Tag Archives: morehouse

That Sounds Stupid To Me, Vol. 1: Morehouse College Gets A Dress Code.

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Dress_codeIf you frequent this site you know I went to Morehouse and love my alma mater dearly.

However, this is some bullsh*t.

(By the way, I really didn’t mean to do two HBCU posts in a row.  I know how some of you folks feel about the HBCUs around here.)

Apparently, the higher ups and our new President, Dr. Howard Franklin, feel the need to ensure that the image of the Morehouse Man and the reality of the Morehouse Man are one and the same.  To wit:

“Appropriate Attire Policy”. Based on Dr. Franklin’s conceptualization on the Renaissance Man, specifically his expectation of the “well-dressed” man of Morehouse, the policy will set a campus-wide standard for student’s attire.

The policy outlines 11 expectations pertaining to what students should not wear while on campus. Instead of requiring certain articles of clothing, as a typical dress code would, the policy details those articles of clothing deemed unacceptable for students. Some of the expectations discussed in the policy include to prohibit wearing “sagging” pants, women’s clothing, and headwear.

Now slap me silly and call me Susan J. Elmo, but I’m really curious about this need to outlaw women’s clothing.  Granted its been years since I was at the ‘House but I do not remember anybody actually walking around looking like Lady Gaga or anything.  But hey, you never know with these kids nowadays.

Anyway, I have a beef with this new policy on a principle level.  For one, college is a time for self-expression and self-discovery.  Attempting to limit the scope of one’s dress seems kind of counterproductive to what college is all about.  For b, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.  We’ll get back to that one in a minute though.

Forget about the fact that it’s Morehouse for a second.  The fact that any school college or university would take it upon itself to limit the clothing choices of its student body is kind of troubling to me.  To me, it assumes that they have no concept of what is appropriate or that a bunch of 18 to 22 year olds who are learning about life should be forced to view themselves through only one lens.  While I can understand the disdain for sagging pants, I think that its a fad and trend of the culture right now.  Fads end and when folks get older and start looking for jobs, they come to their senses and pull their pants up.  It happens to most of us reading Black men.  We all eventually learn to know better.

But I also have an issue with this whole “image” thing that we in the Black community are so obsessed with.  The reason you incorporate a dress code is so that these men can uphold one particular image of what a Morehouse Man should be.  The great thing about Morehouse and one reason it’s so successful and well-known is because of the variety of individuals who’ve come out of Morehouse.  And all that starts with things as insignificant as establishing your own identity through dress early on in life.  Catering to this “image” is putting the school above the individual when its the accomplishments of the individuals that have placed Morehouse at the pinnacle of the Black community in the first place.

Plus, these are grown ass men that you’re telling how to dress.  On just a surface level, what does that say about the quality of the individuals you’re bringing in that you feel a need to explicitly tell them what they cannot wear on campus?  Not really giving them much credit, are they?

But it all comes back to image.  To the old vanguard, there is this pristine image of a Morehouse Man and the new administration wants to make sure that the current crop looks the part at all times, which is great, but once again, you can put a thug in a suit, but then all you have is a thug in a suit.  Morehouse is a school, much like other HBCUs that builds character and we all grow by being at those schools.  Attempting to limit something like clothing and individual style (face it, that’s what dress codes do, they limit styles for certain people) does nothing but stifle growth.

Anyway, I’ve said my peace and I’m a grown ass man who doesn’t go there anymore.  But my free-dressing compadres of the VSB, what are your thoughts on this, on a larger scale?  Does it seem necessary to have to provide a dress code to grown men?  Is it reasonable?  Or is this just more Black pandering to an “image” as opposed to the reality?

Say you, say me.

What say you?

-VSB P aka THE ARSONIST aka TANGLE JIG P aka GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRL, HE A 3

You Know I Got That White Girl: The Hampton Edition.

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hampton.university.homecomingSo Hampton University’s 2009-10 Homecoming Queen is a white chick named Nikole Churchill.  One time for the white chick with the black-spelled first name.

You don’t have to be an expert in African-American studies to know that this probably didn’t sit too well with a lot of ninjas, both at Hampton and nationwide.  Most folks probably don’t know or don’t care but it hit a nerve with some folks.   For some reason, on the list of improbable things, this just doesn’t seem so…out there, to me.

The fact that a white chick, even if she is from Hawaii, ended up at Hampton (and the Virginia Beach campus to boot) of all places is what surprises me.  Not that she can’t go there, she’s more than entitled, I’m just surprised a school like Hampton showed up on her list of schools to send her SAT scores to.  When I was at Morehouse, many many moons ago, we had a white cat from Indianapolis there and it baffled me then because this dude was a real “white” white dude.  His name was Barry and he wore tennis shoes made of tennis balls.  He was kind of nerdy and totally not the kind of cat you’d expect to see at an HBCU, but he was there.  Then of course, we had our most famous white alumni, the white valedictorian, Joshua Packwood (as white a name as you’re gonna get, kind of like Jimmy Chitwood from Hoosiers).

Well back to the lecture at hand – a white chick is the homecoming queen at one our prized HBCUs.  My question is, who are people really mad at here?  And what does it really mean, if anything?  I never went to Hampton but I assume that its a vote-in process.  Somehow, someway, this chick (assuming its a vote in) won more votes than the other 9 chicks.  She’s not exactly the most beautiful white chick I’ve ever seen so her personality must have done wonders for folks.  I know at my school, hardly anybody voted.  For the most part, we didn’t care.  Maybe that came into play here too, me no know.  Either way, it ain’t like she gave the award to herself.  This is the same argument folks are making about Obama and his Nobel Prize.  He didn’t give it to himself via the Democratic party.  The freakin’ committee decided it was for him to win.  Whatever their reasons, they made their decision.

Sadatay.

To me this seems like one of those non-starter stories that somehow will end up with way more press than is possibly necessary.  I felt the same way about the Skip Gates f*ckfest from a few months back.  It seemed like people were trying to find the huge story there when it was really a pissed off old Black man arguing with a pissed off police officer white man and it devolved into handcuffs.  Now, this situation isn’t exactly going to make Time.com or anything, but I’ve heard enough opinions about this today to at least make me think folks feel some kind of way about it.

I really don’t though.  While I recognize the oddity of a white girl at a school of 5,000, running against 9 Black women, winning the role of homecoming queen at what amounts to one of the Black Ivy’s, I have to wonder how it even came to that point.  Were the other chicks SO un-liked that they couldn’t win?  All that Black beauty and they still couldn’t pull it off?  AND…there’s more women there than men.  Perhaps it was divide and conquer.  All those chicks hated each other and each other’s friends hated each other so they all voted for the white girl out of spite and it backfired like a mug.

As Black people, we tend to be really protective of our HBCUs (for the most part).  They’re “ours” so it feels odd when other folks come in and basically become larger than the very Black folks who gain the most out of being there (I actually think that white folks stand to gain more from going to an HBCU than Black folks do).  But ultimately, this chick showed up and completed the process to compete like other students, and as a student, she was well within her rights to do so.  It ain’t her fault she won.  Hell, she was probably surprised too.

Like I said, non-starter to me, but good people of VSB, what are your thoughts, if any?  Does it make HBCU’s look bad?  Does anybody care?  Does it have bigger implications than I’m giving it credit for?

Is this really a big deal, at all?

-VSB P aka THE ARSONIST aka TANGLE JIG P aka GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRL, HE A 3

**Now, I do think she’s full of sh*t with her letter to Obama and asking him to come and assuage racial tension.  So basically, she wins and the Black folks are ready to revolt?  Yeah, no.  Probably weren’t happy, but not on mass march levels.  She definitely over stepped there and Hampton issued a press release from her today kind of clearing that up.***