A Hampton Alum (Me) Responds to a Howard Alum’s Negative Reaction of Our White Miss Hampton Pagaent Winner

By ataylor on Oct 14, 2009 in Common Sense, Featured

Above: A video asking YOU, the viewer/reader, what your opinion is on the “White Miss Hampton U” issue. Please leave comments below!

As a proud alumni of the prestigious Hampton University, nothing irks me more than when someone else talks badly about my school.

Recently, though, my “Home By The Sea” has come under attack for the oh-so heinous crime of crowing a WHITE girl – gasp – as the winner of its annual Miss Hampton U pageant.

Since Sunday, when Nikole Churchill was awarded the crown (and, one assumes from all the commotion, the “Great White Hope” belt), Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and the news world have been ablaze with people expressing their opinions, both for and against the judges’ decision.

One of my fellow EMQtv bloggers, Alejandro Ford, posted up a blog he found by a girl who goes by the name “Sista Toldja,” an alum of Hampton’s rival school, Howard University. In her blog article, “Lil’ Obama, Big FAIL,” Sista not only trashes the girl who got picked (whom she knows NOTHING about), but my school as well.

Far be it from me to trash Howard University in my defense of my school’s choice (us Hamptonites are much classier than that)… but when someone picks on a place where I spent 5 of the best years of my life without having experienced any time there, I HAVE to respond.

The main problem I have with Ms. Toldja’s article is the numerous fact errors, erroneous statements, and biased opinions scattered throughout her argument. Below are some of the things she said, along with my rebuttals:

—

1. “Historically Black colleges and universities were originally designed to serve a population that was not allowed to enter traditionally White institutions. As segregation was made (technically) illegal, the role of the HBCU has shifted. Black schools still provide opportunities to students who may not be accepted to other schools due to conscious and subconscious discrimination.”

This statement is degrading to HBCUs in general. Yes, historically Black colleges were set up to allow our people to get an education… but like she says herself, the HBCU role has shifted.

As a result of desegregation, HBCUs are (technically) supposed to be equal to its White school counterparts in the types of education it provides. Her statement makes it sound as though going to an HBCU is still a last option, as if a person going to an HBCU is ONLY going there because the white schools would not accept them.

I was offered the chance to go to a plethora of schools – both historically Black OR mostly White – and CHOSE to go to Hampton. Nikole may or may not have had any other options, but there ARE White students at that school who, like some of the Black people who go there, actually CHOSE to go.

2. “…the HBCU has become a sacred and celebrated space in which Black students can learn in an environment that is safe from racism and free from the burden of being a minority…”

This statement is a lie. As much as we hate to admit it, Black people can be some of the most racist people, especially towards our own. We have arguments about who has good hair vs. bad hair; hate on those whose skin is darker or lighter than us; and, because there are so few of “us” that are able to get good job positions, we often end up stabbing our own in the back.

This is not to say all Black people are like this; however, to push the idea that an all-Black environment is safe from racism is ludicrous. It may be slightly lessened, but it does not deter it from happening. I will admit Sista was right about the lifted burden of being a minority, which was quite nice…

…however, seeing as she knows what it is like to be in that type of environment, one would assume she’d have more empathy for the White people who go to these schools. Now THEY are the ones who are the minority; does this mean we should suddenly treat them the same way White people treated us when we were in their shoes? What if these White people in question never (or, for those of you who never say never, “rarely”) did anything racist towards a person of color? Should THEY now have to pay for the sins of what their ancestors did?

3. “Studies show that students learn better in these situations and the 4-5 years spent at a Black college are often a welcome relief after years of Euro-centric education from most public and private school systems.”

I agree with this statement. After years of constant European history, I was glad to get a chance to learn some more about Black culture.

But again: DID IT EVER OCCUR TO PEOPLE LIKE SISTA TOLDJA THAT WHITE PEOPLE MAY FEEL THE SAME WAY??

I grew up around mostly White people, and needed to be around Black people for a change. If I felt this way, I’m sure there are plenty of White teens out there who are tired of feeling like a racist when they ask their Black friends stuff about the Black experience (i.e. why our hair is sometimes kinky, why we like certain foods, what Kwanzaa is, etc.) and feel the best way to learn about “us” is to be surrounded by “us” on a regular basis in a safe environment.

An HBCU is there to provide that experience to ALL who want to experience it, including White people.

4. “At Howard, I saw a Black university president, Black deans, Black scholars, Black athletes, Black artists and Black pageant queens…”

I saw the same thing at Hampton: Black university president, Black deans, Black scholars, Black athletes, Black artists, and Black pageant queens…

…BUT, I also saw a few White deans; some Asian teachers; some German scholars; Latino artists, European athletes – and now, a White pageant queen.

While I’m all for an HBCU being “majority” black, I still feel as though we as a people still need to interact with other nationalities in order to gain a GLOBAL perspective, not just one that’s based on a singular color’s point of view. If Sista Toldja didn’t interact with other races while at Howard, I feel sorry for her.

5. “I’d be lying if I said I can’t help but feel that the spaces given to non-Black students could have been some Black kid’s ticket to the amazing experience that I had at Howard…”

Wow – did she REALLY use the same line that White people use on US when WE get accepted into a predominately White school?? Would she be saying the same thing if she wasn’t accepted into a Harvard or Yale, or would she be writing letters to congress talking about how she feels her “space” was given to a less-deserving white kid?

Regardless, the reality of the situation is: SCHOOL IS A BUSINESS. And, like most businesses, if there isn’t diversity, they usually get scrutinized. So, even if her statement was true, who cares?

Just like they’ve probably let some Black students into Harvard who didn’t have as stellar grades as a White person for diversity purposes, it’s very likely that there HAVE been White people let into HBCUs for the same reason. High school grades don’t always determine how well a person’s grades will be when they hit college, which is why they will sometimes be lenient on that particular policy. It’s a different ball game, and some people who excelled in earlier grades CRASH when they hit college, while the opposite is true as well.

6. “…there have been some dope White young people who have come to our schools in order to confront their own White privilege and to learn about another culture… This type of White student wouldn’t place herself in the running for Miss Hampton because she would appreciate the reasons for keeping a Black girl in that crown. She’d likely understand what it means when Black teenage girls come to visit Hampton and get to see a queen who looks like them… She’d understand that she is not meant to be at the center of the school’s culture, but rather, a respectful outsider…”

Quick, somebody get out the nose plugs – I smell BUUUUUULL CRAAAAAAAP!

Reality check: going to a school like Hampton, over the course of 4 years, stacks up to about $100,000. You know what that means?

IT MEANS THAT, REGARDLESS OF RACE, A STUDENT CAN GET INVOLVED IN ANY DAMN ACTIVITY THEY WANT.

Another reality check: most White girls don’t know what it’s like to be a “Black teenage girl.” Nor should she care how it will look to other Black teenage girls if she wins. Hampton has crowned 50 Miss HUs – if ONE of them happens to be White, so what? Those Black teenage girls still have 49 OTHER MISS HAMPTON U’s TO LOOK UP TO – but they probably won’t even give a rat’s behind about it OR know who she is in the first place! It’s not like Miss HU wears the dang crown to class!

(And – to be even MORE real – most teenage girls in high school, in their senior year, are too busy trying to graduate to worry about whether the school they’re trying to go to has a Black pageant winner of a beauty contest. They should be more concerned about passing class than whether or not their self-esteem is going to be threatened when they see a White Miss HBCU.)

What’s most offensive, though, is Ms. Toldja’s statement that the non-Black students should not be at the center of the school’s culture. I don’t know how it is at other schools, but at Hampton there are sports that just aren’t populated with Black athletes (tennis, archery, swimming, etc.).

Those sports are populated with Whites, Asians, and other races. Is Sista saying that, because these people aren’t black, they should not participate in anything that may cause them to get attention, thus focusing the eyes off the THOUSANDS of Black students there, some of whom are doing nothing more than going to class, then back to their dorm rooms?

7. “But Nikole Churchill is obviously not that girl. I don’t know her personally, nor do I know why she chose Hampton University…”

Exactly – YOU DO NOT KNOW HER. So stop picking on her.

8. …okay, so this isn’t a quote, but she re-posted up the letter that Nikole sent to President Obama, where she asked him to speak at the school about progress and diversity. It wasn’t the world’s best-worded letter – at one point she compares her situation of being voted as Miss HU to him being elected President – which I’m sure most people probably took the wrong way.

With that said: if the letter actually WORKED, and it somehow got Obama to speak at her school, I’m sure Sista Toldja – along with any other Black people currently hating for no reason – would change their tune and try to book a ticket on down to my “Home By The Sea.” Talk about a foot in the mouth moment!

9. “Nikole, welcome to some sh!t Black folks go through all of the time: feeling like they worked hard to earn something, only to have folks of another race question and challenge and piss allover their achievement. Except for that in this instance, it’s being done with just reason.“

Again, based on having the experience of being a minority, one would assume Sista Toldja would have more empathy to what Nikole may be experiencing. Instead, she has decided to crap on this girl like so many others have.

Furthermore, she states the “reasons” she’s facing this backlash – “Nikole was 1) a marginal candidate with just barely enough community service to qualify and one who lives on a satellite campus of some sort, thus being disconnected from the school she is supposed to represent and 2) ALLEGEDLY selected as the winner unofficially before the pageant because Hampton leadership believed a diversity candidate was the way to go” - but none of this is FACT. Her stated reason for hating on this girl is based solely on RUMORS that have yet to be proven.

You know how rumors get started? You hear something at least 3 or more times, and your brain starts to believe it to be true. For example, if I were to say:

Sista Toldja and I made out at a party once.
Sista Toldja and I made out at a party once.
No, really – Sista Toldja and I made out at a party once.

By the third time, you’d start to think: “Wow, maybe Aaron DID make out with Sista Toldja once!” (Note: We really DID make out at a party once… or did we? OoOoOo…)

10. “Nikole Churchill is a traditionally attractive White woman. While she is not a good writer so far as we can judge her by this letter, I’ll assume she’s a smart girl because she’s made it through over three years of college…”

Oh, I get it now – this is just another case of a woman hating on another woman! It’s like when a dark-skinned person hates on another Black because they “lack something,” and that other Black person just happens to be as light-skinned as all the other Black people that person hates on.

Women are NOTORIOUS for hating on other women without having even met them or conversed with them first. Just look at her sarcastic statements: “traditionally attractive;” “not a good writer;” “I’ll ASSUME she’s a smart girl…” Sista Toldja’s not mad at Nikole – she’s JEALOUS of her because SHE never got to be the Miss HU at Howard, while this White girl got the crown instead! For shame – I thought a Howard woman would have more class than that!

11. “From where I am sitting, this honor is wasted on her. What this could have meant to a Black girl who may leave Hampton to go work for some corporation where she is the only Black face would be so much more than a member of the majority “fighting” for acceptance at a minority school.”

Better get out those nose plugs again!

Sista makes it sound like a Black woman needs to have the Miss HBCU title under her belt to get a leg up in the corporate world. Reality check: The Miss HBCU title is mostly about doing charity work.

Any Black woman who has a desire to do so can join any number of Black organizations (NAACP, Tavis Smiley Foundation) and do work for them. Any Black woman with a good enough work ethic can participate in internships, study abroad programs, charities, and programs on campus that will fill up her resume enough to impress future employers.

They only elect ONE Miss Hampton U each year – guess what the rest of the THOUSANDS of women on campus have to do go build up their portfolios? OTHER STUFF.

12. “As the continued need for HBCUs is questioned by detractors, Hampton made a disgusting PR move this Homecoming season.”

Again: 50 Miss Hamptons so far, ONE winner who was White.

But if Sista Toldja wants to play it that way: rarely is there such a thing as BAD PR. My school is getting more coverage off this White girl winning the pageant than it did when one of our previous Miss HUs got busted for shop-lifting.

If anything, it sends a POSITIVE message out there that, even at an HBCU, all students will be made to feel welcome and accepted, including students who aren’t of the Black persuasian.

As Black people, both Sista Toldja and I know the pains of being discriminated against, looked at awkwardly, asked dumb questions and harassed just for trying to be ourselves. I didn’t like it when I went through it, and do my best not to do it to others.

However, what Sista Toldja is advocating is that our people should rally against Nikole simply because she’s white. In the process, she’s forgotten that JUST BECAUSE IT WAS DONE TO US DOESN’T MEAN WE SHOULD BE DOING IT BACK.

Just like Black people have the right to make their presence known in a White-majority school, White people at HBCUs need to be able to feel like they, too, can make a contribution to their chosen school environment without having to become invisible on account of the color of their skin.

Then again, I guess those types of lessons are only taught over at Hampton, a.k.a. the “Real” HU. (Sorry – you know I had to get at least ONE in. )

-Aaron P. Taylor

26 Comment(s)

Word, son!

C. Moore
ONYX IV

Chris Moore | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

I must say that I am proud of Hampton. When I first heard of the news I was like “WHATTTT”, but then I took a step back and realized that … Being black is no longer a race, it is an attitude… it’s a frame of mind, the whole world is trying to emulate!

Matisse | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

This is nonsense drivel, coming from an arm of the community that once again, fails to support it’s women.

Renee Davis | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

Once again the “REAL” HU has to be the front runner. In education, athletics, and now politics. I don’t think this will be the standard or that it will happen every year. But I have no problem with it. I too spent years at Hampton and was one of those kids that went to homecoming while still in high school so I’ve seen about 13 Miss HUs crowned. One of the reasons I went there was the Black experience and all the successful Black people I would see at the school and alumni at the games.

Having said that I don’t think that any of that was tainted by there being a White Miss HU this year. It’s still an HBCU, still 95%+ Black, and I still love it the same. How bout and Asian next year?

C. Smith | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

Written like a true Hamptonian! Thank you!

ForReal | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

Aaron,
I am soooo proud of you. Your comments were eloquently stated and represented the thoughts of a large majority of people……black people,
white people, asian people, latino people, old people, young people, and middle aged folks as well. I’m also glad that you have great roots from the “REAL HU”.

L. jessamy | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

It’s Sister, not Sista. And this response is laughable. You didn’t have the comprehension level or awareness of Black history to engage my original piece, so I don’t have the time to engage this…response (trying to play nice).

However, had you went to Howard, you’d likely understand that you cannot compare the actions of the oppressed minority to that of members of the privleged majority.

Good job keeping the old assimilationist Negro rhetoric going though. Spoken like a true Hamptonite indeed.

Sister Toldja | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

Ok, I can’t. This is too stupid for me to ignore.

1) How am I jealous of her for being Miss HAMPTON, since I was never Miss HOWARD? I never RAN for Miss Howard! I never wanted to be Miss Howard. WTF? Hating on other women?

2) I would have assumed that you were a first semester freshman from the level of writing and the “refutations” of my point that you tried to create here. It’s sad, because we are both HBCU grads. While my level of militancy may discomfort the White folks you so eagerly pander to, your intellectual failings embarass us both. If you are gonna come for my arguement, COME FOR IT. If “hating” is the best you got, them you need to be up at Hampton demanding some sort of partial refund.

3) If Nikole’s simple-minded letter (only bested by this blog of yours on the FAIL scale) had brought President Obama to your campus, I WOULD change my tune. Instead of calling her absurd, I’d be absolutely PISSED that my President was wasting time on such nonsense as a White girl with little understanding of the history people she chose to attend school with.

4)Nikole retracted the letter.

5)The only skill you have displayed her is using my words out of context and manipulating them. Fox News should set up a recruitment table at Hampton.

6) Big ups to the real brothers and sisters of Hampton, though you probably aren’t reading this blog. Know that the real sisters and brothers of Howard got your back forever, sibling rivalry aside.

Sister Toldja | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

I like what you wrote. I think Martin Luther King rolls over in his grave often. Reading some of the ignorant remarks made by Sister Toldja I think she missed the whole point of the civil right movement. Anyways like I said on the Wavy website wasn’t the point of the civil rights movement for all people of all colors to get along and treat each other with respect and dignity? Sister toldja would it be so bad for a black girl to have a white role model? Not all white people are confederate flag waving dopes who live in the sticks. It’s no worse than a white girl looking up to Gabrielle Union, Michelle Obama, or even Claire Huxtable (Cosby show). I think Sister toldja needs to get over herself yes you are a black woman, but you need not define yourself by the color of your skin. If you do that then you really miss out on just being human. One day sister maybe you can come to see that theres more to life than the color of ones skin. I hope you do that soon.

angel | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

I went to Hampton so long ago, it was still HI, and our rivals were Norfolk State. That being said:
Frankly, I’m not at all surprised that a white woman has been named homecoming queen at Hampton. While i understand that we live in a world community, i find it disturbing that even within a Black environment, we can still find the sentiment that Black women are not as beautiful or as worthy of accolades and celebration as white women.
It’s just like the lies being shoved in our faces everyday. Black is Beautiful and Brilliant in every single shade and hue of Black. Why don’t the students at Hampton see that ?
You made a statement about racism within our community, and i’ve never experienced any worse racism from either whites or blacks as i did at Hampton Institute from Lottie Knight, who was head of the Mass Media Arts department back in the ’80’s.
True story:
I went into her classroom the first day my freshman year. By the time i left that classroom, i knew i’d never be back. I was sitting in the front row, so i could smell the alcohol on her breath (she was a known alcoholic).
She was talking, and out of the blue, she pointed at me and screamed “don’t think because you’re light-skinned you’re going to get whatever you want” in a very, very angry voice. I hadn’t said a word during that class. Not only that, i never carried that attitude around.
I was so shocked, hurt, and humiliated. It was like being punched in the stomach. I couldn’t believe it was happening at a Black school ! I was 17, had just lost my grandmother less than a month before, and was already very fragile emotionally.
Frankly, Black people having a lack of love for themselves and each other seems to be a lasting legacy at Hampton. You will never be able to convince me that there wasn’t a sister anywhere in that school that wasn’t worthy of being Miss Hampton !
PS..i don’t know any of you, but you know what ? Leave Sister Toldja alone, because both she and Renee Davis speak nothing but the truth.

BadMemories | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

um.. I think that this “sister” whoever just took this opportunity to talk badly about a school she knows nothing about. We are ALL from HBCUs- prestigious ones at that- and I think that her negative words about my Alma Mater is simply another sad example of how black people still in 2009 tear each other down. You know you and I don’t usually see eye-to-eye Aaron, but this was well-written. I agree with about 99% of what you said, although I do find her letter embarrassing, and any objection I would have to her representing our school would be related to the clear disconnect she has from the culture and expectations of a Hamptonian. If she perhaps lived on campus and were truly a good representative of our campus, she would have known that negative press hurts us in ways that “White” schools would never be affected by. Otherwise, if that young woman was more talented, wrote a better essay, and answered the questions better than ALL of the women running for the position, then she deserves the crown. I am proud to be an alumae of a school that does not promote reverse discrimination and judges people on their merits in a just manner. GO HU!!!

Prtybrwneyez | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

I’m actually disgusted by these remarks. I am a black female who grew up in Norfolk and Richmond. My parents are alumnis of Norfolk State. I chose to go elsewhere due to sports scholarship reasons. I honestly do not understand the level of racism these days coming from our own black people. My parents who are HBCU (NSU) grads are proud of them becoming diverse and electing her. But to come out and say that she should not be involved in the schools culture is absolutely obsurd. And I would have been extremely irritated if someone had told me I could not run for class president at the historically “white” college because I should not be involved in their culture. This is pure ignorance. Thank you for setting our race back 50 years. Has the election of our new president not taught you anything on diversity and equality? This is embarrasing to me that I’m currently deployed fighting for my country,and this is one of the things I am asked about when people learn where I am from. Thank you Mr. Taylor for this well written segment

ajae | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

I said she wasn’t involved beacause she WASNT ajae. She was not a part of the regular campus. she was a satellite student in VA beach, which is like a person in Hampton attending American Univerisity in DC- they are a student of the school, but if they do not LIVE on the campus and GO TO EVENTS on the campus then NO THEY ARE NOT INVOLVED IN THE CAMPUS CULTURE. Please understand the “facts” before you get offended.

Prtybrwneyez | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

@ Prtybrwneyez,

My comments were not directed toward you. I actually had not even read your comment yet when I wrote mine. All my comments were directed at sister toldja. I apologize for the confusion. I completely understand being upset that she is not a part of your true HU campus community. I however do not condone sister toldja stating she should be an outsider and not involved in campus culture because she is white

ajae | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

I was referring to this comment by sister toldja:

“She’d likely understand what it means when Black teenage girls come to visit Hampton and get to see a queen who looks like them… She’d understand that she is not meant to be at the center of the school’s culture, but rather, a respectful outsider”

ajae | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

Sister Toldja, you lost me the first time you said “stupid” and “laughable” in your response. You don’t even realize it, but you just proved everything Mr. taylor said is true.

Unity | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

It takes a voice thats determined to speak from HEART & MIND to be FELT by Many!
Thank You Mr. Taylor for sharing your Wisdom,
maybe Ms. Sistha Toldja will have a Different Avenue of Thought to PONDER.

A Debizzle | Oct 14, 2009 | Reply

It is quite obvious to me that “sister toldja” has many underlining issues that she is masquerading as “pro-black women” and as “genuine concerns”… when in all actuality, it is just “hate rhetoric” and “based jealousy”. I usually expect more from educated black women, but as with “sister toldja” writings, it is true that an education do not mean that one necessarily has class.

I do not think that have never read such venomous tripe written by a black woman in my life before today. It was so sincerely asinine that one would think the whole purpose was to present black women or at least Howard women as “scornfully petty”.

But anyways, I would like “sister toldja” to blog about her experiences attending a university named after a white man and filled with his pictures. Surely that had to have some detrimental effect on her “blackness”

Messala | Oct 16, 2009 | Reply

Well, I, for one, read the Lil Obama Big FAIL blog post and I thought it was dead on and told the author as much (even down to the fact that this chick’s letter was poorly written). I did call the author out, though, for saying she looked down her nose at us for being stuck up. That just makes no sense.

But anyway, besides the fact that you misspelled some words AND that you called us HAMPTONITES instead of HAMPTONIANS made you lose all credibility and I stopped reading your post. Get it together. The Howard alum’s post was on point, analytically.

MsBrklyn | Oct 18, 2009 | Reply

As Hamptonians, there might be an issue that may arise at another HBCU that may be of controversy, but we’re wise enough not to blog about it, simply because it’s not our school. A discussion around the table with friends and publishing something are two completely different things-a situation always gets worse when thoughts and opinions are in black and white for everyone who comes across it to read.

Having said that, Sister Toldja bascially played herself from the start because she shouldn’t have even blogged about a school that she didn’t go to because, as Aaron already explained, she knows nothing of the HU culture, doesn’t even know who Samuel Chaplain Armstrong is and would have a hard time naming the buildings surrounding the Booker T. Washington statue (and why there’s a statue of him in the first place…well she might know that-but does she know his story of how he got there?).

Blog about Bison business…that’s all I’m saying. That’s what disgusts me the most about her submission. Regardless that her views are totally skewed in my opinion, submissions by people like BadMemories and MsBrklyn tells me that she’s not alone, and that there are Hamptonians that have issues with a White Homecoming Queen-after all, that’s what sparked Ms. Churchill to write a letter to our President in the first place.

But again, the voice of a minority group of people doesn’t speak for the group as a whole; and as all of us Hampton Alumni know this issue sent shockwaves across the Alumni community-not because of the shock of the fact that a White woman was crowned Miss HU, but because of her letter to the President. Was I taken aback when I found out Miss HU was white? Of course, because that’s not something I think about (not to mention I was at a chili cook-off with my girls having a beer and the topic just randomly came up). But a split second later, my response was…”she must have earned it.” Her letter, as she knows now, offended thousands, where less than 100 students at the time had given her a hard time. It was over the top an unwarranted.

In my opinion, am I in my right to blog about this? Yes, because I’m a Hamptonian and I have more knowledge about the situation because Hampton University’s culture has been rooted within me. Of course that doesn’t mean someone doesn’t have “the right” to do it…I mean it’s in the Bill of Rights, so I don’t mean it that way. What I mean is that you’d be hard pressed to find a Hamptonian blogging about an issue that happened at Howard.

P.S. This isn’t the first White Miss HBCU–Sister Toldja, did you blog about Miss Kentucky State last year???

caramel QTV | Oct 23, 2009 | Reply

I love the article very well written, while I don’t agree with “Sister” I respect everyones opinion.

And Matisse-
I like what you said, “Being black is no longer a race, it is an attitude… it’s a frame of mind, the whole world is trying to emulate!”
Definitely gives the mind something to ponder about.

Raven Pitts | Oct 26, 2009 | Reply

Great discussion and I have enjoyed reading everyone’s point.
Something to ponder HBCU were founded by “whites for the education of blacks.” Shouldn’t we expect some diversity eventually–valedictorian at Morehouse–white.
Maybe the problem some blacks have when this takes place is that when blacks attend all white colleges we feel we are not given the same respect, because of the color of our skin.
So maybe when there is confusion and comments said like “she shouldn’t represent HBCU, because she is white” is due to unforgiveness/Bad memories
Another point:
I have read all the post–”we shouldn’t be looking at the color of skin.” I don’t think we mean that, because let’s remember what took place during election when a “black” person was running for President–race will always be a factor in our great United States of America.
We now have a black President and when anyone makes a comment about him especially negative then they are labeled a “racist”, but if anyone made a negative comment about any other President it was okay–”their opinion.
We don’t want to say out loud that Racism is a big issue, but it is and to me always will be an issue.
We seem to be confused–it’s not about color, but it is–remember the election.
However everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Did the students at Hampton vote her in or was it the judges decision?
However she won–fair and square. I say kudos to Miss Hampton.

Gina | Oct 27, 2009 | Reply

I thought Aaron’s rebuttal was well reasoned and thorough. Summed up nicely the internal emotional and intellectual responses I had while I read Sister Toldja’s arrogant prose.

Furthermore, I’m all for calling things as they are. That being said, Sister Toldja is racist and a bigot. She has made this clear with her comments above and her blog posts.

I think it’s sad, but she is free to her own beliefs and opinions. Regardless, lets call it by its ugly name instead trying to plead with someone who is obviously arrogant regarding her intolerance and ignorance.

I’m frankly saddened by her naive “us vs them” philosophy. She feels she is driving home poignant statements when she refers to the “privleged majority”, “the old assimilationist Negro rhetoric” and how her “level of militancy may discomfort the White folks you so eagerly pander to”. Her statement regarding “history” also upset me. If she truly was a student of history, she would realize three things.

One, that the privileged majority (which in and of itself is an oxymoron in the modern US) has very little to do with race alone.

Two, that isolationist philosophies are both economically and socially self-destructive.

Three, and perhaps the most damning regarding her mentality, that her beliefs are *specifically* what those with racist intentions (re: slaveholders, etc) attempted to foster to keep slaves infighting and feeling disgusted with themselves as inferior rather than to realize the opportunities that lay available (including revolt or running for freedom).

I suggest she ponder the following sage advice from someone I respect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO214IFRW1M

One final point. Only ~29% of the country graduates with a 4-year degree from post-secondary. I am not one of them. I couldn’t afford college, nor was I talented at extra-curricular activities or have the academic excellence that earns scholarships.

Considering people with degrees tend to a) qualify for more positions and get hired at larger salaries, b) assume positions of management/power/control, and c) tend to favor their co-graduates when hiring/placing people…

Perhaps she should stop feeling sorry and self-righteous about her lot in life and take a hard look at her own privileged status?

englanddg | Nov 28, 2009 | Reply

Heh, one last thing. It’s not ok for Obama to “waste” his time with this, but it’s ok for him to crack a beer with a cop and a Harvard Professor in the name of “race relations”?

*facepalms*

englanddg | Nov 28, 2009 | Reply

First of all, this girl is not white so before anyone speaks and wants to categorize her or be prejudice against her because of her skin color you should know the facts first. She is Italian and Guamanian, It is sickening to see so many African Americans act so racist toward this woman. It does not say that at Hampton University anyone outside of an African American ethnicity cannot win their pageant. I am Puerto Rican and Hawaiian, grew up in Hawaii but have been livin in Virginia Beach for a while now and I am very dissappointed that all these black people would treat her like this knowing how they would feel if the tables were switched. If a black woman (or man) won a competition in a mostly white establishment or were the first black person period to get anything in general it is ALWAYS celebrated so why is this any different just because the color of her skin is different from most there. This whole situation is just so ridiculous, i dont understand why people who know what it’s like to be discriminated against would turn around & do it to her. she earned her crown in that competition just like the women before her so there should be NO controversy about it. If the others wanted the crown so bad then they should have came harder, would anyone want to win something because they truly earned it or because they were second best BUT your skin color matches the ones before you ?

Tiana Kalei | Mar 1, 2010 | Reply

A Hampton Alum (Me) Responds to a Howard Alum’s Negative Reaction of Our White Miss Hampton Pagaent Winner

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