The Black Student Union hosted an inviting and exciting Family Feud event on Feb. 8th in room 103 of the Liberal Arts Building to celebrate Black History Month as part of the college’s larger Black Future Month celebrations.
The event was organized by the Black Student Union’s very own president, Caleb Dunomes, and vice president, Jacki Scott.
Some students who attended the event found it to be amazing that Black students were coming together and enjoying the fun.
“Personally, Black people we’re so popular in the world that we go against each so many times that when we come together, it’s a big deal,” Willie Hall, a business major who attended the event, said.
The event consisted of two teams, red and green, duking it out over who could pick the most popular answers to four different questions relating to the Black community.
The questions from the event were to name a mandatory food at Thanksgiving dinner, name a famous Black person under the age of 30, name the first historically Black colleges and universities, name something created by a Black inventor and name a movie or TV show directed or produced by a Black person.
The two teams had fluid membership throughout the event, but consistently active members of the red team were Joseph Cortes, whose major is undecided; Shelia Hill, a counselor; Kaysei Hudson; Jacob Thompson, who’s in pre-medicine; and Mikyah Lawrence, whose major is undecided – green team primarily consisted of Brian Givens, a business major; Saige Thompson, a studio arts major; and Ifeoma Utom, a journalism major; and Morris Jones, a track and field coach.
Despite low attendance at the event, the room bustled with laughter and good vibes as the two teams and audience playfully bickered over the validity of some of the answers to the questions.
The red team ultimately came out on top after fierce competition with the green team, spurred in large part by Hill dominating the question about the first historically Black colleges and universities.
Thompson, who learned about the event through Instagram, felt accomplished after his team won the event, whereas Jones lamented his team’s loss, “I hate losing.”
This was the first time the Black Student Union chose to play Family Feud for Black History Month – Scott’s reasoning for picking Family Feud was because of its prominence in the Black community.
“I think Family Feud is a popular staple in the black community because of Steve Harvey and it’s a fun game to bring out competition,” she stated.
Dunomes, a sociology major, member of the Associated Students of Cerritos College and track athlete, was a major driving force for the selection of Black Future Month as the theme of this year’s Black History Month.
He describes “Black future” as Black kids doing things of value, being better than past generations and getting credit for changing the world.
“I feel like, as a society and especially in America, we’re often pushed to look into our past rather than our future – and I want to use both,” he elaborated.
Dunomes also used a quote from Erika Alexander, the co-creator of “Concrete Park,” that he believes encapsulates Black Future Month, though he didn’t know the quote’s origins at the time, “Our past may be pain, our present, precarious, but the future? The future is free.”
Dunomes also encouraged people to attend a Black Student Union gathering on Feb. 22.
