The Dark Side of Greatness : BLACK-ness

Music Choice of the Day:

Big K.R.I.T.

"Red Eye" 

Quote of the Day: "Fear, Fear. It is the crunch of the unstable mind. " 

The Dark Side of Greatness: BLACK-ness

Inspired by: #ThinkHBCU, The Illustrious Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated's HBCU Awareness Week 

Dedicated to: Tiffanie Williams, Breast Cancer Survivor | @pinkwarrior1221 on Instagram

Ms. Tiffanie Williams is a HBCU Alumna of Fayetteville State University and a fine member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She is a Breast Cancer survivor who recently had a re-occurrence in her brain. To God be the glory, she is in recovery stages. However, a great friend of hers, Gwendolyn Joyner Wilson has started a fund so that we raise awareness of the disease, its affects, and to help supplement cost of care for Tiffanie. It would do my heart well to know that FSU Students go rally around our Alumna member by supporting the $20 dollar #TiffaniesChallange. Click here to read more information and to donate! If you are unable to give, God bless you still! Send a prayer up and share the link to spread the word!   >> #TiffaniesChallange <<

Disclaimer:

This blog is not cited or sourced and provides limited facts. It is truly my personal outlook of the significance of Historical Black Colleges and Universities and their significance in the 21st Century. 

Now that I am in my senior year, I see the cycle of lifestyle of the average college student who attends an HBCU and the cultures that have morphed overtime. Its good talk for a cafe discussion, but it's such a vital topic that it needs more publicity than the dinning room table or the lounge area's couch. 

I attend Fayetteville State University, the second oldest institution in the UNC School System, which was founded in 1867 by seven black men with approximately $136.00, just two years after the abolition of slavery,as a Teacher's College. We still have an exceptional Education program but we now serve over 5,000 students of all races, ages classes and creeds with an array of fields to study including our new renowned Center for Defense and Homeland Security. 

Some of the culture characteristics of my HBCU are closeness, family-like atmosphere with staff, faculty and administrators, open-concept campus, Greek Life (The National Pan Hellenic Council), Student leadership roles such as Student Government, Council, Royal Court, Theater, Honor Societies, Athletics/Band and Cheer. Homecoming is our Welcome Back celebration to our accomplished Alumni and we greet incoming Freshmen with mentoring and pride at their entrance to the university. 

Truly, if you attend a HBCU and leave the same person you were when you stepped foot on the campus, you did not partake in the HBCU experience. Attending a historical black college/university is a foundation for limitless growth and real world experience. Contrary to the stereotypical belief that all we do is party and sex, we are students apart of a legacy richer than some American history that is notated in grade school literature. 

I hear comments that question the need for HBCUs in 2014, the curiosity why HBCUs are modernizing themselves and becoming global institutions, I even hear the comments of lack of funding, resources, adequate leadership and even a lack of pride/alumni support. I think when we look at the breach and trends of HBCUs we often fail to make the connections with "Black America's" status. HBCU will only thrive if "Black America" will thrive. If we fall, HBCUs, in turn, will fall. We will loose them, our history, and our identity, we loose 106 monuments of Black History and contributions to education...as well as the products of these institutions.

I do not spend as much time on the pavement, in pivotal roles on campus, at every event, standing for every single cause, or even dinning and socializing with my fellow students with my hectic work schedule. Now is my time to transition into the workforce  and to use to skills I have developed at FSU to contribute to my community and my family. However, I hear the freshmen complain about change,comradery, and bore of campus life. It has been the same talk since I came in 2011. 

However, one thing about my the class 2015,  we put action to our words. We also developed mentors, and we learned our university's history so we could implement the change we wanted on OUR campus. That's the KEY with attending FSU and it is also the key to our success as a people. We often bicker and complain and have those "debates" at kickbacks or at lunch when there is "Action" that must take place. 

To the negative outlook on HBCU expansion and growth: An HBCU can expand and grow, we have to move forward! We are sooooo scared to be different or to move up. There is NO greatness in the want to be complacent. So no, we are not the #1 party school...but we have expanded the Fayetteville State University brand across the United States and even to China. Don't you think our Founder would be in awe at that progression? Or is this about you living the "A Different World" fantasy collegiate life you envisioned? 

SHOULD HBCUs still exist? Are they needed?: Historical Black Colleges and Universities will be vital to higher education as long as the world exist. It should NEVER be a question if they are needed in the realm of education. They may have started off as places to foster learning of rich minds of the suppressed, under-served, and counted-out youth of African decent but in all honesty, they are still serving the same purpose. We are still suppressed, under-served and counted-out... and have the nerve to wonder be concerned with our "cool points" compared to other HBCUs. I want to urge all Broncos and readers of this post to support the forward movement of Historical Black Colleges and Universities. We must see the value in ourselves by supporting what was built for US. 

Instead of referring to ourselves as Kings and Queens are reverberating behaviors of peasants and baboons and mimicking the lifestyles of the perceived "rich and famous", it's about time we start acting like the royal titles we echo. It does not mean you cannot have fun and let free, there are still parts of our young culture that I feel are acceptable for our age, however...there has to be a point drawn and priorities have to be considered. 

And those are just my thoughts. Being of African decent is truly more POWERFUL than we think. We have the richest array of skin tone, talent, knowledge and we have superior intellect that would shift the nation and the world if we put it to use. However, the dark side of our greatness is that we have been sucked into believing celebrity status, social networking vanity, and becoming a "power couple" with a mate is ... an accomplishment.

But that's just my interpretation of the situation. Thank you for your support. I hope to release my book "Lessons Learned" in 2015. 

Have a great month! Don't forget about the "Tiffanie's Challange"!

- With Love