Bending The Rules For Profit...The American Dream

Initially I refrained from commenting on the hazing situation at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) and members of its famed "Marching 100" marching band, but I just can't let this one ride. Recently, after the Florida Classic football game between FAMU and Bethune-Cookman University, a yearly hazing ritual claimed the life of Mr. Robert Champion, a drum-major at FAMU. The reasons why I didn't want to comment largely had to do with factual accounts I had been given of how HBCU bands operate in addition to my own experiences and views on hazing/pledging, but I've just had enough of the commentary from the peanut gallery. I am actually troubled in writing this because as a self-proclaimed "bandhead," the contents of this post may come off as blasphemous, but as an attorney, I am inclined to ask for impartiality and equal treatment that I know will not happen.

While I have not and will not ever believe that the price of admission in a prestigious organization should ever be someone's life, there is a price to be paid that keeps the exclusivity of the organization. I have argued that despite the announcement that FAMU has indefinitely suspended the band program, the Marching 100 would get a much tamer sentence than any Greek-lettered society if faced with the same circumstances. In fact, deaths of pledges have occurred in both Kappa Alpha Psi (1994) and Alpha Kappa Alpha (2003) both of which resulted in the charters for the chapters at those schools being retired and a year-long moratorium against new membership. Another hazing incident occurring at FAMU among members of the Alpha Xi chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi in 2009 resulted in the chapter being suspended by the university until 2013 despite no serious injuries and most importantly no deaths. In bringing these facts up in a post within a Facebook group with members of both the Southern University and FAMU student body and alumni I was told that the same standard that Greeks are held to should not apply to the band, and the only reason I could see as to why this would hold salt was the all mighty dollar.

Like Greeks, band members are required to maintain a certain GPA to be active within the organization, and most colleges and universities require members both current and perspective to sign statements displaying a knowledge of both the illegality of hazing and the consequences that both those who participate in as well as consent to these activities could be subjected to. As a result, the person who initially told me that the band and Greeks are not the same retorted that band is a school-sponsored activity that represents the university and that the equivalent of the impartiality and fairness that I wanted to see would be to suspend the Penn State football team in light of the Sandusky child molestation scandal. I wholeheartedly disagreed and challenged the same individual to put his blatant favoritism to the side and see that this is the equivalent of a Greek hazing event and in no way related to the Penn State incident, a sentiment echoed by ESPN's Jemele Hill in a recent article written for ESPN.com.

Greeks have to get permission from the school to function on campus and you had better believe that when the organizations do well that the university takes credit just as they bear the brunt when hazing allegations such as the aforementioned ones cast the institution's student body in a negative light. The main difference is that unlike with the band the university does not receive a payday from it's Greeks. For example, FAMU just signed a contract in which the university is set to receive $850,000 to play THE Ohio State University, which I'm sure the Marching 100 and their repore among sports fans around the world was a part of the reasoning behind such a large sum to play a team they have no chance in hell or competing with. Also, this is not a case of the band director of the Marching 100 killing a student in a hazing ritual so the counter point of its similarity to Penn State is irrelevant.

My main point is that while Mr. Champion has paid the ultimate price, the subsequent expulsion and readmittance of accused hazers, firing of band staff, and indefinite suspension of the band is by no means fair. Had this been Greeks, the accused would have been arrested and charged with murder, the chapter's charter revoked permanently, and a lawsuit filed (even though that part is sure to come). Hill said it best, the only plausible solution would be a 5 year suspension of the Marching 100 and I could not agree with her more. And for those of you who know of my love for Southern's Human Jukebox, I would be looking for the same had a member of Southern's band died after a post Bayou Classic hazing ritual. But mark my words, that will not come to fruition as bending the rules in favor of profit is exactly what Anerica was founded upon. Please keep the family of Mr. Robert Champion in your prayers...

The Last Straw

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a full-blown supporter of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, hell I am an alumnus of two at both the undergraduate and graduate level, but Bobby Jindal is really making my nerves bad. For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, allow me to offer a brief synopsis. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, in an attempt to save some money within the State’s budget, proposed a merger of the University of New Orleans and Southern University at New Orleans and formed a board to write a report on the feasibility of this merger. Jindal cited the close proximity of the two campuses and their low graduation rates as the reason behind this, but I, like most products of the Southern University system, see the disaster that such a merger would create.

First of all, we, the products of THE Southern Univeristy SYSTEM (the only HBCU with its own system with 3 campuses and a law school), would attempt to cause hell to freeze over before we let someone take one of our campuses away from us. I guess Mr. Jindal is not well versed in the writings of Booker T. Washington, who said that the fundamental purpose of Tuskegee University is to give those who would be unable to earn a degree from most other schools a CHANCE to get said degree from their own efforts. Washington later went on to say that if only one of these cast-away students out of an entire freshman class earned a degree then the University would be a success. Hence the lower admission standard for most HBCUs as compared to Predominately White Institutions. But I guess that’s the trend in society these days, people don’t read or find out why things are the way the way they are before they make their commentary. And the funny thing is that with Jindal being an Indian-American, I would expect him to be more sympathetic to minorities, but I guess you forget who you are when you’re a Republican.

I know that the argument that I’m making does not take into accord how the UNO family may feel, but I’m not concerned with them at this point. The report that was compiled by a Colorado group states that the only two viable options are to assemble the two schools into a “University of Greater New Orleans” under the University of Louisiana System or to maintain two separate schools one as a “Metropolitan University” and the other as an “Urban Research University” but would call for new leadership at both schools and would do away with SUNO’s historically black mission, similar to that of Tuskegee. The second option would call for these two schools as well as Delgado Community College to fall under the umbrella of an entirely new system.

Am I the only one who’s lost here??? So now the governor can suggest outlandish proposals and these are immediately brought into action? The governor can remove schools from systems and place them into other systems or just move them into a brand new system all together? This is totally wrong and I think Jindal just bought himself a 12 round legal battle, hope he’s ready for all that. Maybe somebody can explain this madness to me so I don’t look at it as racist or make a bunch of derogatory remarks about Governor Jindal, but until someone can, he’s on my “Fuck You” list, right along with Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, George Bush, Bill White, Tom Joyner and a few others. This proposal could open up the flood gates for other states and probably get some other PWI’s to get law schools on the campuses of HBCUs in their respective systems. I have said for the longest that black folks and their desire to assimilate into Caucasian culture is what killed the HBCU, but if Jindal succeeds in this outlandish proposal and eliminates SUNO from the Southern University System, mark my words, the days of the HBCU are numbered, pray for us!

Letter to HBCUs

Dear Historically Black Colleges and Universities,

You and I have known each other for years through the relationships that you have had with both of my parents. However once I joined the ranks of your children, I, like most other children have some questions that only you can answer. These questions have been festering in my mind like a bad infection and now that I have joined the prestigious ranks of your adult children, its time you give me the answers that I require.
How do you feel about integration and its disparaging effects on your livelihood? There are many "simple negroes" in America that have yet to realize that less than 60 years ago you were the only readily accessible source of educational sustenance for those who desired more out of life. Now we have CNN specials on what its like to be black in America and the "experts" on black culture were not your children but those who came from ivy league schools. Now now, my love, I'm not blaming you for this, because you are probably one of the few ideals of Booker T. Washington's reformation that I support, however, somewhere in there these same individuals who meant good were suckered into believing what their educators taught them. This is similar to how slaves were tricked by their masters into believing that black was bad, ugly, and dirty, while white was innocent, beautiful, and pure. Why do we hate ourselves and our history so? I have seen students at Louisiana State, Florida State, The University of Houston, and a few others look down on their cross-town or cross-state counterparts for being under your loving care. These same "simple negroes" are quick to disclose how they are the "talented tenth" and should be afforded this chance for a "better" education, but if they never took that African American literature course, or read The Souls of Black Folk they'll continue to think that this "better" education was worth the price of their identity.
Mother HBCU, where are you failing? When we look at your statistics, we see longer enrollment periods before graduation, higher rates of attrition, higher crime, more incidents of sexually transmitted diseases, and bigger hazing stories to name a few. Wait, let me add to that question and ask are you really failing or is it all the media? I'm curious about this one because I was under your care when Southern finally granted opposite sex visitation legally, I listened to my friends rants about not having a car on campus their freshman year, while my friends at predominantly white institutions just shook their heads and remarked "damn, yall got it rough." But why is that, mother? Seems like there must be a reason. Your administration tells us that freshmen should focus on school and get acclimated to college life, but they don't have the same restrictions at those PWIs and nothing seems to happen to our brothers and sisters there. Is that because humans have a natural tendency to go against order or is it because your instructors aren't doing what they are supposed to?
Momma, what did it feel like when they raped you? The same people that consider you inferior institutions are steadily acquiring your campuses, assimilating them into their systems and changing the missions you have had in place for HUNDREDS of years. In the case of the legal profession, there are 5 of your centers whose graduates make their mark as 80% of all black attorneys in the nation are your children. But even those are in danger of being shut down for failing to meet standards that even some of these "superior" institutions fail at. Furthermore, how do you feel when the majority of the nation are allowed to attain you benefits free of charge under cries of reverse racism when affording college or gaining acceptance into one was never an isue for them? We'll let them have your accolades and what not, because you'll never love those kids, right? I just have to know.
I didn't mean for this letter to come across as disrespectful, or even as a challenge of your authority, I just hope that if you answer some of these questions for me, we can work towards getting you to be what you were intended to be, showcases of black prowess in academia, athletics, culture, and arts. And as I return to New Orleans I only hope that you will be as good to my little brother at Florida A&M as you were to me in the eight years you had me.

Proud to be Your Son,


Kellen A. Daranda
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering
Southern University and A & M College '05
Juris Doctor
Texas Southern University '08