UNLIKE other University-wide organizations, the impetus for leadership within the African-American community most often comes from the black community's constant call for change. Individuals running for Student Council or the Honor Committee run for office adopting the platforms that may most appeal to the entire student body.
African-American student leadership, on the other hand, must arrive with a sense of purpose to combat racial injustice and the constant marginalization of the issues, concerns and viewpoints of their people. Future African-American student leaders have a responsibility to not only organize campus-wide activities and support the co-curricular activities of the African-American community, but also to combat the ignorance of so many at the University when it comes to our collective history of racial intolerance and discrimination.
The upcoming election of next year's Black Student Alliance on March 17 Executive Board will be a proving ground for the students who must own up to the responsibility of becoming black student leaders, adopting important positions as both activists and educators.
The challenge of today's African-American student leadership at the University is to champion the cause of the modern civil rights movement, but now even more importantly, their role has become the task of educating students, black and white, about their own mis-education as well. By now, we should all have a clearer understanding of how race and discrimination are intimately entwined within the history of this country and our University, but unfortunately, we all do not.
Whomever assumes the role as leader of the Black Student Alliance next week and as the spokesperson for African-American students at this institution has a difficult task in combating our collective historical ignorance. The next BSA president must be able to integrate education, organization and a commitment to service as platforms for their leadership while balancing an agenda in support of all minority student populations.
More importantly, however, the next BSA leader cannot afford to lose sight of the fact that black student issues will be at forefront of University discussions about inclusion, diversity awareness and the cultural sensitivity and competence of both faculty and students. The BSA president must realize that black student issues must be at the forefront of their charge as well.
Future leaders must understand clearly that, on the one hand, it is our mis-education as a community that has led us to this point. While students protest in support of diversity awareness and a safe climate for students of all races, others pass by in complete oblivion or ignorance. While some students seek office through legitimate political campaigns, others plan back-door meetings and under the table negotiations. One student even carried out an assault against another to ensure that offices stay in the hands of the good ol' boys club. The problem is that too many students are unaware of the struggle that African-American students have had in being admitted to this institution, that Asian-American students have had in being recognized, and that LGBT students have had in being included. And this lack of knowledge and education about our own collective past as a University hurts us all.
As a community, we are mis-educated about the history of the institution and about just how poorly certain communities of people have been treated, even in the past twenty years alone, and these discussions must be at the heart of future leaders' campaigns.To many it is quite obvious that we need to be re-taught history, but too often that notion of re-education is coming from the mouths of black students alone -- and this is where a BSA president can align themselves with an organization like the Coalition to educate others and champion multicultural causes.
When turning back to their own community, black student leaders must understand that unlike in other communities, their position of leadership comes from service and a commitment to speaking on behalf of African-American student issues, not from an election to office. Accepting the daunting task of leading black students while educating others should be left in the hands of those who can handle the task of being a spokesperson while maintaining a stance as an activist on behalf ofcomplicated black student issues.
On a communal level, the BSA president needs to be personable, and be able to connect with a community of people who often feel marginalized and discriminated against, and if he or she cannot do this while balancing their connection with the larger University community, then he or she must come to the understanding that their leadership will not be leadership but will become followership instead and essentially be all for naught. Black student leaders on the verge of accepting positions of office are asked to observe a higher calling. Accepting the role of president will mean accepting the roles of advocate, intermediary, activist and educator as well.
(Kazz Alexander Pinkard's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at kpinkard@cavalierdaily.com.)
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