Kwame Speaks: The Significance of Choice

In his autobiography, Ready for Revolution: the Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael [Kwame Ture], Kwame Ture describes his time at Howard University.

In the chapter aptly named "Howard University: Every Black Thing and Its Opposite," Ture credits his Howard experience with giving him the education that proved vital in that stage of his development.

Though we now know Ture as a giant figure in the proud legacy of Howard, he was once just another freshman in Drew Hall. This chapter gives the reader a glimpse into that time of his life while teaching a very important lesson about self-determination.

Anyone remotely familiar with life at The Mecca, or any other HBCU for that matter, will identify with his account. Ture writes that his experience at Howard confirmed him in his determination to struggle with and for his people.

He talks of those whom he labels "Afro-Saxons," seeking to emulate white society and values in hopes of being recognized as relevant, equal or important. These Afro-Saxons could be found across the campus in any number of spaces from administration to the student body.

However, he reminds us that at Howard he found every Black thing and its opposite. To counter these chocolate-covered anglophiles, there were "consciously black intellectuals of the first order" who represented a "splendid, stubborn commitment, a sense of duty and purpose". These people – Sterling Brown, Chancelor Williams, Eugene Holmes, and Arthur Davis among others - were "custodians of tradition, keeping truth alive".

What separates the HBCU from other institutions of higher learning is the burden of service that is intrinsic to its mission. Beyond the pursuit of worldly treasures and social achievement there lies a responsibility to take the education gained and do.

Ture realized that, "In struggle one not only fights against something – injustice, oppression – but one must struggle for something equally real but positive." Because he identified these respective poles in his life, he was able to make the smaller decisions using these as a guide.

He struggled against the compartmentalization of African people into nationalist classifications. So, he made a conscious choice to defy campus social structure and deliberately interact with African students from across the Diaspora instead of restricting himself to those who came from New York with him.

He struggled for the liberation of all African people, without regard to class. Unsurprisingly, he engaged the disheveled man on the street corner and took his suggestion to read George James' Stolen Legacy. He struggled against ignorance and complacency within his own life. Consequently, he joined an extra - curricular reading and discussion group led by Professor Harold Lewis.

Each of us is faced with choices as well. Do you stop and engage the unkempt woman in McDonalds? Do you find that reportedly wise professor and ask for a reading suggestion? Do you postpone the dinner in the café and go to the event discussing political prisoners?

We are deciding now what kind of people we will be forever. There is no dress rehearsal; we are live. For and against what do you struggle?

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Jocelyn Cole
(Published 2-23-11)

Kwame Speaks: The Cure

A wise man once said, "Work is the antiseptic that kills the Negro." Unfortunately, in recent days I have come to the realization that this is true and have been looking for the cause of this antipathy, for this allergic reaction has become an epidemic.

Why is work such a repellent? I have concluded through careful observation that it is not the subject of work but rather the requirements of work that generates repulsion in most. This is due to the fact that strong work ethic is a learned behavior.

In most cases, work ethic may be considered an example of a fixed action pattern, in scientific terms. A fixed action pattern is a sequence of unlearned behaviors that are essentially unchangeable and, once initiated, is usually carried to completion.

These behaviors are triggered by external forces called sign stimuli. Those who work, tirelessly, endlessly, and consequently with no sleep at times, exemplify this. This approach requires that effort is exerted until the task is completed.


On the other hand, others who do not have strong work ethic must learn it, and operant conditioning can be helpful. This type of learning is the association of certain behaviors with a reward or punishment in order to avoid or repeat the action, and is usually the process through which most learn (though it takes much more for others).

Ostensibly, in the case of the Negro, evasion is in the blood. For example, Araminty, better known as Harriet Tubman, evaded her hunters for years in order to not return to her oppression. Martin Luther King, Jr. evaded violence in order to gain civil rights.

Alas however, these examples do not sufficiently support my claim. Araminty did not evade work but rather worked exhaustively to free her enslaved brothers and sisters.

Martin Luther King, Jr. may have advocated non-violence but used protesting and legal reform as work through which he fought segregation. Can we honestly believe that following the violence, horror and threats experienced by his family that King defended non-violence? King fought consistently in the courtrooms and lunch counters to defend the rights of his family and many others.

I use these examples because many do not do the work to know about others such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey or Martin Delaney. In retrospect, it seems there are no feasible examples to support this claim, except the truth. The evasion of work occurs due to pure laziness and the incompletion of work is accompanied by excuses.

Yes, there may be uncontrollable outside forces that may affect a person's desire to work from time to time, but not all the time.

This allergy is simply called laziness and it affects many on a daily basis. Its side effects are excuses, excuses and more excuses. Disagree? Prove me wrong. You have the ability to do the hard work—the work that must be done. Stop feeding your disorder with the pseudo pills of excuses and DO THE WORK.

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Samantha Obuobi
(Published 4-19-11)

Kwame Speaks: The Evasion of Work

"We sin because in our befuddled brains we have linked money and education inextricably. We assume that only the wealthy have a real right to education when, in fact, being born is being given the right to college training…We bury genius; we send it to jail; we ridicule and mock it, while we send mediocrity and idiocy to college, gilded and crowned."

When W.E.B. Dubois wrote these words in 1920 he captured, in a snap shot, the disproportionate nature of America education, particularly with regards to race. The sentiment expressed by Dubois still reigns true today. However, focusing more narrowly on class distinctions within race, this quote from Dubois takes on a somewhat different meaning.

After the desegregation period, precipitated by Brown V. Board of Education, Black students began to gain access to White schools. The Black schools that these children attended prior to the desegregation period were inadequately funded but they were Black nonetheless, which, I would argue, made them better institutions for Black children intellectually, socially and culturally.

Integration still occurred, to the detriment of Black people, and to this day, we still see and feel the putrid effects of this act. Fast-forward almost 60 years later and the effect of desegregation, still remaining, has taken a slightly different countenance.

Many black scholars are now being reared in predominantly White institutions (PWI) from K-12. Then they either opt to attend a Black college more so for the "Black" experience, and not so much the education, or choose to attend PWI's for their college education. Blacks who have taken this path will defend their choice of predominantly White institutions because the school is stronger academically.

For example, a predominantly white high school may average a score of 500 or better on the SAT or GRE while the predominantly non-white school may average a score of 400 or lower. Coming from a non-White school, one may be left with the impression that Blacks educated in predominantly white institutions are better equipped to do intellectual work. However, based on my observations at Howard alone this is not always the case.

In fact, it appears that Blacks trained at predominantly white institutions are better at evading work rather than actually doing the work. Conversely, it appears that those educated at predominantly non-White institutions, although not always adequately prepared, tend to have stronger work ethic, which allows them to do the work rather than evade it.

I could certainly ramble on about the inadequacies of Blacks in White schools but, in a nutshell, the evasion of work seems to plague those trained at the "better" schools. The sad reality is that some Blacks trained at White institutions have been socialized to operate not only against themselves but against their people as well.

In the future, those who have the training to do intellectual work should use their skills to do the hard work that must be done instead of taking the easy road and evading work. In other words, Pick up a book and READ IT BOURGOISIE!

*This piece was written by Mike Leak. It was mistakenly attributed to Damarius Johnson.

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Mike Leak
(Published 2-1-11)

Kwame Speaks: To Work Hard or Hardly Work

"How many successful Negroes have forgotten that uneducated and poverty-stricken mothers and fathers often worked [until] their hands bruised so that their children could get an education? For any middle-class Negro to forget the masses is an act not only of neglect but of shameful ingratitude...the salvation of the Negro middle class is ultimately dependent upon the salvation of the Negro masses."

As Martin Luther King Jr. penned these words months before his death, he pinpointed a central challenge facing the Black world today: community-mindedness. In building community, it is important to remember the poor, on whose shoulders the educated have stood (and stand today), and to offer instruction and inspiration in this work. It would therefore be good to heed their example.

A distinction could be drawn between the degree of work-ethnic of low-income workers and their more educated counterparts. The lower income workers' idea of work is defined by intensity and importance that exceeds the educated classes'. The labor of an educated class is typically less burdensome or taxing than their working class, lower-income counterparts. Low-wage work is often tiresome, laborious, but necessary. Moreover, for the low-wage earner whose work is often charged with the immediacy of securing survival needs, leisure is often unfamiliar. The desire to guarantee survival would also seem to suggest that having and doing productive work is an important goal for low-income workers. For the formally educated however, the idea of work is seldom motivated by necessity, and if it is, it is unlikely to be separated from the idea of leisure. Having a disposition that views work as invaluable and leisure as secondary is significantly important.

The American Negro Academy is an important model of this ideal. The ANA began in 1897 under the leadership of Alexander Crummell as an organization dedicated to the "special race problem of the Negro in the United States." In his urgency to meet these concerns, Crummell built an organization for the uplifting of the Negro race. Today, in an institution very similar in form and function to the ANA, the educated class must again meet and overcome, with the whole of the black race, the challenges ahead.

Crummell explains that the obligation of the educated is race-service, or servant-leadership. Crummell thought leadership should be "feeding the living soul." One must know as Crummell and King did, that human beings, in their mortality, face problems and have weaknesses. He also knew that these weaknesses must be embraced, both in individual and collective circumstances-and their source must pinpointed. Crummell and King dealt with the realities of human beings in the environment of black life and pinpointed the source of their challenges as the "special race problem."

Today, our diagnosis would declare a similar disease with little improvement, and the particular effects of our sickness, especially in our economic, political, and social lives remain to be determined. In this respect, the educated classes have the benefit of study and as a result, the encouragement of work. Hence, we must ask ourselves in working to find the cure: Do we work hard or hardly work?

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Damarius Johnson
(Published 1-26-11)

Kwame Speaks: Still No Work, Consequently We Lack a Celebration

In 1943 the founder of Negro History Week, Carter Godwin Woodson, wrote that "[Negro History Week] is the week set aside by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History for the purpose of emphasizing what has already been learned about the Negro during the year." In March of 1950, Woodson lamented the African-American community in an article entitled "No Work and Consequently No Celebration."


It was written in The Negro History Bulletin, also founded by Woodson. The article criticized the celebration of Negro History Week without having studied the lives and work of the Negro prior to or after February.

Expanded and renamed "Black History Month" in 1973, the problem exposed by Woodson continues to plague us today. Instead of adhering to the guiding principles developed by Woodson at Negro History Week's inception, we consistently waste the time allotted to experience nostalgia- reminiscing on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements but seldom discussing ways to build new and effective movements.


I do not encourage the Black community to disregard the work of our ancestors, I do encourage that we use those memories as a framework to construct new ways to uplift the race. What have we (especially the student body of Howard University) done that warrants a celebration this February?


We are students of a historically Black university; therefore, we must acknowledge that our duty is to rescind the necessity for Black History Month. We must make an effort to integrate our history into the collective history of the human experience, as it is not separate. Otherwise we will continue to fall victim to the cyclical nature of failure.


February: the only month we discuss the outdated accomplishments of our ancestors.

Which of us will be the subject of a middle school student's report in the year 2040? Let us be aware that our work lies not within how many names and dates we can recite from the past, but how many footsteps we can leave for future generations to follow.

Until the black experience, in its most accurate form, is the subject of discussion whenever there is one regarding history, there is work to be done. Let us not be weary, but let us push forth and be the harbingers of a new era.


As a community, we must produce quality work, lest Carter G. Woodson's labors be in vain. No longer can we celebrate what has been done or what we wish to do. I urge us all to celebrate what we are doing and breathe life into the unfinished efforts of Woodson and his like-minded counterparts.

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Sheneese Thompson
(Published 2-16-11)

Kwame Speaks: In, But Not Of: The Futility of Our Quest to Exist Independent of Each Other

Who are we really? Are we a collective African people? Our inevitable unity betrayed by our skin, painted in beautiful earthy hues by the sun rays of our motherland?

It seems that the group consensus stands in opposition to this idea. We have all come out from among "them," in order to peer through our more individual, subdivided lenses through which everything we behold is colored. Our people are now "those people." Those ghetto, bourgeoisie, ignorant, "other than me" Negroes. At Howard, the stratification of groups often becomes too much to bear. I often wonder, what happened to the "we" that we once claimed to have ties with?

Our intrinsic desire to examine others so we can concretely define our individual selves is a direct consequence of human nature. We naturally engage in meaning-making concerning the world around us.

However, the extreme pursuit of this process which causes a suffocating emphasis on the failures and shortcomings of others, swiftly becomes a detrimental practice. Frances E. W. Harper writes, "...one of the great lessons...is how to treat each other better. We fail...in fully comprehending our relations to society, and the reflex influence of that ignorance on its purity and progress."

We have been given the tools to practice community building, but we have created walls instead of pathways. What of connectedness? Family? Bison Pride?

The historical threads, which connect African descendants; threads that run deeper and longer than our brief sojourn on this planet, may become an inescapable net to be mourned. Our ties will be made of historical obligation and duty, or an unfortunate accident of nomenclature, rather than the genuine desire to be a part of each other. It is in this fashion that our "we" disintegrates. "We" simply are not.

Whether we choose to stand and bear the weight of our reality or reject and flee from it, we have a responsibility to each other. We belong to the people within and outside of the gilded gates of Howard University, and therefore must raise our collective voice within and outside of its walls to complete the symphony of freedom.

I come to you today as a concerned observer and a regretful participant. The faults, flaws, habits and inconsistencies of our brothers and sisters, have become more important than the brothers and sisters themselves. All African people should strive towards a time when we can acknowledge differences without bickering, condescension and name calling, and promote community as opposed to distance.

Harper continues, "We need men and women whose hearts are the homes of a high and lofty enthusiasm, and a noble devotion to the cause...who are ready and willing to lay time, talent and money on the altar of universal freedom."

At the end of the day, the setting sun illuminates us all again as the children of our ancestors, who charged us with the task of continuing on. Together. And perhaps, on that perfect day, it will finally, finally dawn on us that we are each others keepers. If we can change our perspectives of our individual selves and each other, opposing images may become reflections.

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Ansharaye Hines
(Published 2-9-11)

Kwame Speaks: Black Labor, White Wealth: Black Unemployment, White Wealth

"The slave went free; stood for a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." Dr. Dubois, writing in 1935, expresses the sentiment of those times as well as the present day situation. Black labor, since this nation's inception, has been the driving force that not only built this tyrannical country but also sustained it.

As with any labor, it is useful in many ways: it can serve as the actual labor or it can serve as a threat to other laborers. At the dawn of "emancipation," and in some places beforehand, Blacks attained education in hopes of bettering their condition. However, since Brown vs. Board of Education, Blacks have slowly moved back toward slavery, more so in a mental sense than a physical one – although we are still a major force in physical labor.

The court decision rendered from that case claimed that segregation was unconstitutional and legally outlawed segregation, to the demise of Blacks. Blacks began integrating into white schools and also integrated their values, housing, and political agendas. Consequently, the privileged class was given a factitious door leading out of Blackness.

Those who accepted that door as authentic find themselves criticizing the masses of Blacks, typically with no critique of the system. For example, President Barack Obama gave a Black-Fathers-are-MIA-speech on Father's Day a few years ago, or Bill Cosby and his rants of "do better" – irrespective of circumstances – talks he likes to give, as age takes its toll on his neurological functioning. What is absent from these critiques is an analysis of the corrupt system in which we live.

Michelle Alexander points out that "more African-American adults are under correctional control today – in prison or in jail, on probation or parole – than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began." Noting this as factual information and still maintaining the same critique has proven itself to be foul, absurd, and just out right moronic.

Unfortunately, for those who subscribe to those unjust critiques, the present situation has shed light on the realities that the masses of Black people face. One source claims that across the United States, "100,000 to 300,000 public education positions are in danger." The source also states, "pink slips [for possible termination] were sent out to 22,000 teachers in California, 17,000 in Illinois, and 15,000 in New York. The jobs of 8,000 school employees in Michigan, 6,000 in New Jersey, and 5,000 in Oklahoma may also be axed." Given this reality of just one occupation informs the elite that success in America is not guaranteed, even with "hard work."

Another disturbing piece of information claims that unemployment rates, even among those with college degrees (yes you/us elite Negroes too), are twice as high among African Americans than their White counterparts. It appears that regardless of our class situation there are other forces purposely operating against us. Whether we serve as the labor or the potential labor that keeps the other labor in check "white wealth" is still the benefactor.

As Gil Scott-Heron said in his poem B Movie, "…I guess we're all actors in this I suppose" because the only way we can be used to this magnitude is if we consent, passively or actively. We need to use our labor effectively to bring about change and remember that "just because you're unemployed don't mean you're out of work." We need to use our time wisely and live out our life until the expiration date fighting to create the world in which we would ideally want to live.

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Mike Leak
(Published 3-9-11)

Kwame Speaks: Dr. West: Career Leader, Will Travel

This past Sunday, Howard University was graced by the illustrious presence of, the great public intellectual, Dr. Cornel West.

While it appeared that most folks gathered, as fans, to hear West give one of his oft-recycled speeches, I myself sat and listened to West with the critical ear that Minister Farrakhan charged us to use on the previous day.

In his 55 minute chapel lecture, not only did West fail to quote (or mention) the Bible, he also – possibly by accident – made it a point to unveil his contradictions and incongruent lifestyle. The contradiction stems directly from his lecture, particularly when he claimed, "being a leader is not a career."

While this may be true for some, it is certainly mendacious (to use a West word) for Dr. West, who will, – unfortunately – be written down in history as a race leader and who, more importantly, has made it a career.

If we looked at Dr. West critically, we would see that he has made his living (easily $500,000 annually) off Black people. During the reception after chapel, Dr. West shared why he could never teach at Howard (let alone another HBCU); primarily because of the perquisites he receives at Princeton, namely a salary (without teaching much), time off for speaking engagements (which are typically financed), and two months of paid freedom to write books.

In other words, an ivy league pays West, to pimp Black people. One has to wonder: how would Dr. West earn a living if Black people were in a different position in America?

Even as we (yes, me too) appreciate Dr. West's oratorical skills, one often wonders how much of his written work his fans have read (so much for accurate critiques). With such "radical" views and a brilliant mind, one must also wonder how Dr. West keeps a job at an ivy league. Maybe his commentary is funded to the degree that it is not West speaking but his sponsors (i.e. Wal-Mart, Home Depot - check youtube).

To paraphrase (and somewhat decontextualize) Olive Cox, West's lectures, "in this advanced nation has done all it could, or intended, to do – which is always something short of revolution." Furthermore, Dr. West has been characterized by Houston Baker, in his book Betrayal, as a centrist, which "[is an] arch example of the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar's wearers of the ‘mask that grins and lies,' capable of endorsing any available position."

Baker continues, "[centrists (i.e. Dr. West)] glide around history's sharp edges and throw up faux-ethnic salutes to their best-paying customers." It is clear that others have noticed Dr. West's uncanny ability to straddle the bob-wired fence, "save" black people (as if talking and getting paid to do so is the key), and still manages to ride from Princeton, N.J. to Washington, D.C. in a stretch limo.

All things considered, Dr. West appears to be a good-natured brother and his lecture on Sunday was filled with insightful (and recycled) idioms masterfully used to maximize his message. However, if there is one thing that I would like everyone, brave enough to have read this in its entirety, to take away is that we need to be critical of intellectuals, particularly public intellectuals.

We must not be fooled by great orators because oration is a skill that is generally found within our culture. Dr. West has a breadth of knowledge and a captivating preacher-like delivery and most folks would love nothing more than to listen to Dr. West as mush as he is willing to speak. I wonder how much it cost Howard to bring him here. It really doesn't matter as long as West is at Princeton he "will travel" (if you can afford him).

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Mike Leak
(Published 4-6-11)

Kwame Speaks: Modeling After Models

"For those who live with any full consciousness of our history, our present condition and our future, there is really little choice if the various worlds of fantasy are to be avoided. Each of us must find the place in the struggle where he or she can best stand- or admit that we cannot stand." Indeed Vincent Harding's unerring words ring true. We are completely unprepared for the work which will meet us, should the few among us decide to engage the harsh realities blacks face.

The rule that hard work pays off is sounded repeatedly to us. But can it really be true when everyone is unequally paid for their work? This, to me, is false. How, for example, can one truly repay a parent? How does one return the favor to one's biological and psychological progenitors, to those who have given sacrifices beyond one's recognition or knowledge?

How can one repay those who, whether formally or informally were one's actual parents, performed a custodial and decisive role in one's proper growth and development? What justice can thankful words exchange for their actions? And what justice are our right actions if they can but hopelessly equal the inconceivable gift of their sacrifice? It seems to me; if we can generalize the case, that service is itself the single, satisfying, though incomplete, return for sacrifice.

Often those who have given themselves as parents have asked the single request of our good turnout. And each of us cannot but multiply the return of the favor by considering how their gift may be multiplied in service to others. But we need not boil service into that which is seen in public and open view. For our studies and coursework, are, with due consideration, themselves qualities of service, as each of us is contributing to a future world improved through our present labors.

Life itself appears to be a continual training, a process of growth and development from which identity is shaped. Indeed the process of learning itself is the consultation of many teachers, living and deceased, modern and historical, direct and indirect, to instruct us in the creation of ideals and refinement of goals which shall later be our guides. Thus the issue of training is most significant.

We should enact models of being which agree with our personalities, enlarge our abilities, and contribute to society generally. For it is through these things, especially Service, that we make ourselves most agreeable to a Self in a disagreeable world later encountered.

So may we Learn, and Be, and Do, for the betterment of ourselves and others, that we widen our sphere of influence through becoming serviceable models. For as we culture and manage ourselves Today, we anticipate the inevitable harvest of Tomorrow. Through this work will be the community that will bring forward into an anticipated world.

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Damarius Johnson
(Published 3-30-11)