|
| What up people,
I'm changin it up for this one entry because this very possibly will be
my last entry before I graduate college. I just have some
informal thoughts and observations about my self that I have the urge
to write about.
I just went ridin around with my friend Tonya and we stopped at a
couple of places including Naz's house where we got a little high and
drank a few beer. Its such a nice day outside. sunny and
beautiful. After doing absolutely nothing for about 6 hours she finally
dropped me off because later on I'm goin to the senior ball so I'm goin
to get ready and stuff. After I came home I took a tranquil walk up to
the convenient store and it donned on me that I am a completely
different person. Throughout my life I had alwayz been a thinker.
In many ways growin up I felt alienated from my family and
friends. I felt like I alwayz had to be someone else to be
accepted. I didnt really act out-of-character I just didnt do much at
all and I was extremely bland and impersonal (in my view). I still had
alot of "friends" and was very popular because I had other things going
for me like looks : ) , athleticism, and style of dress. But
until I came to college I functioned on logic only. I alwayz thought
extremely deeply and impeccably logically and in my view that was all I
needed. And thus my relationships were very unfulfilling and
superficial. I was almost exclusively concerned with my image and I
forged most of my relationships on the basis of how it would affect my
image. I was admittedly "not a family man". I loved my family but I
didnt appreciate them or their presence. I liked my friends but I knew
nothing of friendship so I did not appreciate it. And as far as
romantic love was concerned, I knew nothing about it(even I "talked" to
alot of girls) and I didnt care to learn. I was not expressive or
even cognizant of emotion and feeling. If it was not something that I
could examine or analyze I did not care for it. In my social life I
only cared about what I would wear and who I would "talk" to next and
basketball.
Now usually college is thought of as a place where emotional and
unaware young adults go and learn to think "rationally". There
are so many stories of kids goin off to college and learning things
that make them reject their native traditions (this definitely happened
to me, but it isnt a bad thing). But for me, college did the
opposite. Even while I was exposed to new levels of cognition,
the most drastic change for me is my learning the "small" things in
life that I never knew before. Before college, I was mechanical
and impersonal. Now I really appreciate my family. The positives, the
negatives, everything. You would think that the contrary would happen
but I like just being in their presence. I now know friendship and I
appreciate it. I have friends with which I have common interests.
Like Tonya. I enjoy just sitting around doing absolutely nothing with
her. And my other friends. This is not just, I'm friends with
these people because it will make me even cooler at school. I love
these people. I fell in love in college and now it is something
that I will forever crave. That feeling of being in love, the thought
of which would have induce nausea in my youth, now is a catalyst that
propels my social life. I want that feeling again. Nowadays,
making a cameo at a hot party or anything of that sort means nothing to
me. I'm more interested in those golden moments of life when you're
around people you love and when you all are enjoying life...together.
That sound mad sappy but I had to write this. And it didnt make me any
dumber in terms of political and philosophical issues. On the contrary,
My eyes have been opened to the substance of Life and though such
things cannot be analyzed like theories or paragdigms, its certainly no
less real. I'm so glad that I understand that now because I've long
been accused by various people in various pretenses for being so smart
that I dont understand regular shit and it was true. I'm still
against those two modes of thought or trajectories in life being seen
as conflicting. But I was ignorant. And though I didnt
learn much at all in the classrooms at Hampton, I learned helluva lot
from friends, and loved ones. Thanx all yall. Now that the end of this
sappy shit. I'll have some sharp shit on here next time. peace
| | |
| Dreams and Delusions
The Hope and Hysteria of King’s Vision
By That Nigga J-RiZZob
"Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the
difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream
deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this
nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
-Martin Luther King
"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to
see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."
-Martin Luther King
Every year around mid-January we are forced to endure the overblown
grandiose spectacle that is Martin Luther King Day. It is on this
day that we are treated to a most entertaining display of
condescension, and lip service given to the much watered down legacy of
one of black history’s greatest men by an array of opportunistic
politicians, both white and black, who themselves are the political
descendents of those most responsible for the leader’s tragic
demise. The American establishment, showing its relentless
dedication to the “black cause”, then relieves blacks from the tedious
task of assessing the hits and misses of the Civil Rights Era, as well
as the tasks set before them now, and instead does it for them.
Thus we are inevitably implored by our self-appointed leaders to be responsible with the victories
that were hard won in the past (i.e. dont make a big fuss again), after we are told time and time again
that opportunity exists now for everyone. And indeed we believe
it, with all the black people featured prominently in TV shows and
commercials, and you cant forget about the mainstream acceptance of Hip
Hop. It seems the black middle class has come to a point where it
feels the trite, empty promise of “giving back to the black community”
is an adequate means of solving the problems of the working class black
community. I guess the bright side is that it demonstrates an
symbolic commitment to the plight of the ENTIRE community. If only this
commitment extended beyond words.
It seems while the bourgeoisie proclaim progress, the statistics
glaringly show otherwise. Here are a few fun facts (courtesy of
village voice.com):
- Approximately 1 million African American men under
40 are behind bars. Twelve percent of African American men ages 20 to
34 are behind bars, compared with 1.6 percent of white men in the same
age group.
- Approximately 50 percent of prison inmates are
Black and almost 1 in 3 Black men aged 20-29 is under some type of
correctional control - incarceration, probation, or parole.
- Thirteen percent of Black male adults, 1.4 million
total, are disenfranchised. In a dozen states, 30 to 40 percent of
young Black men will permanently lose the right to vote because of
being convicted felons.
- Fifty percent of New York City's Black males are unemployed.
- Black people are 13 percent of drug users, about
the same as their percentage of the U.S. population, but 35 percent of
those arrested for drug possession are Black, 55 percent of those
convicted of drug charges are Black, and 74 percent of those sent to
prison are Black.
- Sale of five grams of crack means a five-year
minimum sentence under federal guidelines; it takes 500 grams of powder
cocaine to warrant the same sentence. Crack is the only drug whose sale
as a first offense can trigger a federal mandatory minimum sentence. In
1994, 90 percent of those convicted of federal crack offenses were
Black, 6 percent were Latino, and fewer than 4 percent were white.
Powder cocaine? 30 percent Black, 43 percent Latino, and 26 percent
white.
- In 1986, shortly before federal mandatory minimum
sentences were imposed, the average federal crack sentence for African
Americans was 11 percent higher than for whites. In 1990, after the
guidelines went into effect, the average sentence was 49 percent higher
for African Americans than for whites. The average crack defendant is
sentenced to 115 months, compared with 77 months for those in powder
cocaine cases. The majority of crack users, however, are white.
- Despite similar or equal rates of illegal drug use
during pregnancy, African Americans are 10 times more likely than
whites to be reported by social-service agencies for prenatal drug use.
People die younger in Harlem than in Bangladesh. The leading causes of
death in poor Black neighborhoods are not AIDS, drugs, or homicide.
They are "unrelenting stress," "cardiovascular disease," "cancer," and
"untreated medical conditions."
- In the past 25 years, one-third of public hospitals in the U.S. have closed, mainly in rural areas and inner cities.
- The average African American family has 60 percent
of the income of the average white family. But the average African
American family has only 18 percent of the wealth of the average white
family.
- More than 34 million Americans are officially
"poor," a class including nearly 25 percent of all African Americans
and more than 20 percent of all Latinos.
- African Americans are 12.2 percent of the
population but account for 37 percent of all AIDS cases. Latinos are
11.9 percent of the population but account for 19.2 percent of all AIDS
cases. The fastest-growing population of those infected with the AIDS
virus is African American women.
Unfortunately the list goes on, and on...and on. There has also
been exponential increases in incidents of police brutality and racial
violence in general, as fascist groups such as the KKK and Neo-Nazis
have continued to resurge. It would seem to the honest critic
that the condition of Black America has actually gotten considerably
worse both in the sheer extent of state repression experienced, as well
as the seemingly dismal outlook for the future due in large part to the
dissociation of the middle and upper classes of the black community
from the most affected segments. So why are we constantly told of
the great racial progress being made? Why are we so often
reprimanded by those old timers who so dearly cling to the failed
legacy of the Civil Rights movement? Had they heeded the warnings of
the black nationalists and socialists that integration of American
institutions was not a sufficient way to fight racism maybe we would
not have a police army occupying the congested by-ways of the urban ghetto
brutally suppressing any semblance of political consciousness.
The important thing to note on this Martin Luther King day is that Dr.
King's
dream of a color-blind society, to understate the issue, has yet to
materialize. When Dr. King spoke of the being judged by "the
content of our character" needless to say he spoke on hopeful terms
that we would someday get to that point. Some people have carried
the current trend of vulgarizing the Dream out to its most extreme and
presented Dr. King as an opponent of affirmative action, an issue for
which he persistently and unabashedly advocated. He obviously did so
because he understood the menacing structural contradictions that
plagued the Black experience and which continue to do so to no less
degree. To gloat of the abundant liberties you enjoy as part
of the black middle class created by a system in crisis, is to tacitly
accept the social, economic,
and political disfranchisement of the black working class
community. The Civil Rights movement, powerful at first, was largely
co-opted and diluted by white liberals. Only saving
and revolutionizing a system teetering on the verge of revolution, the
reforms won had practical consequences not unlike the practical
consequences of placing a Band-Aid on an infected wound (the illusion
of treatment as problem worsens). Therefore because these
superficial "patch-ups" were
given for appeasement and were ill-equipped to challenge the very
systemic issues that have long terrorized blacks, they had the
effect of ennobling the few at the expense of many. Now just as
we saw it as hypocritical for whites not to
figure their own privilege as unjust, we should direct that same logic
onto ourselves. Because there is a moderate section of the black
community which enjoys an unprecedented degree of affluence does not in
any
sense mean that our current social system does not rely on the mass
impoverishment of the rest of the black community. Racism exists
as an inherent feature of capitalist class structure and until us
privileged folk have the balls to admit just that, instead of figuring
our own smarts, or hard work as ultimately determining our life
chances (not that we're not smart or did not work hard), there will be
no talk of race unity or “giving back”.
The working class black community would rather do without the
self-righteous patronizing of the bourgeoisie.
It is only through the active participation and mutual identification
of various sectors of the Black community that it can effectively deal
with the tremendous structural problems faced by it. By
“color-blind society” Dr. King did not mean to cast a blind eye to
concrete racial reality. That is not only a misrepresentation but
also an antithesis to what was actually meant, for if we refuse to
acknowledge the societal dynamics from which only true revolution can provide escape, we then also refuse to challenge them
,and thus concede that we are in fact an entirely different group than
those blacks who are socioeconomically beneath us. It is time to take a very
critical
look at what was done right and what was done wrong in the Civil Rights
Era
lest we doom ourselves to make similar mistakes. To recast a
quote by Marx concerning the plight of German workers, Black America
can emanicipate itself from its history of oppression only if it
emancipates itself at the same time from the partial victories (i.e. failures) of that
history. And just like in Germany then, in America "no form of
bondage can be broken without breaking all forms of bondage". I
urge everyone, since
it is still early, to take up as your New Year’s Resolution the
promise that “giving back to the Black community” will not suffice as a
substitute for learning more about the social, economic, and political
situation of the working class black community and committing yourself
to its cause. Happy MLK Day my peoples!!!
P.S. If you're interested in learning more of the radical Martin Luther
King that no one teaches about look up his speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break
Silence"
| | |
| This almost made me cry
*excerpt from Langston Hughes' essay "Cowards From The Colleges" (about HBCU's and in it he spoke specifically about Hampton)*
"To me it seems that the day must come when we will not be proud of our
Jim Crow centers built on the money docile and lying beggars have
kidded white people into contributing. The day must come when we
will not say that a college is a great college because it has a few
beautiful buildings, and a half dowen Ph.D.'s on a faculty that is
afraid to open its mouth though a lynching occurs at the college gates,
or the wages of Negro workers in the community go down to zero!
Frankly, I see no hope for a new spirit today in the majority of the
Negro schools of the South unless the students themselves put it
there. Although there exists on all campuses, a distinct cleavage
between the younger and older members of the faculties, almost
everywhere the younger teachers, knowing well the existing evils, are
as yet too afraid of their jobs to speak out, or to dare attempt to
reform campus conditions. They content themselves by writing home
to mama and by whispering to sympathetic visitors from a distance how
they hate teaching under such conditions.
Meanwhile, more power to those brave and progressive students who
strike against mid-Victiorian morals and the suppression of free
thought and action! More power to the Ishmael Florys, and the
Denmark Vesey Forum (student protesters) and the Howard undergraduates
who picket the Senate's Jim Crow dining rooms--for unless we develop
more and ever more such young men and women on our campuses as an
antidote to the docile dignity of the meek professors and well-paid
presidents who now run our institutions, American Negroes in the future
had best look to the unlettered for their leaders, and expect only
COWARDS FROM THE COLLEGES."
-Langston Hughes in Coward From The Colleges
Every HBCU student needs to read the whole thing
| | |
| Hampton Students Not Expelled! …But Fight Not Over
By John Robinson
Hampton University students
faced disciplinary hearings on Dec 2, 2005 at 9:00 am in the Student
Center cyber lounge. As I arrived I immediately noticed bands of
protesters already picketing right outside the University. By the time
the six other students and I met with the parents and lawyers in front
of the room that the hearing was to be held, there were already over 20
student supporters standing right outside the door.
As we made last minute
preparations to our cases, students continued to pour into the student
center. At about 9:20 the parents, character witnesses, students, and
administrators began to enter the room. After everyone was seated, the
Dean of Men and Dean of Women outlined the rules of the hearing for
everyone in attendance. They told everyone that the only questioning
would be done by the administration. Students did not have the ability
to question the shabby evidence presented against them and instead had
to rely on the word of the campus detective relating to what was
actually on the video footage. This was despite the hearing notice
given to the students that suggested the students would have the
opportunity to both present a case and have substantiation for any
evidence put forth by the administration. The administrators then
decided to sequester the seven students and question them individually.
They allowed only the pre-selected family, lawyers, and character
witnesses to come in the students. The hearing ultimately amounted to
not much more than a formal interrogation.
Shortly after the hearing had
commenced it became abundantly clear that Hampton University was no
longer in control. As was mentioned before, the Administration’s case
was extremely weak. The administrators seemed nervous as they listened
to the chief lieutenant clumsily describe the one piece of footage that
he had an opportunity to view and that he elected not to present. But
things only got worse from there for the Administration as the lawyers
exposed the unfairness of the Administrative Hearing process itself.
Also the parents were strongly in support of their children and nearly
every one lashed out at the administration at some point. The parents
made good points about the procedural injustices inherent in Hampton’s
administrative hearings. The objections made were met by the
blank, clueless stares of administrators, and following that,
irrational rebuttals. The parents and lawyers succeeded in making
the administrators implicitly admit that the decisions being made were
completely arbitrary and in no way adhered to any conceivable standards
of fairness.
Students and people from the
community came out in numbers. As discontent among the parents
continued to mount, more and more students stood in front of the door
wearing paraphernalia that blatantly revealed that they were in support
of the student activists, and more people grabbed pickets and duct tape
and joined the free speech demonstration. They put the duct tape over
there mouths and wrote the words “free speech” on their faces.
They held signs demanding free speech for the students and imploring
the cars driving by to “honk if they agree”. They applauded the
students for promoting education on issues that so deeply affect the
students at the school as well as black people everywhere. By 12:00
noon it was all over the local news stations. The administrators seemed
flustered and nervous as they had to continually defend the legitimacy
of their Kangaroo Court. It was so obvious that Hampton was a lot more
accustomed to handling things in ways that were unapologetically
authoritarian and not subject to many of the rules we take for granted.
They only knew how to use naked force. They were not used to the
“checks and balances” that the people themselves imposed on Hampton.
This caused the proceedings to degenerate to a series of dramatic power
trips. The students watching the hearing through the glass witnessed
the Dean of Students, who was supposed to have no part in the hearing,
angrily march from his seat in the back to the front of the room, and
threaten to throw out a professor who spoke as a character witness for
the students. His argument was that saying what he had never
known the student to do was not a witness of character. The
lawyer noted how absurd the Dean’s objection was. The administrative
panel also threw one of the fathers of the students out of the hearing,
and threatened to throw out another student’s mother, and one of the
lawyers. The administrators were incredibly rude to students and
parents alike, instinctively telling them to “shut up” and threatening
to dismiss them. Meanwhile, outside the hearing, the police carried out
the authoritarian practices of the school on the student supporters.
There were police EVERYWHERE and they confiscated the posters and film
of students with reckless abandon. A student DJ who supports the
activists attempted to play music in the student center, something that
happens nearly everyday, and he was promptly stopped by a university
official fearing the music would further embolden the students. At the
beginning of the hearing we were told that we would not receive
verdicts that day and we shouldn’t expect them before the next 1-2
days. However after the strong show of support by the students and
community, the university decided to have the verdict ready mere hours
after the hearing had finished. The Hampton seven was called into
the office of the Dean of Men and Dean of Women, and for an hour we
watched the school officials scurry around frantically to get the
letters typed and hopefully make this bad dream go away. The
students were not expelled. To save face, the university imposed
20 hours of "community service" on most of the involved students. This
is an illegitimate punishment for legitimate protest. It also
represents the administration having to back down from its most
draconian threats in the face of opposition. But this bad dream
will linger, and the students will continue to fight, at least until
Hampton University changes its policy and practices toward progressive
thought among students and faculty.
On December 2, Hampton
University looked like I’ve never seen it look before. The students, it
seemed, realized that this was not a fight for the Hampton seven but a
fight for the student body. More importantly they realized that they
themselves could fight to make Hampton and the world a better place.
Students, who only days ago refused to sign a petition because they
feared harsh repercussion, now boldly stood in the defense of the
activists against campus police. Teachers who were previously silenced
by the privacy obligations of the school now spoke to their students in
class and urged them to become involved. Black students from other
schools became more involved in the antiwar struggle at their own
schools. Students from Howard University, an HBCU in Washington
D.C., came down to stand in solidarity with us and brought with them
912 signatures from Howard students gathered in just 2 days. The
students at Hampton for the first time saw students stand up against
the university, and they saw the university do all it could to back
down. At the end of the hearing, the Dean of Men could not restrain
himself from questioning me about the article “Corporate Plantation”.
Before I had a chance to answer the Dean of Students interjected that
it was not appropriate. I have no doubt that if the school was not
being so closely watched, that line of questioning would have gone much
further. But the student movement showed its strength and resilience.
The students at Hampton greatly appreciate the many people who joined
with them in this struggle against this repressive administration. We
showed them something they had not saw in a long time. However the
school intends to downplay the event so the controversy will go away.
The atmosphere will probably become worse after that as they will do
all they can to prevent activists from doing anything especially now
that they can identify several. That means that even though we were
victorious in this particular battle, the fight goes on. The school in
the past weeks, just as it has done frequently in the past on a more or
less arbitrary basis, has declared a moratorium on students
groups. It simply cannot be that easy for the school to prevent
students from having the ability to organize, peaceably assemble, and
discuss issues that affect them. This must be resisted. The student
activists at Hampton concern themselves primarily with interpersonal
on-the-ground organizing. Through this we aim to spread the
political consciousness to black students that the educational program
of Hampton has refused them. Hampton’s practices provide
evidence that what was true 80 years ago, remains true today.
Assertive political activity among Black Americans is viewed as doubly
blasphemous, and as such is met with the harshest repression. We will
not heed the advice of detractors who say that if we don’t like the
school we should transfer. We know that we are here for a reason
and we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters both student
and non-student to serve the community as best we can.
The actions of the
administration has made Hampton’s campus fertile ground for social
activism. We must capitalize on that and demand a comprehensive change
in practice and policy relating to progressive thought. This is
not merely a free speech issue. With what many call the largest
urban renewal project in American history happening in New Orleans, it
is vital that these issues be central to general political discourse,
especially among African Americans. Black students have infinite
potential, but the program of Hampton as well as elitist ideology
everywhere, MUST be counteracted. In recognizing the rising repression
at other schools against students and professors we necessarily
consider this battle in the context of the larger struggle against
empire and war. This fight ultimately bolstered black student
involvement in the student movement, and so long as black students are
able to organize on the ground there will be many more. Let us continue
our fight and make the change we know is possible.
| | |
| Corporate Plantation:
Political Repression and the Hampton Model
By John Robinson and Brandon King
On Wednesday November 2, 2005 at Hampton University, the progressive
campus group affiliated with Amnesty International, United Students
Against Sweatshops, and Campus Anti-War Network held a student walk-out
on the issues of New Orleans urban renewal, AIDS crisis,
homophobia, the prison industrial complex, the war in Iraq, and the
crisis in Sudan. The lead organizers for the group had been
planning the action for sometime, and we aggressively promoted and
organized for it doing everything from radio announcements to mass
postering the campus, and handing out fliers at campus group
meetings. The planned activities included informative
speeches about the aforementioned topics as well as chants, spoken word
poetry, and musical performances. At twelve noon we quieted about
75-100 students in the student center as lead organizer Brandon King
began to speak on the purpose of our assembling as well as what we had
in store for the day. We then handed out information on the Iraq
war and the Katrina disaster as the speakers readied themselves.
Shortly thereafter, the entire action was sensationally quashed by the
HU police.
Earlier in the day they informed an international student, that she
would be shadowed by a cop after she was subjected to intense
interrogation by the Dean of Women. But after the demonstration
they became ruthlessly aggressive. The armed HU police booked several
people just because they had on stickers and other paraphernalia that
advertised the event. They booked people who weren’t even wearing
paraphernalia because they looked suspicious. The police used
hand-held camcorders to record the faces of the activists without their
authorization. They attempted to intimidate the onlooking
students into inaction by their random targeting. Brandon King, a
sophomore activist and I were singled out as leaders and our students
ID cards were confiscated by the armed HU police and the Dean of
Men. They were referred to the Dean of Students and then given
back to us. The next day, Brandon King was threatened with
expulsion if he did not reveal the names of others in the group.
He was approached by a Hampton University Lieutenant Detective and told
that if he did not cooperate and give the names of group members,
despite the fact that he was a “hometown athlete,” that he would be
expelled.
Now Brandon King, three sophomore activists, a junior activist, and a
non-affiliated supporter have all been summoned to an administrative
hearing for violating the code of student conduct by “actions to cajole
or proselytize students”, “distributing and/or posting unauthorized
information”, and “violating the administrative guidelines for student
demonstrations”. The students were given notice at 5:00 p.m.
Friday, November 18 to appear at an administrative hearing at 10:00
a.m. Monday, November 21. This severely impaired our ability to
secure representation and mobilize support. Still the administration
received enough calls and show of support that they postponed the
hearings indefinitely.
Recently, the students met in a shopping center owned by the
administration to be featured on the nightly news. While they
elucidated to the reporters the conditions they face at Hampton, their
claims were flagrantly verified when a HU COP sent by the Dean of
Students. After pulling his squad car within inches of the camera
man, the policeman cut the interview short by intentionally stepping in
between the camera man and the student interviewee. Even after
the reporters retired the camera inside of the car, the police demanded
that they leave the property. The video footage of these events
was shown on the nightly news.
Repressive Rules, Selective Enforcement
It is clear that the school seeks to quell all social activism by not
only selective enforcement of the rules, but also the rules
themselves. “Actions to cajole and/or proselytize students” is an
offense of which the vast majority of the student population is guilty
everyday. At the very least, every recognized club on campus to
some extent attempts to persuade the students to a specific
orientation. This rule, seen in the Code of Student Conduct is
tactically vague as to be easily manipulable by powerful
interests. However aside from the inference that the rule was
made to be selectively enforced, the school’s concern about the actions
of our group speaks to a much deeper issue. The administration
itself has long been guilty of attempts at cajoling and proselytizing
black students by its strict assimilationist program. The most
profound contradiction with Hampton’s program is that it aims to make
its black students ignorant of the existence of the racism which
pervades our society, all the while fostering an elitist and
individualist culture that ultimately works to the detriment of the
Black community. The accused students merely attempted to reverse
the bourgeoisie indoctrination prevalent at Hampton and promote ideas
more attuned to the interest of the community and humanity in general.
The students also face charges of violating the guidelines set forth by
the Administration on student demonstrations. However it has been
our experience that the provisions for student demonstrations
delineated in the Student Handbook effectively prevent any expression
of dissent, and therefore any semblance of democracy. This is
because any group wishing to demonstrate must first register with and
be approved by the Chief of Police and Director of Student
Activities. It goes without saying that no group can do any of
that without being recognized. The school has shown our group time and
time again that it will not recognize, nor give any legitimacy to our
organization nor our cause. We have consistently been denied
access to the democratic process through which groups can be evaluated
and recognized, and to which as students we are entitled. In
refusing to acknowledge and recognize the groups that they suspect to
be prone to protest and activism, the administration of Hampton, in
effect, bans social activism on campus. This is what has long
been enforced at Hampton University…the violations outlined in the
hearings summons were only technicalities. And now the
administration has informed the accused students that they can be
expelled for these offenses. By focusing on the leaders among the
underclassmen, Hampton’s administration blatantly asserts their
unequivocally non-tolerant position on campus dissent and
protest. However the students at HU feel, perhaps more
resolutely, that their school’s disdain for democratic principles is
unacceptable and must, at all costs, be resisted.
The administration was very clear in its opposition to our agenda from
the very beginning. When we put up the posters and fliers across
campus at night, they would organize police teams during the day to
march through the campus and snatch down every paper. But the
corporate elitist ethos cultivated by Hampton still had to be
counteracted, so we put up more…and more. The administrative
response was always swift but never swift enough, each time more showy
than before. To be sure, students and groups both recognized and
non-recognized pass out fliers and put up advertisements on campus
daily. The advertisements are usually promoting parties, bars and
other venues for alcoholic consumption. But the activists at
Hampton put up posters about a social justice-oriented student
walk-out, and passed out information on the brutal, wildly unpopular
War in Iraq, and they alone suffer the penalties outlined in the
student handbook. This selective enforcement of the rules reveals
the true nature of Hampton’s administration.
The Hampton Model as Apparatus of Exploitation
While most of the police were especially negligent of the rules that
supposedly govern their action, even as they targeted us for the same
thing, there were other cops who sided with us in theory but just “had
to do their job”. That these officers were only doing what their
superiors commanded them to, isn’t hard to believe considering that
their superiors include the University President Dr. William R. Harvey
who is a Bush appointee to the Federal National Mortgage Association,
and a Board of Trustees bounteous with Bush-Cheney campaign
beneficiaries. Students at Hampton University have become
accustomed, although not content, to the school’s restraint of free
thought and expression. The issue has arisen publicly before with
the Hampton school of journalism. In 2003, a student writer for
the supposedly “student-run” campus newspaper, “The Hampton Script”,
wrote an article about the school cafeteria and its 100+ health code
violations. The administration wasn’t particularly enthused about
how the information would affect the school’s image…so they seized all
copies and destroyed them. They also basically purged the staff,
attempted to expel the student writer, and created a task force to
“overlook” the creative process of the newspaper. This task force,
chaired by the University’s Dean of Students who has no journalistic
credentials, made several “recommendations” to the newspaper
staff. One worth mentioning here states that “Oversight and
guidance from a faculty advisor (or advisors) with adequate
journalistic knowledge and an appreciation and commitment to the
Hampton Model are necessary.” This model was used in the academic
programs of other HBCUs. And while the faces and tactics have
changed, the underlying principle is nonetheless the same.
When providing an even closer look at the educational environment of
historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), one will gain a
clearer understanding of its purpose in society and also its’ setting
for which student resistance to its educational model originated.
William Watkins explained how with the creation of HBCU’s more
specifically, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton
University) “played no small role in creating a comprador class for the
twentieth century. Black compradors have anchored the Black
South. They have been pious, conservative, obedient, and loyal to
the sociopolitical order. They have supported gradualism,
incrementalism, and non-violence over revolution. They have
provided a sometimes prosperous middle class without which the
capitalist economy could not have stabilized. They have acted as a
buffer in the South, providing business services, education, religion,
fraternal orders, and hope to a people battered by slavery,
sharecropping, violence and four centuries of oppression.”
An avid proponent of this as an educational model that creates these
pseudo-progressive results was the founder of Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute, General Samuel Chapman Armstrong.
Armstrong’s true feelings of blacks should not go unmentioned due to
how these beliefs guided him in administering education to blacks.
Armstrong felt the black “does not see ‘the point’ of life clearly; he
lacks foresight, judgment, and hard sense. His main trouble is
not ignorance, but deficiency of character; his grievances occupy him
more than his deepest needs. There is no lack of those who have
mental capacity. The question with him is not one of brains, but of
right instincts, of morals and of hard work.” Armstrong placed blacks
in the category of “savage races” that were “mentally sluggish” and
“indolent.” Character training was/is the only way blacks could be
salvaged. This is why Hampton University’s educational model is
so significant. It is not just schooling, but also it was/is, as
Watkins puts it, “saving a race from itself.”
The most prominent black advocate for this model was Armstrong’s
neophyte Booker T. Washington. Because blacks faced oppression
and political repression on a daily basis, W.E.B. Du Bois felt this
reality should not go ignored. He pleaded with Washington to
address these realities by stating “It is wrong to encourage a man or a
people in evil doing; it is wrong to aid and abet a national crime
simply because it is unpopular not to do so… We have no right to sit
silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of
disaster to our children, black and white.” In saying this, Du
Bois draws the line between himself and supporters of Armstrong and
Washington’s form of education and indoctrination. When black
students rebel against the existing social order, they are looked at as
deviant because they buck an educational model that truly does not
function in their favor.
Student Resistance Through the Years
At Hampton University in 2005, this student resistance has been more
intense perhaps than ever before. In the wake of such social
atrocities as the Katrina disaster, black students have achieved a much
higher degree of political consciousness than in previous years.
The student activist group at Hampton, whose members are now being
threatened with expulsion, has worked tirelessly for years promoting
consciousness on social issues and providing ways for students to
become involved.
In the Fall of 2002, students attempted to get Dr. Taye Wolde-Semayat,
a former political prisoner from and President of the Ethiopian
Teachers Association, to speak on campus. He was released
following a five-year campaign by Amnesty International, the National
Union of Teachers, and teachers’ unions around the world. Hampton
University refused to allow him to speak on campus. The Vice
President of Student Affairs, Dr. Bennie McMorris, signed a letter
which would allow for Dr. Taye to speak on campus but swiftly renounced
his signature and took the University’s original position of refusing
to allow the event to take place on campus. The students got a local
church as a venue for Dr. Taye to speak. These students also
organized massive carpooling for students to attend the event.
Over 200 people, including community and church members, students, and
faculty attended the event which was a couple miles away from campus.
After this event, the student activist organization continued to fight
to be a recognized organization on campus. We were met with an
administration that repudiated the idea of recognizing an organization,
which sees as its mission, advocating, promoting, and mobilizing people
to fight for human rights. Each year, we would apply for
recognition and have been consistently denied access to the democratic
process to which we are entitled. Not only has our organization
been denied recognition, but other socially conscious and politically
aware groups have also been denied.
Securing The Future
That has not stopped us from organizing. We’ve managed to have
our meetings in random classrooms on campus through developing really
good relationships with campus workers. Many students see the
need to address social justice issues through activism and education.
Even though the University does not provide a conducive environment for
activism nor allocates any resources to our group, we’ve managed not
only to function, but to grow. Our membership has increased
exponentially and the members are as passionate as ever. The
administration is now attempting to stifle this growth by singling out
the next generation of activists and trying to scare them into
committing themselves to the Hampton Model.
Upon being crushed by the HU police and administration a lot of the
members of our group felt completely demoralized. We had initially felt
that because many of the onlooking students were intimidated into
non-participation and several members faced official disciplinary
measures, we had surely failed. But seeing how energized the
campus became after the incident made us change the way we saw the
entire situation. Although the police prevented us from making
the point that we intended to make, the students ultimately were made
conscious in a much deeper way that could not have been achieved
through our speeches and poetry. The students saw what their school’s
administration was really for by seeing what it was really
against. Students saw first hand what happens when students stand
up for human rights and social justice. So many students openly
express their anger with the way Hampton handled the situation.
Students have been very supportive and sympathetic with what we are
doing at Hampton. Students who wouldn’t have normally been
involved are now compelled to be active after watching their school
show its “true colors”. These recent events have exposed the true
nature of Hampton University, its educational model, how it fits into
the rest of society, and above all else, why it should be resisted.
It is imperative that we send a message to Hampton’s officials that
they cannot get away with this. We have gotten so much support
from students on campus, as well as individual and groups outside the
school who share our passion and recognize the interconnectedness of
our plights. However we still need a lot more. By singling
out the younger activists, the school figures it can “nip activism in
the bud” and it is thus our duty to make it clear that they can do no
such thing. It is vital that African Americans are able to
express their concern about the issues that so uniquely and
disproportionately affect our community. This remains true
despite the large sums of money the university receives from the
military and other places for maintaining a docile student body.
We aim to act not defensively, but counter-offensively in our
resistance. It is not enough to just ask the administration to
leave us alone in this one instance. We intend to use this as an
opportunity to illuminate problems that have perennially plagued the
campus of Hampton and we therefore DEMAND that Hampton University drop
all charges against the five students and change its general policy
toward social justice-oriented groups on campus. We will not
accept this scoffing of democratic procedure, nor the school’s
unscrupulous betrayal of the black community. We are black
students and we will no longer be cajoled by the flattery of a
dishonest administration nor proselytized to the ways of the corporate
elite. Fight not for us, but with us because the actions of
Hampton’s Administration and the increasingly frequent campus
repression happening nationally, ultimately threaten us all.
John Robinson is an organizer at Hampton University. He is a senior sociology major from Washington D.C.
Brandon King is also an organizer at
Hampton U. He is one of the students charged in violation of the
Hampton University Student Code of Conduct. He is a senior
sociology major and a native of Chesapeake VA.
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