Two more black males become statistics. We barely have black males in our community with a college education and now two Kappas are going to jail for something as trivial as hazing. I’m not saying they threw their lives away, but I am saying they were careless with it. What they did not only affects them and their families, but the whole black community. Now we have two less role models our young black men have to look up to. It’s shameful and disgraceful the way things turned out. But like so many have said, “if you do the crime, you do the time.” What about the youth who want to attend college but this situation has left a bad taste in their mouths
We should not forget that our actions will leave impressions on those who come after us.
Is this the legacy we want to leave behind?
Do we want future generations to remember that the students that attended the Hill during the first years of the millennium cared more about pledging than they did about social and academic issues?
I hope not.
What we need to do is come together as a community and brainstorm ways to stop the curse of hazing.
Also, we need to reach back into the community and show them that not all FAMU students agree with the foolishness associated with hazing.
It’s nice to leave FAMU with Greek letters.
But it’s more important to leave college with a degree. My father is a Kappa and he never graduated college. Cherish your school more because in the end, I would rather have FAMU letters on me than Greek letters without a degree. Hazing is not worth it. Don’t participate or allow yourself to be treated in such a manner. Remember, it’s not only your life. It’s ours too.
Wesley Martin is a junior Magazine Journalism student from Miami. He can be reached at wes_famu@yahoo.com.