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It's OvKk. It's Susy. And It's The Law.
A public wr«i(» o* thu publtcol'O'V
Mind, motivation urged at seminar
Black students aren’t ‘ordinary,’ author says
By Kim Spurlock
Staff Reporter
Black students need to speak up
for what they believe in and be repre
sentatives of the African American
culture, nationally renowned author
and speaker Na’im Akbar said.
“Don’t let anybody tell you that
you are ordinary students: Ordinary is
one thing you’re not. Because to endure
an environment where you’re con
stantly being reminded of your small
ness rather than your greatness is more
than a little to deal with,” Akbar told
a crowd of more than 600 Saturday
night at a banquet topping off the Big
Eight Conference on Black Student
Government,
Black student leaders represent an
important piece of African Ameri
cans’ futures, said Akbar, a teacher in
the Department of Psychology at
Florida State University who has
appeared on “Tony Brown’s Jour
nal,” “Donahue” and the “Oprah
Winfrey Show.”
“It is very critical that you under
stand something about the nature of
youM^ponsibiht^^elUMh^iaUire
-«--— “
Don’t let anybody tell you that you are ordinary
students. Akbar
author and speaker
---— 99 ~
of the process that brought you where
you are,” Akbar said.
He said black people don’t appre
ciate the value of what they represent
to themselves because their origins
have been hidden from them. It is the
foundation of being who blacks are as
a people that determines what it is
they will do, he said.
“The foundation of our ability to
operate collectively is in our under
standing of where we came from,’’ he
said.
Akbar said that for much of the 30
generations of slavery, it was illegal
for blacks to engage in learning. Slave
holders feared they might find some
thing out about themselves, he said.
The information about who blacks
were was systematically distorted, he
said, so they would not have any
sense of connection with Africa.
Akbar said it wasn’t accidental
that Africa was called the “Dark
Continent,” that the images of the
African continent were negative and
that blacks have had to find out the
positive things they know about Af
rica on their own.
Because information about Africa
was hidden away or degraded, he
said, blacks began to lose sight of
themselves — a loss that has not yet
been regained.
Black children have dreams of
working for big companies instead of
owning them, he said, and the black
leaders of tomorrow have no aspira
tions of owning their own national
newspaper to tell the world their view
Akbar
points.
Akbar said society’s attempts to
destroy blacks intellectually, cultur
ally and psychologically have not kept
them from fighting, and that they are
special.
“Our only leadership is within
ourselves,” he said. “We are the fu
ture planners. What we do will deter
mine our future.”
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All current, full-time graduate
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Black self-respect urged
By Tabitha Hiner
Senior Reporter
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha
was supposed to discuss “Blacks in
the Political Process” on Saturday,
but he said talking about politicians
would make the audience of 400 “either
fall asleep or leave.”
Instead, Chambers reminded par
ticipants at the 14th Annual Big Eight
Conference on Black Student Gov
ernment to strive for self-respect and
respect for each other.
Respecting each other is impor
tant for keeping the black community
going, Chambers said.
“No group has been completely
destroyed by their enemies, but we
can destroy ourselves,” he said.
Chambers warned that “every
repressed group has always turned on
their own kind.”
Black people turn on themselves
when they join gangs and shoot at
each other, Chambers said.
Chambers said that if he were to
meet a Crips gang member, he might
be shot simply because he liked to
wear blue.
He quipped that all he would have
to do to save himself would be to put
a white piece of paper in front of him,
because gang members have “a gun
that will shoot black people only.”
Black people shouldn’t allow the
internal fighting to continue, Cham
bers said. Instead, they should prac
tice more self-respect and learn to
trust and believe in each other more.
Calling black women “the best
thing about us,” Chambers urged the
men in the audience to respect them.
There is a double standard when it
comes to the stereotypes placed on
women, Chambers said.
While men who are involved with
many women arc called names such
as “lovers” and “Valentinos,” he said,
derogatory terms are applied to women
who are involved with many men.
He ended his speech by saying that
geneticists have traced the origin of
all human life to a black woman in
Africa — a finding which shows all i
people arc equal.
“If white people say to us, ‘Your
mama,’” Chambers said, “you tell
them ‘My mama is your mania.”’
Telling about his own confronta
tions at the State Capitol and ways he
dealt w ith them, Chambers said black
people should stop being complacent
when they face unfair treatment.
Earlier in his speech, Chambers
said unfair treatment could come in
the forms of racism, verbal harass
ment or physical confrontations.
For instance, Chambers said, an
upset man once approached him and
pointed a finger in his face.
Chambers said he stood up for
himself by casing the man’s hand
down.
Then the man called for security
— an example of how white people
arc “brave when they think they ’ve
got everything going their way,”
Chambers said.
bpeaker blames problems
on lack of self-esteem
By Dionne Searcey
Staff Reporter
“Self-esteem is the key to black
liberation,” a speaker told more than
450 students and faculty members
attending the Big Eight Conference
on Black Student Government on
Friday night.
Juwansa Kunjufu, executive di
rector of African-American Images
in Chicago, said drugs, pregnancy,
crime, lack of education and unem
ployment arc all symptoms of a larger
issue — low self-esteem.
“You don’t use drugs when you
feel good about yourself,” he said.
America doesn’t have a drug prob
lem. It has a self-discipline problem.”
He said the slogan “Just Say No!”
is the “most asinine thing I have ever
heard. The real issue is what you sav
‘yes’ to.”
Kunjufu said one key to crime
reduction is brotherly love.
When we love ourselves we turn
toward each other, not on each other."
he said.
He said blacks need to take a look
at their lives and develop self-esteem
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in their careers and in relationships
with their peers, parents and spouses.
Another problem, he said, is that
statistics compare blacks to other
minorities, such as Asians. Results of
the Scholastic Aptitude Test often
find that blacks score lower than Asians.
“The problem is, we don’t com
pare immigrants to slaves,” he said.
“When many brothers do good in
school, they’re leased. ‘You’reon the
honor roll. Hmmm, you’re acting
white,”’ Kunjufu said. “Have you ever
heard another white teasing another
white (saying), ‘You’re on the honor
roll. You’re acting black.’”
He said modern society has taken
the chains off blacks’ wrists and ankles
and put them on their minds by mak
ing sure blacks don’t know the roots
of their culture.
Most history instructors teach black
history starting in 1619 when African
Americans were brought to America
on slave boaLs, he said, but the lirst
black civilizations were in Egypt.
“Where you start determines where
you end up,” Kunjufu said. “If you
start in 1619, you start on plantations
and end up in the ghetto.’
