Reflection on HBCU Leadership Project and This Semester
When I chose my project title — HBCU Leadership within the context of folklore — I did not know what I would find or where I would end up. However, the more I attended class and the more topics I critiqued or wrote about and posted on Medium, the more I understood the importance of perspectives — perspectives that came from my classmates responses and feedback in the classroom and on my Medium posts. Hearing and seeing these different perspectives was crucial to my understanding of what we discussed in class this semester — the “Imaginary.” At the beginning of the semester, Dr. Caison asked all in the class to close their eyes — while our eyes were closed, she asked questions about Southern stereotypes and asked us to raise our hands if we agreed. One of the questions was “When you think of the South, do you think of a Redneck…?” One of my African American classmates answered “yes.” When my classmate was asked about her place of birth and where she was raised, she responded “the South.” That’s when Dr. Caison asked her why she didn’t “imagine” herself if she is also from the South. This was my “A-ha!” moment — my semester started with the “A-ha!” moment.
My visit to the Atlanta Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) got my juices flowing. The beautiful landscape of each school made me think of the costs to maintain the grounds and the costs to attend an Atlanta HBCU. I started to wonder what students were paying high costs for. Other than these schools having a classification of “private,” I wondered if the costs correlated to a “more” elite education or whether the costs went into the schools’ image. I walked on each campus, when possible, and took plenty of pictures of different buildings — I even took pictures of a street sign named “Students Movement Blvd” near Clark Atlanta University because I felt some deeper significance lied beneath. There was a sign on a pole across from Morehouse School of Medicine that said “Civil Rights or Equal Rights,” and that got me thinking what the signs found next to the schools signified. When I started putting my research together for the project, I wanted to either incorporate some of my Medium posts into my project or approach my project looking through the lens of my Medium posts and the comments or feedback left on my posts by fellow students, writing consultant Adjoa, and Dr. Caison.
During my project, I interviewed a Spelman graduate, and one thing that stood out most was her comment about how Spelman was very diverse — she said not all the girls came from similar backgrounds, which made it diverse, and that the professors at the school were diverse. She said she had African American professors, an Asian professor, etc. How she explained diversity was profound, and it made me think of the “imaginary” type of diversity that was being pushed today in society. Diversity does not only mean people from different races but also it means people from different backgrounds — coming from the same race does not mean people share the same values. I then got to thinking that this is how White people thought for so long and the reason for Affirmative Action. I continued to piece together my research, and what I found that stood out above all was the diversity stats on race at the Atlanta HBCUs compared to other HBCUs. Adjoa had made a comment on my post where I showed theses stats, saying she was surprised about the percentage of people that were at the Atlanta HBCU with a race classification of “unknown.” This made me take a closer look at the stats.
I read an article that said the legacy of HBCUs was at risk because of their lack of diversity and lack of study abroad programs. I also read an article that spoke of public HBCUs recruiting non-Blacks to stay in compliance with government regulations on diversity for the purpose of continuing to get funding from the government. Because I am in the South and was in a class on Southern topics, I wanted to discuss the disparities between Blacks and Whites at HBCUs — Black and White has been America’s problematic racial binary since slavery. I realized that whether the HBCUs outside of Atlanta were private or public schools, the number of Whites that attended these schools was 1 percent and higher — Atlanta’s HBCUs were .5 percent and lower. That is when I realized that there was a bigger issue with Atlanta HBCUs or a bigger issue with race relations in the Atlanta area — possibly all of Georgia. This is what my presentation would have shown if I were able to finish. The reason I discussed this topic within the context of folklore was because our understanding of HBCUs (pretty much any and all topics) comes from our “imaginary” — the Internet or word of mouth and speculation, which in time, becomes a person’s “imaginary” or truth. My intent was to counter the folklore with real research and numbers — this is why I discussed all the folklore (or myths) about HBCUs first.
During the Q&A at the end of our presentation, the question was asked about our “imagination” of the South — especially after doing our presentations and taking this class. What I learned is that there is a difference between the South experience and Southern experience. The South experience comes with the baggage of slavery and mistreatment of Blacks — the Southern experience brings with it a culture of literary arts, a variety of Southern foods, a deep appreciation for sports, etc. I now know the difference between the South and “Southern” culture and can “imagine” and immerse myself in the “Southern” culture and experience.
I enjoyed each person’s project work, but I really found the Weird South project and the Surrealism project very interesting. There are many pockets of Southern cultures and experiences in Georgia that I want to learn more about. I want to learn more about Surrealism and how it impacts art and perspectives.
Lastly, in class we had a discussion about non-fiction and documentary-form texts. My position on non-fiction and documentaries is that once we as an audience apply a lens (or interpret something through our personal filters) to any work, we make it less non-fiction.
