About
I, Too, Am Harvard is a photo project that features African American students at Harvard University holding whiteboards with racist and insensitive comments that have been said to them because of their race. The project was started in part to promote a play of the same name written by Harvard sophomore Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence. After the project became popular online minority students at other colleges began similar photo projects.
Origin
On March 1st, 2014, the Tumblr blog itooamharvard[1] was created. Its homepage described the Tumblr and the project saying,
“A photo campaign highlighting the faces and voices of black students at Harvard College. Our voices often go unheard on this campus, our experiences are devalued, our presence is questioned-- this project is our way of speaking back, of claiming this campus, of standing up to say: We are here. This place is ours. We, TOO, are Harvard. The #itooamharvard photo campaign is inspired by I, Too, Am Harvard, a play based on interviews with members of the black community exploring and affirming our diverse experiences as black students at Harvard College.
All 63 photos in the collection were posted on March 1st, though a video for the project was posted on March 3rd. The video was uploaded to YouTube by AhsantetheArtist[2], the Harvard student who created it, the same day. As of March 27th, the video has more than 160,000 views.
On March 7th, Matsuda-Lawrence’s play premiered at Harvard’s Black Arts Festival.
Spread
In less than 72 hours the Tumblr received over 19,000 pageviews. On March 3rd, 2014, Buzzfeed[6] published an article titled “63 Black Harvard Students Share Their Experiences In A Powerful Photo Project” which featured every photo from the project as well as quotes from Matsuda-Lawrence on her experiences as a person of color at Harvard and her experiences talking with other students for the project. As of March 27th, the post has gained over 1.1 million views. The project was profiled by several major newsites on March 5th, including The Washington Post[11], USA Today[12], and NowThisNews.[13]
In less than a month the hashtag #Itooamharvard[3] was tweeted out over 4,200 times. As of March 27th, I, Too, Am Harvard’s Facebook page[4] has gained over 2,500 likes and its Twitter account[5] has over 900 followers.
I, Too, Am Oxford
On March 10th, 2014, the Tumblr blog Itooamoxford[7] launched, which features ethnic minority students from the English university holding whiteboards with racist comments that have been directed at them in the same style as ItooamHarvard. The blog credit’s Harvard’s photo project as their inspiration, saying,
“Our project was inspired by the recent ‘I, too, am Harvard’ initiative. The Harvard project resonated with a sense of communal disaffection that students of colour at Oxford have with the University. The sharing of the Buzzfeed article ‘I, too, am Harvard’ on the online Oxford based race forum, ‘Skin Deep’ led to students quickly self organising a photoshoot within the same week.”
The blog was covered by Buzzfeed[8], The Independent[9], and The Guardian.[10]
The photo project has been picked up by many other universities such as Ohio State University[14] and NYU.[15]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Tumblr – itooamharvard
[2]YouTube – AhsantetheArtist
[3]Topsy – #itooamharvard
[4]Facebook – itooamharvard
[5]Twitter – itooamharvard
[6]Buzzfeed – 63 Black Harvard Students Share Their Experiences In A Powerful Photo Project
[7]Tumblr – itooamoxford
[8]Buzzfeed – 65 Students Of Colour Share Their Experiences Of Life At Oxford University
[9]The Independant – ‘I, too, am Oxford’: The intricacies of racism today
[10]The Guardian – Oxford’s ‘students of colour’ on being ‘othered’ at university
[11]The Washington Post – ‘I, Too, Am Harvard’: Black students show they belong
[12]USA Today – ‘I, Too, Am Harvard’ photos tell black students’ stories
[13]NowThisNews – “I, Too, Am Harvard” Campaign Gives Black Students a Voice":http://www.nowthisnews.com/news/i-too-am-harvard/
[14]Facebook – I, Too, Am OSU
[15]NYU Carlyle- I, Too, Am NYU