What does it mean to be a young adult graduating from Syracuse University’s Class of 2022? Does it include stressing incessantly about handing in your last final? Without a doubt. Surges of overwhelming anxiety striking you every time someone asks you about your future plans? Like clockwork (please stop asking us about it). Elation about finally, finally walking across the Dome stage? Absolutely.

Now, all of that considered, what does it mean to be a young Black adult graduating from a predominantly white institution like SU?

These hallowed halls have opened up my world more than I could have ever imagined, but they have also worn me down in ways that I never anticipated. I never foresaw dealing with the tokenism, the othering, the microaggressions, the perpetual imposter syndrome and the entitlement of those who mistakenly believe they are inherently my better because they have been told that their whole lives. Well, maybe I did expect it, but not to this extent.

How did I survive it? The answer is quite simple: community.

Community—so much contained in one word. Amidst the chaos of being young and Black in American higher education, it is imperative to find your people, your home, your family. For me, I found that in The Renegade Magazine, SU’s first and only Black general interest publication.

I recall arriving at SU my freshman year, nervously taking the plunge into everything that this campus had to offer me. Then I saw the flier for The Renegade’s first general body meeting. I’ve had a lifelong interest in writing, and figured I’d try it out.

Somewhere between sitting down at the meeting and a lengthy brainstorming session, which meandered into a lively debate about any number of issues trending at the time, I felt a sense of peace come over me. I recognized a feeling deep within me that this was the start of something life-changing, a feeling that my soul had come home.

I had found my community. The Renegade is a space that is for us, by us (if you know, you know). SU often preaches diversity and inclusion as a central tenet, which is all well and good. However, it is one thing to claim it and it’s an entirely different matter to be it. And in The Renegade, you can be whomever you want. Not in a way where you put on a persona so that people will like you, and not in a way that you don’t speak up for fear of being ostracized. I’m referring to the way that your entire being lights up when you’re in a space of pure authenticity, where you can be your true self without a worry that you’re not enough.

At The Renegade, I have written about everything from Black businesses to toxic beauty standards to Black liberation, and still, I feel that I’ve only scratched the surface of my potential. I feel limitless in the environment that this publication has cultivated, which is no minor feat when you’re someone who looks like me in a place like this.

Now, this journey has not been without its challenges. I still struggle with building on the legacy that The Renegade’s founder, Ibet Inyang, laid out for all of us in 2014. She had the plan and she gave us the platform. Her drive and determination motivate me to keep on pushing for more we deserve better.

We have always deserved more. We deserve spaces like 119 Euclid, where we can stop by and not worry about being intimidated into feeling like we don’t belong. We deserve events like Reneprom, where we can be radiant in our joy and embody the epitome of Black excellence without a care.

We deserve to feel like we belong to this campus, not in spite of who we are, but because of it. We drive the culture that makes the world turn. We create, we innovate and we breathe life into everything we touch. A renegade is someone who sets the tone, someone who dissents, and someone who rebels against dated, problematic traditions. But most importantly, to be a renegade is to be in community with others. It is from our community that we draw our strength.

What does it mean to me to be a member of the Class of 2022? It means community, it means being a renegade, but most of all? It means we made it.

Dassy Kemedjio, Co Editor-in-chief of The Renegade Magazine, Class of 2022

Published on May 11, 2022 at 10:01 pm