This is basically coming from a few conversations that I have been privy to recently. It seems that in a great deal of situations black folks stay fighting about Black Colleges versus White Colleges. First, in the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I prolly went to the whitest school in the world, while 3 of my four best friends from high school with to Historically Black College. I never thought it was an issue with us, and hell I think 4 out of 4 are doing better than me right now anyway so what can I say? However in too many conversations among the Black professional crowd there is a often little statements that show the existence of the comparison between the schools. However the differences rarely ever focus on the education received.
The question turns to whether those who went to White Schools are Black enough. It has never been fully investigated but I believe there is an exception for D-1 athletes, but otherwise there seems to be an underlying perception that when the best and brightest choose Harvard or Yale over Morehouse or Howard, it is akin to the Black Professional class's abandoment of the Black working and lower class after the end of segregation. Conversely, you will hear some students at majority white schools who feel some sort of superiority to Black Schools mostly, (in my opinion) because there are white people there.
My opinion is basically that when you look at education I believe that the top schools are the top schools. Yes some schools have more money and maybe teachers with greater awards but most recognition is based on research which is more money than education, and realistically most of us did not take advantage of all of the complicated educational opportunities that were available in our various institutions. For instance, me as a sociology major did not really benefit from being on campus with a nobel prize recipent in Physics. Hell, most of the Physics majors didn't really benefit from it because the work that he would be doing that was above and beyond what could be learned at other institutions was pretty much over the heads of the majority of the undergraduate students.
So to me, what was the deciding factor? It's fit. How do you fit on the campus. A Lot of Black people could not have graduated from Dartmouth. Not because the class work was difficult, but because it was in the middle of nowhere New Hampshire, and the sun didn't come out for the entire winter. I mean damn I almost went crazy. Fortunately, the school has absolutely no attendance policy and I test well so I was able to pass by only going to class for my mid terms and finals. For me, that worked. I would prolly still be in undergrad if my school required attendance and had homework. I mean I haven't regularly turned in homework since about the 3rd grade. My entire academic career is based on the fact that I test well, so a school that was based on work and lowered the imprtance of random testing would have been disaster. Furthermore as I often tell my friends, I have no idea how they could concentrate at Howard or the AUC. I mean maybe it just seems crazy to me since I come from a school with about 70 black girls total, but to be surrounded by a ton of fine black women in a city just never seemed like a great idea for my academic success.
So the question after all of this is what does any of this have to do with my Blackness? Would it have been better for me to go to school where I did not fit out of some misguided since of Black solidarity? Would the Black community as a whole be better off if all of the Black kids from the Ivy league knocked a lot of other people out of Black schools? Would people really reach their potential if they ignored fits. I am reminded about something that actually Cornel West and Manning Marable told me when they visited campus. Both had been challenged on a Black college for teaching for the "white man" they both lamented their belief that most of their greatest achievements would never have occurred if they were teaching at Black colleges because the adminstrations would be too cautious or beholding to conservative interests that were providing their funding as opposed to schools with large endowments. I can't say for certain whether that is true or not but it was funny that they both had the same conclusion, and I am just as certain that there are professors at many Black colleges who believe that their greatest achievements could not have been achieved outside of their environment.
So what's the conclusion? Stop the madness, we are all Black folks trying to make it. The more we separate ourselves based upon madness like Black Colleges vs. White Colleges the further back we are. Yeah their are sellouts from both, revolutionaries from both, and everything in between. Get knowledge of self and do what you gotta do to make it.
No comments:
Post a Comment