There was a point in history where the best and brightest African-Americans went to HBCUs.
At that time, the choice of a Big 10 or Ivy League school was not allotted to them, yet they valued education as if they were the first round draft pick into the white schools.
They knew that they had things to accomplish and that someone else had worked hard at paving the way for them to achieve the goals of an education.
What happened to those times? Now we take college for granted. We come to class not dressed for school, but dressed for bed or with clothes so scant we might as well have worn them to the club the night before.
We hang out in the MSC instead of going to the class that we pay so much money for.
Do we think about how people were once killed for trying to learn simpler things than we are taught now?
Our values have decreased, but for what reason? We never had to fight for education. It’s easy for us to go to a public school; neither our standardized tests nor our GPAs have to be exceptional to get into a black school for higher education.
We have teachers who don’t know our culture teaching black students, who find it hard to relate. Attending an all-black school means fighting to show we are as good as other students. Now that schools are integrated, we also fight for each other.
So the question is, was integration in the long run really good for black students? Some feel like the decrease in our value as black students is due to lack of determination; others feel it is due to misplaced priorities.
As HBCU students, we don’t value education because our mind is not in the right place. We are too busy going to parties and pursuing careers in the music industry. PVAMU is known as a “party school,” and people nowadays are perpetuating that legacy.
We must realize that this is a stepping stone. Before we can “get big,” we must pay now.
In 20 years, you don’t want to look back and say you wasted time, money, and more importantly, an opportunity for education.
Fight for your spot in society. Fight for your right to be held to the same standard as Harvard students. Fight for your education, not only because it’s right, but also to pay homage to those who came before you.
-The Panther