Whitewashed: Dead at 21

I had my second "quasi professional" speaking gig last week. I call it quasi professional because I am still somewhat new to this public intellectual thing. I was given the honor of presiding on a panel discussion regarding the new president elect Barack Obama. If I am lucky I will see if I can put a video post of it here on MLTW2F. It felt good to be able to actually speak with some authority on the topic considering that I was slated to give a talk about the possibility of an Obama win last year. Unfortunately, my back went out at the last minuet and I was forced to withdraw at the last minuet. In the discussion which had roughly 200 people in attendance, my game was on, I had my facts straight and then we got a person with a crazy question which really boiled down to a sneak attack on the President of the University where I teach. OK-- the pretext is simple. When Obama won the election some two weeks ago, the students caught the Obama fever. Hell I admit I caught a bit of it myself almost waking our baby. Well leave it to 19 year olds who felt they shook up the world the take on the University administration. Change, we want change had to have been going through their minds. Not really a bad thing provided it's done constructively. The key word here is constructively. The students had a list of concerns ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. For real now.. Yes, to have the residence halls flood and not have students promptly and adequately relocated is worth a little fall out. But to complain about the cafeteria food, come on now. Institutional food is institutional food. Prior to the pannel discussion, the students (rougly 100 freshmen) decided to have an uprising. Now i thought I did the right thing by attempting to put down this particular mutiny, they put their swords away to fight another day. It just so happens the day they chose happened to be mine. Great.. In listening to the laundry list of complaints, my ears became a bit dulled and my patience ran thin. It was as if my grandfather was on the stage with me when I heard one of his famous quotes, I think I will now call them "whit-isims." A classic whit-isim from 1991 revolved around my constant laments to ask for a new car considering the one he bought for me was falling apart. --"You are always asking for a new car but you have never asked me for a wrench to fix the one I bought you." Just like in 91, good sense went over like a lead balloon. When you are 20, you want things instantly. Its like we (black folk) think like 20 something white folk. Instant deposit equals instant return. Some 18 years later, I now know that is not the case. But we have been white washed to think like that. Our students don't realize that the HBCU was born out of struggle. (Now I know it's hard for me to say that considering I have called it the plantation with a black master) But it is true. Unfortunately, when one is 20something they just (myself included) just don't know ant piss. In particular, the next generation of Black Folk, the ones right under me, as they attempt to discuss the politics of oppression and blackness, they really believe that progress comes without struggle. One can rest on their potential. Noting could be further than the truth. The one thing I can remember saying from the first day of the Obama win to the next was that the excesses for underachievement have officially been put on notice. It's now time for a re-definition of afrocentricity. A new definition of self affirmation is upon the horizon and if we are not ready, we (as a people) will be swept in the undertow.