Hello World!!!

You know I had to do it before the month was over…The obligatory Black History Month write-up…but since even Black History Month has become commercialized courtesy of corporations like McDonald’s (in actuality, I would rather it be commercialized than ignored…), I thought it would be apropos to turn over the Black History Month prism, if you will, and examine it from a different angle…

Let’s the start the conversation with this startling news that I ran across last week – The Epsilon Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpa, a white sorority, beat out members of the Divine Nine Black fraternities and sororities in the Sprite Step Off in Atlanta last weekend! The steppers won a whopping $100,000 prize…gotta love corporate sponsorship…since then, a scoring discrepancy has been revealed which may make the team co-winners with a chapter of the AKAs…(READ: Deltas are still the best…yeah, I said it…)

So what do y’all think about a white sorority even being allowed to step in a step show competition? Stepping is rooted in the illustrious history of the Divine 9 black fraternities and sororities which were formed because blacks were not allowed in white fraternities and sororities at colleges and universities throughout the nation…And although white fraternities and sororities seem to be organized for netorking and socialization purposes, black fraternities and sororities have had the added challenge of responding to the societal ills of racism, classism and poverty that disproportionately affected black people…Now since these black organizations were formed in the early part of the 20th century, much of this has changed…our first black president is evidence of this change (hope, change, yes, we can…you know the routine…just being funny.) But does this mean that white fraternities and sororities should be stepping in step show competitions? Apparently, the Epsilon chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha began stepping in the first place to take part in the University of Arkansas Unity Step Show 16 years ago…If Obama is president, maybe white girls can win a step show competition…

Some other news that piqued my interest…Rev. Al Sharpton and Tavis Smiley were beefing last week in a way that sorta reminded me of the Booker T. Washington and the W.E.B. DuBois debate…(Shout out to Dr. Gloria Alibaruho who taught me about this debate in high school…) now, don’t get me wrong…The good Reverend and Mr. Smiley don’t compare to these black history giants…But apparently Smiley believes that President Obama is shortchanging black people by not focusing on our issues…And Rev. Sharpton believes that President Obama is everybody’s president and cannot focus on any one group to the exclusion of the other…There is a interesting commentary about the spat here….maybe in a post Obama world, black leaders don’t have to like each other and can nicely cuss each other out for the world to hear…

And while we’re on President Obama and Rev. Al Sharpton, I heard on Sharpton’s show last week that the president has signed an executive order to increase funding at historically black colleges…What if white students began flooding historically black colleges? I attended a historically white institution myself so I have no opinion really…(Actually I love my HWCU – Goooo dawgs!!!) I wonder whatever happened to Joshua Packwood, the first white valedictorian of Morehouse College in 2008…Actually, a quick Google search revealed that he is an analyst at Goldman Sachs…pretty darn good I must say… and cute to boot…(my young readers may want to get up on that!) In a post Obama world, maybe HBCUs can have white valedictorians? what y’all think?

Any thoughts?

To honor Black History Month, I will offer a memorable quote from someone in black history on each post I write this month…

“Everybody’s looking at you, thinking, ‘OK, they say you are the man. What have you got?” Kwatsi Alibaruho, NASA’s first black flight director and the son of my favorite high school teacher Dr. Alibaruho…You did that Dr. A! Congratulations!!!

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