As we sit comfortably at home or away on vacation and welcome the new year and new decade, it is important to remember how privileged we are as Harvard students. Being back in Houston for the first time since the end of summer has reminded me of the questions posed at the beginning of the year during the BSA intro meeting. Does going to Harvard mean that we are “elite” or “elitist?” And what, if anything, do we owe to the communities we come from?
Those of us who were at the meeting saw the type of tension and discussion that these questions ignite. Despite the fact that we often pose them in a group setting, these are questions that must be answered on a personal level.
Being back in Houston has raised a lot of these questions for me. At the Black Men’s Forum, part of the pledge discusses serving one’s community to the best of one’s ability and representing black men around the nation. Does this imply that we should do our best to improve the situation of black men in this nation and specifically in our communities?
Seeing the paths of the black men in my community has saddened me at times. Recent events in southwest Houston like shootings and brawls have witnessed black men as both the victims and aggressors. Of my past classmates, some dropped out of high school, many didn’t go to college, many joined gangs, and a few are in jail. Here at Harvard, college is something we take for granted. One junior even told me that in the Ivy League circles, college is like high school, and that one is almost expected to return for a higher degree. Unlike us, however, many people do not have the privilege of considering college to be a given.
As we sit in our d-halls and are consumed with career and concentration questions, it is easy to forget that there are people, many of them black men, fighting and dying for absolutely no reason, and seeing college or a career as something as distant as graduation seems to us freshman. As people complain about subjects such as finals, crushes who don’t reciprocate, missed flights, B pluses, and A minuses (yes, there was an FML about an A-) on Harvard FML, people have much realer and serious troubles elsewhere.
Whether we owe the people of “elsewhere” any of our time or concern is not a question for me to answer for a group or community, but is something we should ask ourselves and answer as individuals.
7,
Damilare Sonoiki, '13
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