As I looked through the 1989 yearbook, I counted. I counted the number of women who looked like me. Counting is something those not in the majority will sometimes do. I see who looks like me and how many there are, to determine what side of me will be noticed. It was something that came second nature to me at TCU.
So as I looked through the yearbook, I counted. I even counted the women who didn’t look like me, except for the fact that our skin color was brown, or black, or tan. Then, a brown face smiled up at me from the page. Aisha Saleem. And like me, she had wanted to attend law school. Another setting where we would be one of few.
Through this connection, I felt compelled to look more into her story. Who was she? What had going to TCU in the 1980s been like for her? Was it similar to TCU today? At TCU, we often hear the histories of our founders, the names on the buildings, or athletes. I wanted to know more about the history of this woman of color, a story we don’t often hear.
Through the Archives
I looked her name up on the TCU Archives, and more than 160 articles from the Skiff came up. She was a writer, a columnist, and the editor. She had been involved in the International Students Association, in the Honors societies for Journalism and Political Science, and graduated Magna Cum Laude. As the editor, she was an important figure on TCU’s campus. She had shaped the stories that TCU’s paper told.
I searched through her articles, and read some of her pieces. She often wrote about culture, things going on around the world, and how students didn’t know about them.
In 1986, one of her earlier years, Aisha wrote an article called “Cultural changes affect Mayans” where she described the visit of Carlos Villanueva, a historian who gave a lecture on campus about the Mayan Civilization. She explains how his visit had been at TCU, and his visit other places as well.
By 1988, she is a columnist not only describing international events but stating her opinion on them. In February of that year she wrote a column titled "Internationally Ignorant." She comments on how we now live in a global world, and the “policy of isolationism has become obsolete.” She says that college students, as the leaders of tomorrow, should know what is going on in the world, because we will naturally be affected by it. She gives examples of America’s ignorance, like the company who released the car called the Nova, and wondered why it sold poorly in Spanish speaking nations, where nova means “no go.” She calls out Americans for not knowing anything about other countries, or speaking any other languages, when many countries speak English and know what is going on here. She ends saying that students not only have an obligation to know what goes on around campus, but also in other countries because we “cannot live off our pride for past achievements forever.”
She continues to develop her critical lens and challenge readers. In March of that year, she wrote a column titled "South Africa actions bring harm to region.” She challenges reader’s perceptions of southern Africa, asking them to wonder why they have perceptions of Africa as a poor country, and to think about apartheid. She explains that South Africa was also destroying villages in neighboring countries, like Namibia, which forced them to focus on protecting their borders, not developing their country. She criticizes the United States for not helping these countries, though we claim to be a “superpower.”
In February of the next year, she wrote a column titled "Voter voices don’t count in pay raise.” She explains a pay raise proposed by Reagan to increase Congress member’s salary by 50%. She states that it is not really democratic to have an elite group of millionaires representing constituents below the poverty line. She acknowledges that Congress believes they need a raise, but so does minimum wage. She ends saying that without this wage, perhaps we could find truer representation to focus on this nation’s pressing issues.
She had hundreds of other articles, including one called "Political ignorance stuns teacher”, as she included to call out ignorance about global issues. As an international student, and a woman of color on campus, she offered a different perspective than the average student. Through sharing her opinion on a topic like ignorance, foreign affairs, or the government by publishing her piece through the Skiff she was educating others on her different perspective. As an editor, she got to shape what the paper turned out to be, and she wanted to challenge student’s conceptions by educating them on global issues. Though what is often focused on TCU’s campus is Greek life and athletics, when Aisha was editor, other articles in the paper focus on cultural and international issues, outside of the TCU bubble. Her influence not only occurred because of what she wrote about, but also what other students wrote about when she was the leader and editor of the Skiff. This no doubt had lasting impacts on the rest of campus, who was exposed to these issues by simply picking up the paper.
In Person
After I looked Aisha up in the archives, I googled Aisha to see where she is now. I was so excited to find that she is an attorney in Fort Worth! With courage that I question now, I called Aisha at Fort Worth’s U.S. Attorney’s office. I told her what I was doing and asked to speak to her about her experience. Though surprised, she agreed and invited me to her office the next day. I was in heaven as she walked me to her office. A literal U.S. Attorney.
I began to understand her surprise at my call as she explained her experience at TCU. She had chosen the university because of its great educational reputation. She wanted to be an investigative journalist, and TCU's journalism school was top-notch. She had known TCU wasn’t a diverse place and noticed it when she got there, after moving from Houston. But she said the lack of diversity didn’t necessarily make her experience more negative. The person that was largely responsible for getting her at TCU was the head of the journalism department, an Indian professor, and that made a huge difference to her. She described her experience at TCU as positive, and one where she received a fantastic education.
She talked to me about all her involvement on campus. One of the best experiences she had at TCU was working for the Skiff. She loved writing, and wanted to continue to do it to make the world a better place. She said that writing for the Skiff, especially being the editor, was one of her best experiences at TCU. She loved working with the diverse students on the staff and hearing everyone’s ideas. But moving to more of a management position was not something she loved. She realized that a different career path, like law, would allow her to write and help people in ways that she actually wanted to, without the burden of managing that was required in the journalism field. So she applied to law school.
Aisha looks fondly on her TCU experience. She was there to get a fantastic education, and she did, with high grades. She was a part of a lot of student organizations, was a leader in all of them, and was able to study in Washington D.C. And she played a huge part in what TCU students read and got their information. She was a woman of color at TCU, in a place where majority of students look differently. But Aisha wasn’t just a student at TCU, she was an exceptional one.
Connection to Women of Color Feminism
Having Aisha’s impact on campus recorded through the archives is so important so that her experience on campus is not made invisible. Mistuye Yamada speaks of this phenomena, Asian women being made invisible in feminist movements and not being seen as oppressed or a part of the fight for liberation. We must record the histories of all women of color, including Asian women, so that we get a full perspective of what TCU was like, and what it still is like. We must listen and learn from every individual and their intersectional identities, in order to make our community better for all.
When looking through the TCU archives, it is hard not to generalize a person’s experience. Especially when looking up a woman of color at TCU, a small group on campus. This expectation that comes with our identity can sometimes consume us. Maythee Rojas writes about this in Women of Color and Feminism, that “identity is the bane of subjectivity’s existence.” When we are often described or seen as our identities, like a woman of color, it can be hard to get off the expected path of behaviors that exist with that. We expect certain things from people simply because they belong to a identity group. But we are individuals that have individual experiences, not determined by these groups that society puts us in. At the same time, however, by naming these experiences that are connected to our identity, we can see that others like us also experience the same things.
Aisha’s story is related to other women of color at TCU because women of color at TCU are exceptional. We are expected to be. As a small minority on campus, there is constant pressure to prove your merit as a student. You may not say it, but you wonder whether people think you deserve to be here. Patrisse Cullors speaks of this, in her memoire When They Call you a Terrorist. She says “I do not remember us together as relaxed, humans being. We have always had to be humans doing.” At TCU, women of color are always doing. Leading organizations, papers, or protests. The archives tell these stories of women of color and we see that in 160 of Aisha’s articles. Working overtime to get good grades and be involved, but still compete with everyone’s physical appearance. We work hard to stand out as exceptional in a place where mediocrity is normal, because we will never be normal at this school anyway.
Relevance Today
Aisha worked hard to make her experience at TCU positive and exceptional. Probably harder than many students who are in the majority have to, because TCU is catered to white, wealthy students. But she did her best to make our campus a better place.
The late 1980s was an interesting time in the United States, as Reagan’s presidency ended, and the United States was leaving one international issue to head into another. And the country was not kind to people of middle eastern descent. This was probably a very difficult time for Aisha politically. She identifies as Asian/pacific islander, and is from Pakistan. For Aisha to share her opinion and criticisms of our country in this time period shows her courage and resolve to educate.
Yet, TCU seems like it is frozen in time, not that different today from the 1980s. The campus was not diverse. In 1989, the year that Aisha graduated, 88% of students were white, 3.9% were black 3 % Latino (labeled Hispanic), 1.2% Asian, and 2.9% nonresident. And it still is not. In 2018, 68.1% of students are white, 5.7% black, 13.7% Latino, 3% Asian, and 5.3% non-resident[BH1] . Students still don’t know what happens outside of TCU’s bubble, and white Greek life still dominates the narrative of TCU.
Aisha worked to break the TCU bubble and challenge students to think differently. With the work to pass the diversity component into the core curriculum this year, that work is still going on today. TCU still caters to a mainly white, wealthy student, but women of color have been working for decades to improve our campus. Though we shouldn’t merely group us together for our shared characteristics, it is important to recognize our shared experiences when they point our what is wrong with our environment. Aisha had a good experience at TCU, got a great education, and was such an important voice on campus through her work with the Skiff. I have had a great experience at TCU as well, as have many of my friends. But many things can be improved. We must tell the stories of Aisha and other women of color in our history, so we know that we are not alone. Others have been where we are today, and we are so grateful for them. And as individuals, women of color have made an impact. That impact deserves to be recognized like the impact by white men who paid for buildings, or got a touchdown.
I stand on women like Aisha’s shoulders. It is because of women like her that women like me feel that we have enough agency to be involved on TCU’s campus. To be on campus as who we are, not just women of color, but students at TCU.
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