Campus Advisor helps invisible man

Black Collegian, Oct 1996 by Parker, Linda Bates

Dear Campus Advisor,

I have made it through my first semester I am attending a historically Black college after having gone to predominately White schools all of my life. I have never felt so good. College is phat! I have met some of the most interesting and smart Black students I have ever encountered.

So what is my problem? The truth is If eel very intimidated by my ignorance of Black history, culture, language, and everything else that I have missed in my previous education. In my courses, everyone seems so much more aware of Black life and culture than I am. My family is Black, but they have not emphasized being Black. In some ways, If eel ashamed of myself and them for not having more Black consciousness. I don't think that everything in life has to be focused on being Black, and I have met students who seem to have taken it to the extreme, but I do feel isolated in a way that I didn't in White schools. I realize now that am in an environment where Black culture is the norm and that have truly been deprived of my own culture. If feel like a cultural zombie. I have focused on being a good student all of my life, but I think I missed somethingknowing who I am as an African-American male. I try to hide my ignorance, but I have been called "different" once too many times, and I feel as if I'm in hiding.

I am a business major with a tough schedule this term, but next term, I plan to do something to educate myself about Black people. I read your column in THE BLACK COLLEGIAN magazine (I had never heard of this magazine before), and I decided to write to you. But please do not give my name or college.

Do you think that joining a fraternity would help me to catch up with my culture?

Please answer as soon as possible. I am enclosing my campus address.

"The Invisible Man "

Dear Invisible

Your closing reference to the protagonist of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man implies an analogy between his reversals and yours, convincing me that you will solve your problem.

Although I have already mailed my answer to you directly, I include it in my column so that other students who are facing similar challenges will not feel alone. They too might benefit from my advice to you. I have honored your request for anonymity.

You are not alone. Many Black college students are arriving on our campuses with very little knowledge of or appreciation for Black life and culture. Like you, they have been isolated from their culture by family who escaped to predominately White schools and neighborhoods not only to search for a better life, but also, in some cases, to escape what they consider to be the stigma of being Black in America. They have lived in environments that have encouraged them to assimilate and "fit in" with the majority. They have learned quite well how to mimic White behavior. They have assumed White culture and values and in many cases have abandoned their own. They are-as you vividly described your self-cultural zombies, the walking dead. In their effort to fit in, they have stripped themselves of their core identity.

For some, assuming White cultural values poses no problem. They like being color blind and wish others would be as well. These people are cultural aliens who neither care about nor contribute to the advancement of Black people.

And then there are others, like you, who have had a profound awakening to the value of discovering and functioning within a real rather than a feigned or fictitious cultural context. They realize that a person who doesn't appreciate himself hates himself. You should not feel out of place in the very place where you most belong. You simply need to find your way home, as Alex Haley does in Roots.

What you need to do is to undertake a process of selfeducation that will allow you to reclaim that which is your birthright, your cultural heritage. You might want to do this before you join any organization in which you might be challenged to accelerate your learning.

First and foremost, read, read, read! Read books, magazines, articles, poetry, and song lyrics by Black authors that will introduce you to the complexity of Black life in America and the beautiful lyrical quality, passion, and artistry of Black language.

Second, develop an Afrocentric reference. In other words, include in your reflections, in your discussions, and in your thinking quotes, phrases, and brilliant insights from great Black thinkers such as Dr. Benjamin E. Mays who said: "If you control what a man thinks, you will not have to concern yourself with what he will do;" Martin Luther King who said: "A man who does not stand for something is not fit to live;" Whitney Young who said: "We might have come here on different ships, but we are all in the same boat now;" Malcolm X who said: "You ought to despise anyone or anything who would cause you to despise yourself;" and Jesse Jackson who, when he ran for President of the United States, said: "I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me!" Learning to value the brilliance of Black minds gives you a standard from which to launch your own potential brilliance.