Since starting in Fall 2023, Occidental’s Black Men’s Forum is a student-led organization that has been hosting events for Black, male-identifying students, promoting community service, brotherhood and professionalism. According to co-president Darius Harvey (junior), the Forum is driven to be an inclusive environment for every Black man at Occidental, mirroring his relationship with co-president Nogosa Atekha (junior).
“Nogosa and I are friends, but […] we’re generally pretty different people,” Harvey said. “That was kind of by design. We wanted young Black men on the campus to understand that it’s okay to be this type of Black man, or this type of Black man — everyone’s welcome.”
Chief Marketing Officer Djasahn English (first year), who is working on a website for the Forum, said the group is for all Black men.
“I think brotherhood is very important — and I will say, I know there can be some toxic masculinity traits associated with that,” English said. “We’re […] advocating to avoid some of those things, emphasizing that this is a club for anybody who identifies as a Black male, whatever that looks like.”
According to Harvey, he and Atekha began planning the structure of the Forum towards the end of last Spring and held a series of meetings this summer to discuss organizational goals. Harvey said that the group’s first event was a dinner at Dean Rob Flot’s house last Fall, where students conversed with Black male faculty and community members, including President Harry Elam.
Atekha said that the Forum spent the Fall semester focusing on creating a community of Black men at Occidental.
“We wanted to focus on brotherhood for the first semester. [For] the second semester, once we felt like we established that level of brotherhood, we wanted to slightly shift it and then progressively take jumps into this brand of professionalism,” Atekha said. “Professionalism being [in that] we’re going to college to try to get jobs in the future.”
Harvey said that to go through his professional development process, he went outside of Occidental to find diversity-focused organizations.
“The career process for a Black person, and a Black man specifically, is very different than the career process for the average student. It’s in some ways more difficult to market yourself as a Black person, and there are different avenues that you need to go through to market yourself as a Black man in the multitude of careers that our Black men want,” Harvey said. “We need organizations on campus to help prepare Black men to succeed after [Occidental] and not just on campus.”
According to Atekha, the Forum’s emphasis on professionalism is a way for members to learn about who they are as individuals.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re shying away from the whole camaraderie [aspect],” Atekha said. “It just means that we’re combining it and pushing towards being professional Black men that breed excellence.”
English said that Black men are a very vocal presence in the Occidental community, but that they lacked a way to center their different identities before the Forum.
“Having something to centralize our conversations around [helps] us become a bigger presence for the community, a bigger voice for the community instead of just within it,” English said.
According to English, it is easier to rely on someone who understands your whole identity.
“In environments where you might be passionate about something, but you’re the only [Black man] there, it’s easy to burn out,” English said. “It’s easy to not have the support you would appreciate.”
English said that the Forum has been focused inward on their community during Black History Month, but that in the coming months, the Forum will be hosting student-led professional workshops, a career panel and participating in philanthropic work.
Harvey said that the Forum’s events consistently have 20–30 attendees, and that the group is in communication with 30–40 students. According to Harvey, the number of students who identify as Black men at Occidental is around 50. According to the 2023–24 Occidental College Fact Sheet, 4 percent of the college’s 1,938 students enrolled in Fall 2023 identify as Black.
Harvey said the Forum has improved his experience of Occidental.
“Having this group, it’s definitely aided me personally, and we’ve heard good reviews,” Harvey said. “Especially from the underclassmen, who didn’t have this community before or really wanted this community coming into college.”
Contact Jimmy Miller at jmiller4@oxy.edu
