Email Article

Printable Page

HBCU Administrators Suppress Activism

By Rudy Jean-Bart
Black College Wire

Rudy Jean-Bart

Hampton is proof.

The university thought about expelling students who protested against George W. Bush by participating in a nationwide student walkout against Bush's administration and the war in Iraq. This is proof that the spirit of the civil rights era is a distant memory.

Seven Hampton students faced disciplinary charges Dec. 2 after distributing unapproved fliers advertising the Nov. 2 anti-war protest. Six were ordered to perform 20 hours of community service and a seventh received a warning.

Many blacks detract from their race by trying to revoke the spirit that led blacks in this country to get many of their freedoms.

The scary part is that these Uncle Toms, or to modernize it, Clarence Thomases, are the ones who are running historically black institutions.

In "The Mis-education of the Negro," the author and historian Carter G. Woodson talked about the problem of many HBCUs trying to fit into the popular American culture, neglecting to train students to be proud of their ancestry and of who they are. Woodson was saying many black colleges were educating their students about everything but themselves.

Woodson wrote that book in the early 20th century. It's sad to see the same problem often still exists. Black colleges have been somewhat lacking in living out what a black college is supposed to be: more than just a place that gives many young black adults a degree, a place that encourages students to be proud of self, to speak against power when respect of self is being denied.

The black college is supposed to have leaders who put students before anything. That Hampton thought of expelling students because they spoke out against a president who has been apathetic toward their feelings and those of the whole country is ludicrous.

The black-college experience is supposed to give students the feeling of pride in who they are. Instead, for many, they are experiencing an institution whose leaders are more interested in kissing the backsides of those who really couldn't care less about them.

Rudy Jean-Bart is a senior public relations student at Florida A&M University who wrote this for the Famuan. He may be contacted at [email protected]

Articles in the Voices section are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of Black College Wire.

Posted Dec. 16, 2005