Thursday, October 14, 2010

It's Hard Being Young, Gifted, and Black!

Earlier this week, Scribe brought an interesting news item to my attention. Y’all know the blacktress isn’t exactly one for the topical or celebrity stories (that’s what Huff Post, Perez, and TMZ are for), but I found this quite interesting, so I thought I’d share.

It seems that 16-year-old college student Ralph Jones, a real bright whiz of a kid, has chosen to attend Florida A&M University after weighing his acceptances from such top schools as Cornell, Harvard, and Stanford. He’s now hearing a whole heap of protests from people who think he made the wrong choice.



Now, those of you who have followed the blacktress from the jump (or have spent great office hours procrastinating with the blog archives) know that, in 2008, I suffered from a blacklash when I called out Morehouse University for having a white valedictorian. Thanks to one Howard friend’s bf, the black listservs got wind of it, and I was blacklisted faster than a Hollywood writer during the McCarthy era. Of course, it was a rough going, and I had to stop the flood of comments to my direct email address, but I realize that when you’re Sojourner “You Can’t Handle The” Truth, some people will indeed be unable to handle the truth.

I actually wanted to talk about this because I wanted to shock some of my haters. I actually think Ralph made a great decision, and the dissenters need to back up off of him. Yes, y'all!! I still totally think it's a black-college FAIL to have a white valedictorian, but there's no denying that, for a Southern teen with engineering dreams, FAMU makes perfect sense. As you can read in the article, he has very sound reasons for his choice (hello, financial aid!). The boy’s only 16—he may be smart, but he still has some maturing to do, and will need extra support. Harvard, Stanford, and other Ivys aren’t going to give that to him. Yeah, he’ll get a "top-notch education," but he’ll probably get a B- on his first test, think he’s a failure, and drop out—and there will be no one there to tell him that he may be a bit young, but he’s also gifted and black!

Part of the lure of HBCUs is the network, and the sense of community that they offer—for a tyke who probably hasn’t even packed after-shave for is shower caddy, that community is a must. As Ralph notes, "When it comes down to it, the family feeling -- I didn't feel that at other institutions, because I visited a lot of schools." I get that. The black bond is real, y’all. Just last night, I experienced the power of it! I went into ACE Hardware store looking for some mouse traps, and an older black guy working there not only told me what to do and how to use the trap, he even ripped steel wool out of the bag it came in and gave me a piece!! Yes, y’all—homey straight-up gave me something I was meant to purchase from the establishment in which he worked!!! He was like, "you don't need this whole big bag," and just yoinked it, and said, "put it in your pocket"--holla at a random freebie! If I wasn’t a blacktress, that wouldn’t have happened (No, my boobs weren’t out. I was rocking my nerdy-pining-girl-in-any-80s-teen-movie look of my black glasses and ponytail). I mean, if my black cousins hadn’t made fun of me all my life for talking white, I might have felt like I was at home at an HBCU, too.
Alas, I’m much more at home anywhere that offers bagels at any time of the day.

So, Ralph, as someone who has also suffered a backlash, I salute you for going with your gut, and so clearly and sanely defending your reasoning. My only wish is that you drop that engineering dream and focus on films—someone’s gotta de-throne Tyler Perry, and you don’t seem like one for coonery.

xoxo,
Blacktress!

4 comments:

Al said...

Snaps for the kid!

JJS III said...

Oh, puh-lease! No one should protest where someone decides to go to college. This is just downright ridiculous...

Anonymous said...

I've been lurking on your blog for a long time, starting with your teen mom obsession :-) Fortunately or unfortunately I missed your original post on the Morehouse white valedictorian.

I kind of don't want to rehash old wounds because clearly you're going through something right now but W.....T.....F..... You are always entitled to your own opinion on your own blog but that was the most poorly thought out, uninformed, stereotypical commentary I've read about something this side of a Fox News report. I'm sure you've been corrected a million times about the inaccuracies. I won't even go there. What concerned me most was the disdain, the condescension and disrespect you showed HBCUs and HBCU grads with that post. And now you want to come back with this? What is your overarching point here? "Its an inferior education where its not THAT hard to succeed, low SAT scores are accepted and white people can best black people as soon as they're accepted.......but there's a community that I don't feel a part of because my cousins teased me."
You sound totally ridiculous. What ignorant, elitist, garbage.

I am a similarly white sounding black woman who fielded all the same questions and teases, who graduated at the top of my class at a competitive 97% Caucasian high school, had my choice of top colleges but fell in love with the good, bad and ugly of Spelman College. Of course I had similar questions in the middle of the night -- is this best school for me and my goals? Will I fit in? The answer was overwhelmingly yes.

I feel bad for you. I really do. Your posts transparently display your palpable need to reject before you are rejected. To make less and make light of those you feel you cannot connect with or understand.

HBCUs aren't here just because they provide a sense of community. They provide opportunity, first rate education and amazing life experiences to people who are blessed enough to recognize it. They accept people with variable SAT scores because they understand that potential and aptitude are more than standardized test performance. They are willing to enroll and participate in the success of non-minority students because they realize to do otherwise is perpetuating the same hegemony that led to the need for HBCUs.

Its not for everybody and I don't think it should be. I'm certainly glad you didn't demean yourself to bless our campus with your intellect and internalized oppression. You're not the kind of person who could thrive at our schools. But I want people out there to know that there are people with backgrounds and life experiences just like yours who walked onto the campuses in the AUC, saw the amazing potential and then watched their dreams materialize because of the opportunities provided.

Sojourner (You Can't Handle the) Truth said...

Dear Anonymous,

I'm sorry I've lost you. It's all right, I completely understand your anger regarding this post (did you read those 500 comments?).

Best,
Blacktress