| Author | Message | ||
     Chrishayden "Cyniquian" Level Poster Username: Chrishayden Post Number: 8299 Registered: 03-2004 Rating: N/A |
Hey Y’all, After yeas of fighting and writing, I’m so disillusioned and apathetic to the socio-political plight of Afro-Mississippians that I was neither fazed, angered, nor moved by Governor Barbour’s recommending the merging of the state-funded HBCUs. However, when a former student sent me a passionate email asking me to clarify some things about the plan as well as to provide some guidance on what students can do at this moment to stop the plan, I felt compelled to give her an answer though I’m not sure that my answer will give her the relief or guidance that she needs. C. Liegh McInnis ===================================== Dear Ms. ____________: The merging of Mississippi’s state-funded HBCUs is a two-fold or dual issue. First, the State College Board and the white powers of Mississippi have realized since 1930 that the biggest mistake that they have made is not locating the University of Mississippi in the capital city. Mississippi is the only state that does not have a major HWI in the capital. In 1930 legislation was authored to move UM to Jackson, but it failed. Secondly, from their inception HBCUs were seen as an affront to white supremacy because they worked to liberate African people from white oppression through education. Additionally, HBCUs, even though they are not nearly what they should be at this juncture in their history, are much more than what whites thought that they could be. When the former head of the Mississippi College early childhood development program receives his PhD from Jackson State, it says that we are much more than they thought that we could become. So, don’t be fooled into thinking that the recommendation for merging the state-funded HBCUs is about the State’s current economic crisis. In 1970, the State’s first response to the Ayers Equalization of Funding Complaint was to close Mississippi Valley State University, merge Alcorn with Mississippi State (which is illegal because Alcorn is the oldest Sixteen Section Land Grant College in the Nation), and rename JSU as UM at Jackson. So, the majority of white Mississippians have always resented that state taxes are used to fund the development of African minds to compete for jobs with them. However, the most racist aspect is the fact that Governor Haley Barbour has yet to consider merging or closing some of the fifteen to eighteen state-funded community colleges. The white powers will never make closing state-funded community colleges a real option for two reasons. One, state-funded community colleges admit just as many white students as Afro-Mississippians. Two, state-funded community colleges are feeding grounds for UM, MSU, and USM to gain African talent for their athletic programs, especially African talent that does not earn the grade or test score to be admitted immediately from high school into one of the so-called “big three.” But in reality, although community colleges do offer some unique programs, such as cosmetology and other skilled labor professions, they mostly duplicate freshman and sophomore courses already offered at all four year colleges. In fact, just a few years ago, Hinds petitioned the College Board to offer junior level courses as a way to gain more funding, which would have meant less funding for HBCUs. Why not simply close or consolidate the state-funded community colleges and move the bulk of the AA and other skilled labor programs to the four-year colleges? It will serve the same function of “reducing administrative jobs and eliminating duplication in academic offerings,” which is supposedly at the top of Governor Barbour’s list. At his press conference, Governor Barbour stated, “Sometimes you have to look your friends in the eye and tell them something they don’t want to hear.” Since he’s never been a friend to HBCUs or to the education of Afro-Mississippians in K - 12, it seems that his mergers and cuts should be aimed elsewhere. Do we not find it quite coincidental that the new head of the College Board is Hank Bounds, former State Supervisor of the Department of Education whose prime directive from Governor Barbour while as State Supervisor was to remove about thirty percent of the funding from the poorest (also majority Afro-Mississippian) school districts and use that money to create a system of charter schools that would be attended by mostly white students. So, clearly, Governor Barbour is not a friend of Afro-Mississippians. Now, what complicates this issue is that we, HBCUs, have not done as well as we could be doing in our political organizing or in the product or service that we offer. Let’s be clear. The College Board has made it clear that it never plans to allow another graduate of an HBCU to lead an HBCU. They do not want another John A. Peoples who loves the institution more than he loves the College Board. And while Peoples has his distracters and his shortcomings, no President has done more for an HBCU in the state of Mississippi than John A. Peoples. Furthermore, my comments are not meant to disparage President Mason, but one of President Mason’s shortcomings is his lack of understanding and reverence for HBCUs. To be quite honest, I’m about fifty-fifty on Mason’s decisions since becoming JSU President. And I do think that JSU is administratively “top heavy.” But, President Mason’s biggest mistake has been that he has so wanted to move the institution forward that he, in his zeal, has often sent the message or allowed for the perception that he is not interested in JSU’s historical mission of investing in those whom Jim Crow and white supremacy have institutionally denied a proper K - 12 education, which locks them into a vicious cycle of poor education, poor employment, no political power, and endless second-class citizenship. But it most also be said that many of the twenty and thirty-year professors of these HBCUs were silent during the Ayers Case because they love white money and acceptance more than they love freedom. Far too many of these tenured professors are mis-educated Africans that suffer from the same character flaw as fish; they are easily distracted by shiny things, which include position and status. And until African people begin to love freedom more than life, itself, we will continue to be second-class citizens. That is why I find it laughable when so many JSU professors are angry with many of President Mason’s decisions. Where were they during the twenty-six years of the Ayers Case? I know of one JSU professor who attended one of the Ayers Case hearings in Oxford, Mississippi, to convince JSU students not to testify against the proposed settlement, which was merely a sham of a deal brokered by Bennie Thompson, Issac Byrd, and Reuben Anderson as the wrestled the case from the people, from the graduates of public HBCUs, to aid in the assassination of state-funded HBCUs. So, state-funded HBCUs are not just under attack from white racist, they are under attack from many types of misguided African people, each with their own affliction of self-hatred and personal agenda. Lastly, I will address your final question, what can students, faculty, and the population of Afro-Mississippians do to defeat the Governor’s plan to consolidate and/or close HBCUs. Number one, Afro-Mississippians must make it very clear to white democrats who receive a large portion of their votes from Afro-Mississippi communities that if HBCUs are merged or closed, then white Democrats will not be reelected. Most Afro-Mississippians who are angry with Governor Barbour seem to forget that the sham of the Ayers Case Settlement was accomplished with a Democrat Governor and a Democrat Attorney General whom Afro-Mississippians love. Former Attorney General Mike Moore is the darling of Afro-Mississippians even though his legacy is one of blatant racism. In the area of Mississippi’s zero tolerance for drugs, alcohol, and weapons in its schools, Moore fought to keep a little white child from being suspended after he was found with a pocket knife, but did nothing to aid African children who were suspended for throwing popcorn. I did not know that popcorn was deadlier than a knife, but I guess anything in the hands of African children, including books, is considered a deadly weapon to Moore and any other white person who holds the Rebel Flag as sacred. To be honest, I don’t know if there is much that can be done because MVSU, ASU, and JSU are state-funded schools. One would hope that the Afro-Mississippi elected officials—some who hold key positions on house and senate committees—would simply make it clear that until this recommendation is removed nothing else will get passed or brought to a vote. However, Mississippi has more Black elected officials than any other state, and we still rank last in almost everything. So, it seems that this participatory democracy has yielded very little in the way of allowing all African people to become first-class citizens. You can march, rally, and protest, but Governor Haley Barbour and the rest of the Republican Party do not care about a group of people who don’t vote for them or make contributions to their campaigns. Additionally, closing and merging HBCUs gets them one step closer to reassigning Afro-Mississippians as the permanent labor base, who will be forced, like other undocumented workers, to take what low-wage job they can find. So, I’ll leave you with these words. For years, the majority of Afro-Mississippians and African Americans laughed and called it crazy and foolish whenever an African American asserted that Black Nationalism, not integration, is the most effective way for African people to gain first-class citizenship. Well, they may still laugh at that thought, but less than a year after the election of the first African American President of the United States of America, who, by the way, decreased the amount of federal funding to HBCUs as one of his first acts in office, Afro-Mississippians are being faced with the reality that three of the five four-year institutions that believe in African genius in all of its various forms and levels will be eliminated, leaving us to contemplate Booker T. Washington’s assertion that we can vote, speak French, and live next to white people, but what do we own and control. Black Nationalism is the only viable solution to African people dislocated in America who want to control their own destiny. But, Black Nationalism will never be a fully explored option because, as Carter G. Woodson asserts, by the eleventh grade most African people are taught to hate themselves and love everybody else. As long as we hate ourselves, we can never develop a plan that emphasizes our best interest, and we will remain dependant on people who hate us. Take care. C. Liegh McInnis 9:35 p.m., November 17, 2009 |
