I really had no intention of writing a blog post today, it’s just that. I had to. I’m still mourning the loss of my married Fb status and so, I had planned to have a chill weekend of blog voyeurism and what not. No dice.
So I happened upon an article on Essence.com where they were politely discussing how my Alma mater, Hampton University crowned a new queen and she, Nikole Churchill, is not Black. I say, so what. She’s gorgeous and obviously bright. But just as I had to get on the pink folk for the Valley Swim club closed-mindedness, as I read through the comments that our folk and their folk had on their minds on the subject, I was saddened. I’m not going to post those comments here, because it’s just too much cutting and pasting, but I’m sure you’ll get the gist as you read what my response to them was.
We have got to free ourselves of this thinking that there is a divide among the masses. There is no good or bad. There is no better or worse. There just is. It is us that creates the divides. It is us and our limited thinking that causes this anger. The world keeps changing and we can either change with it, or become extinct.
It’s really that simple. With that said, enjoy the following post within this post. I’ve included the link to the original Essence article so you can deal with it in your own way if you so choose. or not. Feel free to drop me a line. I enjoy reading your insights. Go with God my peoples…I mean, the real one. Not the one of your own divide….
Dear Essence.com:
Everybody calm down. First, Hampton is my Alma mater. I’ve lived, loved and thrived there. Dr. Harvey has a clear vision for Hampton and always had. His vision was not to evolve Hampton to be the best BLACK school in the nation. He has always said he wanted Hampton to be considered one of the best institutions for learning period. Ethnicity indifferent. This I know for sure, because I worked for him my entire tenure there.
Second, we tend to lose focus on the big issue by dwelling on the little ones. The big issue is our perception of what an HBCU is and means to us. HBCU stands for HISTORICALLY Black College or University. Historically means the purpose for which it was founded. Hampton was founded to educate Blacks in a time when educating “us” was not a usual practice.
As with all history, it evolves. Even when I was at Hampton, there were students of all ethnicities. Why should they not represent their school in a pageant, simply because they may not reflect the complexion of the student body masses. The point of Miss HU is to go on to Miss Virginia and possibly Miss America. Any girl who wants to do that and has the vigor to win it all, should. It’s a pageant, not the Nobel Peace Prize. Jeez.
I say this to impress upon folk that just as folk of pinker persuasions must evolve their thinking, so must we. Some of us look at HU, as I looked at HU as a place where the best of us can congregate and become the better of us. HU provides a place where this is possible, not just for Blacks but for every complexion and ethnicity of us who wants it.
Just because a brown face is the majority of the campus body, doesn’t mean it is the only face. Nikole should be honored that she, in company with who I would assume are so many of the best, brightest and most beautiful of Hampton’s women, was crowned Miss Hampton University and will represent her school at Miss Virginia. Wow. Does it really matter what color her skin is?
It does. Because to the lot of us, we look at Hampton as “ours” and ours alone almost as a crutch that if this girl is somehow “better” than any of the brown girls she competed against, we somehow revert back to our internal stuff that says we aren’t good enough, even in a school built historically for “us”. or “here they go taking something else from us.” or “why can’t we have ours and let them have theirs”?
The truth is, there is no ours or theirs. There just is. There are people. We are all connected. It is us who creates the divides among us. Our internal stuff creates rifts where none truly exist.
History, at some point has to evolve and we have to stop holding on to old crutches and limitations. I believe Nikole’s reception has less to do with Nikole’s complexion as it has to do with how we feel about out own.
If Nikole was the best woman for the job of repping her school in the next pageant; if her dream is to be Miss America and she is one step closer to that dream; if she wants to write a letter to President Obama because she felt slighted by a body of people who have known more than most ethnicities about being oppressed and discriminated brutally (even to this day) and what it feels like when people behave in a manner that excludes rather than includes– that is her lot in life. That is what she was put on this Earth to do.
Where better than a Historically Black University to show the world masses what true acceptance looks like? We are the experts at being on the receiving end of what true oppression looks like. Gandhi said: “be the change you want to see in the world.” That change starts right in your own mirror. You cannot expect the world to change, if you won’t.
The moral to this story? I can’t call it. Just some food for thought. Thank you for reading this though. Be blessed.
http://www.essence.com/news_entertainment/news/articles/hampton_university_elects_first_white_miss_hampton/