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Slain Student's Mom Condemns "Don't-Care Attitudes"

By Mercy Chikowore
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Family photo Byron J. Bryant in 2002

Since the death of 20-year-old Hampton student Byron J. Bryant Jr., his mother has been speaking out about the thuggishness that some students bring to college.

"I think what's happening is we're just living in a society of lawlessness, and unfortunately our campuses are not exempt from the lack of morals, the lack of refinement from our students," said the Rev. Cheryl Pitts-Bryant, an associate minister at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston.

In July, she spoke at a memorial service for her son; she was reached in Houston recently by telephone. She said more can be done by both students and institutions to curb campus crime.

"I went myself to two HBCUs, Fisk and Howard," she said. "At Fisk, unfortunately, there were a lot of young ladies who were raped, and some of them were friends of mine, some of them were much too ashamed to report it. At Howard, a young lady doing her graduate studies was murdered at Slowe Hall, by a non-student" in 1974. "No one discovered the body until the smell got bad."

"Things are not only still happening, but they're getting worse. Unfortunately I don't think that the campuses, black or white, are taking much of a stand. They don't want to draw attention to the violence," she said.

Byron J. Bryant Jr. died shortly after being stabbed in a brawl that began in the restroom of a Hampton nightspot popular with students, at about 12:30 a.m. July 17. News reports said that police arriving at the restaurant saw Bryant lying on the ground as fighting continued around him.

Pitts-Bryant found it heartening that, "There are so many [Hampton] students that are taking the lead to make this their issue. I appreciate that. One of my son's friends designed a T-shirt that was in tribute to my son and all the proceeds go to the scholarship fund. The foundation is going to specifically address campus violence, starting with our HBCUs. It's called the Byron James Project. We're going to give it to a black college student," she said of the scholarship.

"I hope to tour many college campuses," she continued. "Mostly, I want to come to the students and just talk about our history and where are we going if we continue, where are we headed. Our universities are heading for disaster if we don't get a handle on this. I don't know why God chose my son to show this message, but I will not let him become another statistic."

She had ideas for the colleges:

"More preventative actions need to be taken," she said. "You could take a week out to actually dialogue and present some issues and solutions, and of course allow students their opinions."

"There are more rules on campus, however, the campus apartments tend to harbor a different element of freedom," she said. Her son lived off campus. "I have some suggestions and one of them would be, the rules need to extend beyond the campus walls. Even if you live off campus, the university needs to have specific apartments, and they should have more control."

Improving security is only one solution. Encouraging young people to reject negative ideals is another, she said.

"Students should take time to learn their history: People actually gave their lives for them," she said. "You are what you eat, whatever you are feeding into your spirit, you become. If you're listening to rap all the time, you're not learning history or the masters in film, politics or theology; there's no balance. You become that, that becomes your language, how you react, or how you feel you should react.

"That needs to be addressed, by some of our rap moguls like Russell Simmons and Sean Combs, Jay-Z, some of the people at the top. Their children are in the private schools with nannies and tutors. The same music they portray -- their children are far from it, they don't live in the neighborhoods they celebrate.

"What I'm saying is, don't just buy into the beat, listen. It does affect you," she said. "It's leading to a society of lawlessness. I think it's important that we remind the hip-hop moguls and the Trinas and the Missy Elliots and the Lil' Kims that what they're perpetuating is what we've fought so hard to get away from.

"If it takes a week for us to address conflict and resolution, or if it takes weeks out of every school year to address diversity and to promote the black family," it is worth it.

Asked what she thought about North Carolina colleges' decisions to screen the backgrounds of college students as a way to block potential criminals from enrolling, she said, "I think it's a very good idea. Why would you want them on your college campus?"

Policy changes don't directly address the problem, however.

"I don't think we're getting a whole lot of criminals on our campuses," she said. "We're getting don't-care attitudes. . . . Life is just not serious enough.

"Shortly after my son's homegoing, I went to the movies. I went to see 'The Brothers' and I had to leave. There was no story line, they were just going up and shooting everybody who they thought killed their mama. That's what we're being faced with. That's what's being promoted to our young people.

"If what you're fighting for is not relevant to the cause of elevating our people, then what are you fighting for?" she asked. "When we got our game together it was for a sit-in, for a protest, so we could go places, shop places. So that police would not brutalize our young men and young sisters.

"We've taken so many steps backwards," she said. "If somebody doesn't come address this, we're in big trouble. We're gonna have to take back the control of our community; nobody else is going to."

Mercy Chikowore is a student at Claflin College in South Carolina.

Posted Nov. 15, 2005