Race/Related: I'm Torn Over Aziz Ansari

Plus: Black Colleges in the Age of Trump View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Saturday, January 20, 2018 [Join Race/Related »]( I’m Torn Over Claims Against Aziz Ansari [Aziz Ansari at the Critics’ Choice Awards this month in Santa Monica, Calif.] Aziz Ansari at the Critics’ Choice Awards this month in Santa Monica, Calif. Christopher Polk/Getty Images [Fahima Haque] Fahima Haque After an anonymous sexual misconduct allegation against the actor and comedian Aziz Ansari was made public last weekend in an online magazine called [Babe]( I admit, it felt like a disproportionate hit. I’m always lamenting that there aren’t enough South Asian and Muslim role models in pop culture to begin with. We never get to have the spotlight shined on us. We never get to have the chance to be universally beloved, and now Mr. Ansari is tarnished. I felt what we feel when a brown man commits a terrorist attack; we all feel that collective pain even if that person deserves our public anger. The fewer the brown faces in a society, the bigger the burden each one must shoulder to show up for those who resemble them. So now, as a feminist and as a survivor of childhood sexual assault, but also as a South Asian woman and a Muslim, I need to ask myself how dedicated I am in my support of Mr. Ansari. I often wonder: Am I a feminist first or a person of color first? Both answers often feel like a betrayal of self. But after much deliberation, I judged his actions as questionable and problematic. It would be foolish to dismiss race altogether in this case, as it is often wholly underrepresented in these conversations. But it’s offensive when a white feminist tells me how a brown man should be treated, as the writer Caitlin Flanagan tries to in [her essay]( in The Atlantic. “I thought it would take a little longer for the hit squad of privileged young white women to open fire on brown-skinned men,” she wrote. “I had assumed that on the basis of intersectionality and all that, they’d stay laser-focused on college-educated white men for another few months.” I don’t know “Grace,” the anonymous 23-year-old who leveled the allegations against Mr. Ansari, so I certainly don’t know her attitude toward his race or if she thought about the historical weight of brown men being accused of wrongdoing. It’s ultimately so disheartening because, [in a 2016 profile]( published in The Times, Mr. Ansari expressed the thought that most South Asian men are not seen as desirable, leading men. The fact that he has been changing that convention through his work is something that I can’t ignore. I, somewhat selfishly, want more faces like Mr. Ansari’s because they empower me. I don’t want to write him out of the narrative. I want to implore him to be better. [Fahima Haque]( is a social media editor at The New York Times. What’s your view on the role of race in this case? Please share with us at racerelated@nytimes.com. And for more coverage and views, see our [#MeToo Moment newsletter](. ADVERTISEMENT [Black Colleges in the Age of Trump]( [The critical but often invisible role of historically black colleges is what compelled the director Stanley Nelson to capture their history in a documentary film.]( The critical but often invisible role of historically black colleges is what compelled the director Stanley Nelson to capture their history in a documentary film. Stanley Nelson [Stanley Nelson] Stanley Nelson When Education Secretary Betsy DeVos cited historically black colleges as emblematic of her “school choice” philosophy, members of my family laughed so hard they cried. Of course, these schools were born of the lack of choice. Yet their achievements, as a group, have been nothing short of astonishing. My parents, my mother’s parents and my wife’s father and grandparents were products of these colleges — and it was these schools that set our family on the path to the middle class. His fathers were laborers, but my father became a dentist because of the opportunity he had to attend Howard University. My mother, a graduate of Talladega College, was a librarian; her father graduated from the now-closed Walden College and went on to become a lawyer and the business manager for Madam C. J. Walker’s company. For hundreds of thousands of other African-American families, historically black colleges were the only option in higher education for generations. They are the engine that has powered black progress, from centuries of enslavement to the highest positions in business, government, education, science, technology and entertainment. The critical but often invisible role of these institutions is what compelled me to capture their history in a documentary film, “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities.” The story of these schools is the story of a community that refuses to be denied and of a powerhouse group of institutions that have shaped not only the lives of individual families but also the landscape of the country. For more than a century, they have been central to the social movements that have reshaped American society. It is no accident that major strategies, from the legal challenge to school segregation to the sit-in movement, were incubated at black colleges and universities. These schools were places where students could speak freely about issues affecting the African-American community, debate approaches, and develop the tactics, arguments and political strategies for addressing them. They have educated both foot soldiers and architects of past and continuing freedom movements — from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the Rev. William Barber; from Mary McLeod Bethune to Diane Nash; from Thurgood Marshall to Senator Kamala Harris of California — many of whom would not have had access to higher education were it not for these institutions. Student activists there continue today to be at the center of the fight for equality and justice. The Trump administration’s missteps have helped to put historically black colleges in the national spotlight — revealing a national lack of understanding of these schools’ history, exposing the difficult position that their administrators find themselves in, and highlighting the moral leadership exhibited by its students. In the current climate, the need for institutions that prioritize a quality educational and social climate for African-Americans is as important as ever. My hope is that these films reaffirm the indisputable relevance of these colleges and invite Americans to consider how worse off our country might be without their existence and without their graduates. [Watch in Times Video »]( Stanley Nelson is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning director and producer of the feature-length documentary from which this film is adapted: “[Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities]( which will air on Independent Lens on February 19. [Op-Docs]( is a forum for short, opinionated documentaries, produced with creative latitude by independent filmmakers and artists. [Learn more]( about Op-Docs and [how to submit]( to the series. What Inequality Looks Like  Black families in the United States earn just $57.30 for every $100 in income earned by white families. And for every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold just $5.04. Read the back story [here](.  Connect With Us. Join us at 9 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays as we examine topics related to race and culture on The Times’s[Facebook page](. This week we spoke with Paul Altidor, Haiti’s ambassador to the United States; Helene Cooper, The Times’s Pentagon correspondent, who was born in Liberia; and Robin DiAngelo, the author of “White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” We discussed what people from Haiti and African nations have to say about President Trump’s crude comments about those countries, and what the response from white lawmakers and officials says about politics and race relations in 2018. [[Watch]( Photographers, this is your chance to meet with editors, curators, gallerists and book publishers in New York City — and it’s free. Apply [here](. Like Race/Related? Tell us what you’d like to see by writing to racerelated@nytimes.com, and help us grow by forwarding our newsletter to five of your friends and have them sign up at:  [( ADVERTISEMENT Editor’s Picks We publish many articles that touch on race. Here are a few you shouldn’t miss. [Little Haiti, the center of Haitian life in Miami.]( Scott McIntyre for The New York Times [‘Trump’s Racism Is a Rallying Cry for Us’]( By SIMON ROMERO His disparagement of Haiti reminded some of the longstanding stigma Haitians face. Others hope the insults will increase voter turnout. [The teenage J.M. Coetzee in a self-portrait.]( J.M. Coetzee [J.M. Coetzee’s Boyhood, in Black and White]( By JASON FARAGO Newly discovered photographs by the Nobel-winning novelist reveal a South African adolescence shaped by art and apartheid. [Lorraine Hansberry was the first African-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway, with “A Raisin in the Sun.”]( David Attie [‘A Raisin in the Sun’ Was Only the Beginning]( By SALAMISHAH TILLET A new film explores Lorraine Hansberry as a more complex playwright than the civil rights figure known to most people. Peanuts Worldwide LLC, all rights reserved [Guess Who’s Coming to ‘Peanuts’]( By DAVID KAMP The introduction, 50 years ago, of a black character into the Schulz comic strip was a major social statement. [Keorapetse Kgositsile in an undated photograph. In New York he fell in with writers and musicians, among them Hugh Masekela, Amiri Baraka (then known as LeRoi Jones) and Ishmael Reed.]( Victor Dlamini [Keorapetse Kgositsile, 79, South African Poet and Activist, Dies]( By GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO He received acclaim while living in the United States; when he returned to South Africa after the fall of apartheid, he was welcomed as a hero. [Kynaston McShine in his office at the Museum of Modern Art in 2008.]( Marc Ohrem-Leclef/Museum of Modern Art [Kynaston McShine, Curator of Historic Art Exhibitions, Dies at 82]( By ROBERTA SMITH A West Indian in a largely white profession, he cut a dynamic figure in the art world, mounting memorable shows that disturbed the status quo. P.S.: If a friend forwarded this to you, you can sign up to get our newsletter yourself [here](. A full collection of our articles can be found [here](. We want to hear from you. We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [racerelated@nytimes.com](mailto:racerelated@nytimes.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback). Want more Race/Related? Follow us on Instagram, where we continue the conversation about race through stunning visuals. 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