While the world may be celebrating the achievements of all women this month, I want to focus my efforts on the state of black women – black women at FAMU in particular.
The word on the street is that most girls at FAMU want to be in a sorority and the others just don’t care.
From what I’m told, FAMU girls are caught up in holding titles and poses on a makeshift runway.
They say FAMU girls are only in college to get a MRS., not a Ph.D.
I’m also told girls at FAMU are always hating on each other and being petty. Some people say the Deltas wear pearls to make the AKAs mad, and the AKAs wear “peeping ducks” on their T-shirts to make the Deltas mad.
They also say girls in NCNW don’t like the girls in SISTUHS because they have the same colors.
Keisha doesn’t like Sheena because Sheena winked at her man.
Are they serious?
Apparently.
But this cannot be so. I mean, I’m a FAMU woman. And I’m not into any of that foolishness. I am a friend to many women at FAMU, and they don’t get into that foolishness either.
Maybe the difference is that we view ourselves as women and not girls. There is, in fact, a distinction between the two.
A girl is concerned with what she’s going to wear on the Set on Friday to get noticed.
A woman goes to the Set on Friday only to do membership drives and voter registration or hear the occasional speaker.
A girl is concerned with going to the club every other night because it’s “crunk.”
A woman is focused on studying every night because being at FAMU longer than four years is not “crunk.”
A girl is defined by the titles she holds in various organizations. But a woman will define whatever title she holds and demands that the next person to hold that title will do an even better job.
A girl struggles to fill the shoes she’s in. A woman will show the girl how to walk in her shoes.
I know that most women at FAMU came in as girls. But at what point do we start putting away our high school ways to see the true state of black women on our campus?
There seems to be a serious lack of sisterhood at the University amid the many other things that are wrong with FAMU.
But why?
Some people say black women just can’t get along. But I say we can’t afford not to get along with each other.
The mental state of the women at our beloved university demands we join forces and tap into the greatness of our womanhood and shared experiences.
The women who came before us, such as Mary McLeod Bethune, Harriet Tubman and Ida B. Wells were committed to uniting and liberating black people.
Today, women such as Oprah Winfrey, Keneisha Grant, Brooke Smith and Castell V. Bryant are all tapping into their inner greatness and answering their calls to duty.
These women, past and present, did not wait for someone to tag them to be great. They embraced their greatness and were propelled by it.
No matter what people are saying about the girls at FAMU, I know there are some women at FAMU who will not stand by and continue to watch their sisters struggle to find themselves.
I’ve met several women at FAMU who have discovered their life’s purpose and are working diligently to fulfill God’s plans for their lives. These women are not waiting around for someone to tell them what makes them an asset to their campus, community and world.
There are some women at this University who are living proof that being great means not simply standing behind the titles they hold, but defining those titles by selfish service.
Because it is Women’s History Month, let us all consider our transformation from girls to women.
Then let us decide that what will be said about the women at FAMU in 2005 is that we were dedicated to enlightening ourselves and uplifting each other.
In the words of Bethune, “women united in common tasks for the welfare of others build bridges over which all of mankind can pass.”
Alexia Robinson is a senior magazine production student from Jacksonville. She is the editor in chief for The Famuan. She can be reached at thefamuaneditor@hotmail.com.