make that better? How can I make it better for my clients? How can I make it better for everyone else? If they can do that, I think that’s what makes you a little bit more successful. That’s what makes you go “Hey, I like this business. They treated me well hey or they treated you when you’re working there. They treated you well when you just went to that place of establishment for XYZ.” If the administration could understand how that feels, the college could reach new heights.
Interview by Nicholas Brown, Visual Arts Major as part of a collaborative Interview Book Project in ARS 331 Photo Books and Installations.