Tarryn Simmons

Student involvement is an excellent way to gauge the progressiveness and intellectualism of a campus.

However, if the turnout for programs with titles like “Rock the Vote” can’t manage a crowd of more than 40, but one called “Natural vs. Processed Hair” can bring out the masses, then NCCU is in serious trouble.

Tempers flared, curse words slipped, and egos raged as students debated and defended their decision to relax, press, or loc their hair at Gamma Beta’s program on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

As a panelist, I was tempted to take things personally during the discussion about whether straightening the naturally kinky hair God gave me was some form of self-hatred, or even sacrilegious.

Amidst the yelling, defending of opinions, and retreating (by attempting to dilute the confrontational atmosphere), I forgot the real reason we were all so upset.

So did the rest of the panelists, the audience, and the hosts.

We were not just there to discuss why some choose to alter the biologically programmed texture of their hair.

We were there to discuss what it means to be black – African American – Negro – colored – a person of color.

Why is there still a need for this discussion in 2007?

Because as a community, we still can’t seem to come to a consensus on just exactly what this means.

Some would argue that we need to focus on more urgent issues – like the fact that our black women are dying of AIDS, our black men are dying of imprisonment, black/white health disparities are growing, and our black children are mentally malnourished from lack of quality education.

But when you really search for the etiology of the black community’s plight, you have to look deep into the psyche our race. We are a people of rich, illustrious, and triumphant lineage.

So why do we slight ourselves – refusing to utilize our Constitutional right to vote, taking our educations for granted, disrespecting our bodies with drugs, looking the other way when we see our fellow brother or sister in need?

We exhibit these signs of self-hatred because we will never be able to fully care about “us” until we really know what “us” means.

I could ask the sister with the natural: “If you had long, thick, flowing relaxed hair like the models on BET, would you still have cut it all off and gone natural?”

I could point my finger and blame the big bad white man for all our problems.

But at the end of the day we will still be right back at square one.

As members of the so-called talented tenth, we have to take a personal interest in realizing who we are as authentic individuals as well as who “us” is.

And we must become confident in that realization, almost arrogantly so.

When we do that, maybe, just maybe, we will be able to care enough to attend a program called “Rock the Vote” just as much as we do the less politically significant events.

Just maybe.