I hope you dance
14th May 2018 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
So I’m watching the news and see these kids from the University of Florida showing off their best moves as they make their way across the stage at their college graduation. I see all kinds of unbridled joy on their faces and exhilaration in their body language as they demonstrate a joie de vivre and audacious pride often associated with Black Greek-letter step shows. Then everything changes as someone steps in to let them know that there is no place for unapologetic Blackness or spontaneity in a predominantly white academic environment.
We learn later that the man who grabbed and shoved the students for the unpardonable crime of stepping and dancing is a lecturer in the University of Florida’s chemistry department who the institution has refused to identify by name. A spokesman for the university said the guilty party has been placed on paid administrative leave, which essentially means he gets a nice little vacation as payment for his cultural insularity and overly aggressive actions.
I thought last week about the handful of LSU graduations that I had been to over the years and how none of them could be described as solemn, pompous or boring. There was always something extra going on, like graduates showing up so drunk that they were barely able to walk in or sit upright during the ceremony. Or showing up with very little clothing under their graduation gowns and some of the most outrageous things you could imagine pinned to their caps. And there’s always a lot of popping of wine and champagne bottles.
During the spring of 1988 with Black historian Dr. John Hope Franklin as the keynote speaker, one of those corks took flight and landed on stage just a few feet from where Dr. Franklin was standing. He did his best to cover up his surprise, shook his head in disbelief and managed to make it through the rest of his address.
I’ve also attended a number of HBCU graduations and enjoyed the strong connection those in attendance have with one another and the many unique ways graduates have used to express their sense of joy, accomplishment and relief. The one thing you will not find at these commencement exercises is a dull moment.
Thanks to the usher from hell, we didn’t get to see much of that impromptu display of joy or freedom at the May 4 University of Florida graduation.
One Black female graduate, Myesha Senior, said all she wanted to do was celebrate her family’s Jamaican roots as she received her diploma.
“I was getting ready to do the Usain Bolt pose,” she told The Washington Post. “I tried to do it really fast. I saw the guy coming toward me … and when he pushed me, I almost fell, and I caught myself. But he pushed me so far that I passed the lady’s hand that I was supposed to shake.”
While six percent of the University of Florida’s student body is Black, 100 percent of those manhandled by the usher were Black, The Washington Post reported.
Nafeesah Attah, who planned to flash a Delta Sigma Theta sorority hand sign, was pushed so hard her cap fell off as she struggled to maintain balance. Oliver Telusma spent a few seconds in a sort of rotating bear-hug with the unidentified university official.
Telusma told ABC News that he felt bad for his family, whose “lasting memory, at least for undergrad, will be them watching their son having his back turned toward the audience and being handled like a savage animal.”
Those Black University of Florida graduates had every reason to feel triumphant and jubilant as they received their college diplomas.
Who knows what it took for them to get there and what kinds of challenges and sacrifices they and their families faced along the way?
With the economy being what it is, many of their parents probably had to work multiple jobs just to get by and likely didn’t earn enough to send them to private schools, so they probably had to sit in overcrowded classrooms and move heaven and earth to earn an academic scholarship.
When they finally made it to college, many of them had to deal with being viewed by at least some of their white peers as beneficiaries of affirmative action or scholarship athletes, even though they may not have had time to participate in an organized sport since elementary school. Others had to deal with being racially profiled by campus police and other university officials or perhaps accused of plagiarizing when their work appeared to be a little too impressive to have been done by a Black student.
On Sunday morning, May 6, University of Florida President Kent Fuchs, who was at the ceremony, tweeted an apology.
“During one of this weekend’s commencement ceremonies, we were inappropriately aggressive in rushing students across the stage. I personally apologize, and am reaching out to the students involved,” Fuchs said.
“The practice has been halted for all future ceremonies, and we will work to make sure all graduating students know we are proud of their achievements and celebrate with them their graduation.”
The Washington Post reported that the Black graduates who got the worst of it had mixed emotions about the university president’s apology. Senior said Fuchs was gracious when he called her. But his apology didn’t come after she was pushed, she noted, it came after the university was roasted on social media. And Fuchs was sitting on the stage when Senior and the others were hurried across it. He did nothing in the moment, she said.
I don’t think the usher should have lost his job but he definitely should have been fined and required to make a very public apology to the graduates he put his hands on, their families and the entire Gator Nation.
He also could use a little intercultural training and a few seminars to brush up on his social skills. At the very least, he needs to learn that he does not have the right to put his hands on people because European American culture is generally frowned upon and discouraged.
We see it in the nation’s schools and in jobs where African-centered clothing or hairstyles can land you in a lot of hot water.
And yet, white entertainers who effectively imitate Black people are rewarded handsomely with critical acclaim, major record sales and major accolades.
Why is that?◊
