Racial Doubts At Va. College Homecoming

Controversy Simmers Over Non-Black Queen

Miss Hampton University Nikole Churchill (center) after she was crowned at the Miss Hampton U. Pageant.

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 16, 2009

HAMPTON, Va. -- Nikole Churchill, a tall, thin woman with long, dark hair, was named homecoming queen at historically black Hampton University last week. The next day, she appeared with her court at the football game against Howard University, another historically black school. . . .

{See the link for the rest of this article below.]

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Felicia, when you sent me this, it was a further indication of just how much the AA ship has sunk, and actually I don't need any more proof. There is no point in me commenting on all of these AA horror stories, and this is why I don't want anyone to send them to me. I'm commenting now because I told you I would. And yes, this is a type of AA horror story because you can kill a person's spirit just as easily as you kill their body. Either way, they''ve been laid low. I can imagine how devastating this is to some of those young bw on Hampton's campus because the choice of a white queen was a highly symbolic decision. Symbols have immense power.

However, my comments are way too little and way too late. This story reflects why I lost all of my anger toward whites a long time ago for their historical atrocities against blacks. If there's any anger I've had for the last 2 decades, it's towards AAs. I've been noticing the non-progressive attitudes and behaviors of the overwhelming majority of AAs for a lot of years now. The overwhelming portion of AAs suffer from a FATAL degree of non-critical thinking.

AAs dropped the ball after the Civil Rights movement when they didn't try to reclaim or put together a unifying, uplifting culture for the masses of AAs. Embedded in the "uplift" portion of that cultural training would have been the critical thinking training. I know hindsight is 20-20, but in life, you don't get a pardon for not knowing something, just like ignorance of the law doesn't get you off the hook when you break the law.It's not "fair," but as I always say, "Fairness has nothing to do with life."

So AAs made a fatal mistake when they didn't work on devising that RUCOSS (reasonably uplifting culture of some sort), so we're now seeing the aftermath of them not doing that. There'll just be tons more stories like this. AAs are currently in a triage situation. I'm personally only concerned with assisting INDIVIDUALS at this point who have a reasonable chance of surviving and thriving. I hope I don't need to keep repeating that.

However, for those folks who might be a bit surprised about this situation and for those AAs who believe that alla our people can be saved, I would wonder if I were them, who exactly was steering the ship in this situation? Obviously, no one with common sense was on board. I really feel bad for the young black women going to this particular HBCU, which is considered one of the black Ivy League colleges.

Okay, here's the short version of my analysis. If we look at all the social research, (and I've read a slew of articles & books about this), it points to the fact that in just about any contest of positive traits and attributes, the overwhelming majority of people of all races and ethnicities--including the vast majority of black people of all ethnicities--would choose a white person as the winner and they will do this almost all of the time.

One of the more awesome privileges that whites have is that they are virtually always considered GOOD, BETTER, BEST. ALL of the major institutions in Western civilization have socialized/indoctrinated (yep, that word again) whites and many (but not all) among other groups of people who've been influenced by Western civilization to view whites and whiter-looking people as nicer, kinder, more intelligent, prettier, more innocent, more honest, more valuable, etc, etc. etc. and to view themselves as less-thans. These are attributes that cannot be measured objectively and that makes their impact more insidious. Therefore, whites will usually win, hands down, in a contest for any of the more positive traits unless it's a something like "who is more religious?" AAs/blacks would win that one.

[As an aside, I've also noticed how many women also tend to see men as 'better,' more qualified, less culpable, etc. than women. I noticed this as far back as when I was a young girl and when I've asked other girls or women why they don't like other women, they say silly things like, "Women gossip too much," or "Women are too catty." Even as a young girl, I knew that something terrible had happened to women's brains to make them favor the opposite gender in a male dominated world where women were all too often the victims of men. I came to that conclusion very early in my life. I didn't know the word for it then, but I know the word for it now: INDOCTRINATION and Indoctrination is a sho nuff b#tch! ]

Anyway, since AAs have most often been the loser in most categories when compared to whites, you would just think that they would be able to somehow summon up the will to acquire plenty of critical thinking. I know, I know, they haven't been taught it, but I guess it just seems to me that somehow or the other, they would have caught some clues from somewhere by this time. LOL!

The fact is that this young white woman (white mom, Asian dad), who some of the blacks there are trying to argue, is NOT white (SMH) didn't even have to show up (and actually barely did because she attended her classes on a satellite campus which means she didn't go to school on the main campus with the students she competed against or where the students she will represent attend) easily won.

Naturally, those 5 judges (their races and ethnicities don't matter) were shaped early on to see white as "right." They were swayed by the fact that the woman was white or white looking. The fact that most or all of the judges voted her the winner only reinforces what the research by white, black and other researchers have long concluded. So, if I had been one of the higher-ups at Hampton, I would have made it a point to have an apparatus in place to prevent this from happening, just as whites have a built-in apparatus in place to insure that they almost always get or control the perks in all white-run institutions. It's critical thinking on their parts, which makes it a high priority for them to control of their institutions. Calling them racist does not prevent that.

Whites control Western civilization through their institutions (media, law enforcement, education, military, finance, etc.) Sensible people who plan to thrive are not going to fight to acquire, set up, and maintain institutions and then hand over control of those institutions to other people.

Yeah, yeah, I know that AAs rant all the time that that's not "fair." FAIR? LOL! This is quite a naive utterance. People don't care what you call them as long as they have the power.

I've worked in various systems in this country and in absolutely every workplace, whites (and many blacks) virtually always voted for or favored whites for the perks. This doesn't make me angry because that's a waste of energy. It won't change the fact that AAs dropped the ball and the overwhelming masses of them show that they have no interest in picking it up. However, when there are blacks in high places in these workplaces, it's expected by the black masses for the blacks to speak up and provide balance. Other than that, why do blacks even care about blacks being in high places like upper management? It's pointless if they don't insure as much balance as possible. When I worked as a professional in various systems before I transitioned to the farm--LOL, I always spoke up to provide that balance, just like I speak out here for bw, and I was sometimes labeled a "troublemaker" for doing that, the same as I'm labeled a bm basher here. I considered myself "paying it forward" because if someone hadn't spoken up for me and fought for me, I wouldn't have even had the job and wouldn't be living comfortably like I do now.

It appears to me that most whites and most people among other groups AND most men are socialized to promote and protect their interests 'first and foremost' and they do it automatically. Most people who have any pride, self-esteem, and plan to thrive are going to do that. Blacks in the past worked hard to get those HBCUs. That was a part of the resources that they were due. But if they're going lay back and allow highly important symbolic perks like Homecoming Queen to go to nonblacks, then what exactly is the purpose of an HBCU???? Why should blacks even push to put blacks in high places or in charge of anything?

Since I study human behavior, one of the things that has always struck me was that even some of the whites who consider themselves to be very "fair"-minded can't see how blinded they are by their "white"ness. But many, many blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc. are ALSO blinded by the "white"ness. Thus, the Hampton Homecoming Queen is a white woman who astonishingly some blacks are claiming is not white. Have we noticed how some whites now are able to be white sometimes and not white at other times: namely Bill Clinton, Kim Kardasian, and now the Hampton University's Homecoming queen? This 'slipping out of whiteness' is always spearheaded by blacks who pave the way for these whites to slip in an out of their "white"ness when it's to the benefit of the whites and blacks--a very interesting social phenomenon. I wonder whether Bill, Kim, and this homecoming queen ever check the "nonwhite" racial category on forms????????? Do they tell other white people that they're actually not white? Do whites ever spearhead or pave the way for blacks to slip out of "black"ness?

Regarding this homecoming queen, it's entirely possible that she was the most talented, the most beautiful, or may be the winner in all the categories that could be objectively measured, but if that's how winners are actually chosen in the real world, then the law of averages would make blacks the winner in many more situations by virtue of sheer natural randomly distributed talent and ability, etc. But this is NOT how perks are distributed in the vast majority of cases, no matter how much people pretend that the best person gets the prize based on merit alone. Perks are mainly distributed based on politics/the amount of power of those handing out the perks. That's why I asked who is steering the ship at Hampton. Who has the power there? I don't know what's going on at Hampton. Maybe HBCUs now have a different mission? If so, I think they need to make it plain.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101504227.html

Anyway, here's a comment that I took from one of the sites discussing this situation. I think it sums up the views of many.

"First off, I want to say, I have actually done my research as many of the posters here have failed to do. I understand both perspectives of the situation. You must understand firstly, an HBCU is an HISTORICALLY black college or university. Meaning, its history. It's no longer a "black" college, even though the majority of the students are of African descent. So it's fair that Churchill be an equal opportuned student.

But on the other hand, you must remember the reasons most students go to HBCU's. I know for me, as an incoming freshman, I wanted to go to a school that would represent me and better my awareness of my place in society. I wanted to feel empowered in my own little world, outside of my everyday world (America), which never includes me. So in the process of choosing a school, with my intentions being as stated earlier, why would I choose a school that ONCE AGAIN puts the white woman on top but says its for me? Out of all of the students in that school, you're telling me that this white woman is the only one qualified? Now if there was a school wide election held (which there wasn't as the article stated it was) and the student body elected her, then i would have no objection. But I KNOW she would not have won if so.
So in closing, i would like to say, even though she deserves an equal opportunity, there are consequences for every action taken. She chose to go to an HBCU and should have known the values of and HBCU. She should not be allowed to serve as queen unless she was chosen by the student body, and not a panel or committee. "

Thanks, KR for this. This is exactly why I think we ALL need to start pushing and pressuring AA women with all of our might toward "positioning" themselves to find mates at MUCH younger ages (for those who want a mate). And AA women need to start earlier and be more methodical about this than ANY other ethnicities of women in America because other women have a cultural group to aid them and to prepare and propel the women AND the men toward that goal; many AA women don't have these advantages.

But is she talking about finding a mate or what? I'm not quite sure anymore.

She's asking for some type of help here, but from the view of many folks from other ethnicities and races, she's the only one who can get what she wants. If it's a quality man she wants, there are PLENTY of men on her level out there for her. Non-black folks and blacks of other ethnicities wonder why she, with all of her education, beauty, money, and social exposure won't just put herself in the mix with the men on her level and get one of them. Even I'm thinking this. I'm wondering what kind of help exactly is she asking for--because she's obviously asking for some type of help. Is this about getting a bm? Then who is she asking for help from for that? If this IS about getting a bm, the reality I see tells me that HE does NOT exist (because we know where all of the bm are in this society and we know how they are shaped), so after she faces that, then what? But maybe, it's not a bm she wants. Then WHAT or who is it? Or is this about a spiritual chasm in her? WHAT exactly is she talking about??????????????????????

Successful, black and lonely

D.C. author's tale of young black women's loneliness catches Hollywood's ear

By DeNeen L. Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 10, 2009

Helena Andrews is 29, single, living in D.C., and might be the star of a black "Sex and the City" -- stylish, beautiful and a writer desperately in search of love in the city.

Andrews's life appears charmed: The film rights for her memoir, "Bitch Is the New Black," a satirical look at successful young black women living in Washington, were purchased before the book was finished. Shonda Rhimes, the executive producer of "Grey's Anatomy," is set to produce the film and Andrews will write the screenplay.

When Andrews pitched the book, she described it as part "Bridget Jones's Diary," part "Sex and the City." The book is to be published in June by Harper Collins.

"What I am trying to say about single black women in any urban environment is, you don't know them as well as you think you do. They may not know themselves as well as they think they do," Andrews says, seated at a table with a white tablecloth in a restaurant on U Street. Her appearance is flawless: She is wearing an ivory blazer and skinny jeans, her movie-star eyes glisten with shadow and her hair is cut in a fresh bob.. Perfect. Image is everything. And it means nothing.

"The book was a time for me to step back and reflect," to capture the internal dialogue and the dialogue with girlfriends who are "caught in a quarter-life crisis." She is not talking about all young black women, but some. Revealing a story not oft told.

A lot of black women put up an exterior that says: "Everything is together. 'I'm fine. Perfect. Don't worry about me. Keep it moving.' That is the trend," Andrews says. "Put on new stilettos. Put on a mask of bitchiness." But that image -- prevalent in both the media and the workplace, Andrews believes -- is one-dimensional.

"When people think about black women, they have only one adjective for us, which is 'strong,' " Andrews says. "The girl you see walking down the street looks like she has it all together," but she may not.

A journalist who has written for Politico and The Root, Andrews says her book attempts to reveal what's behind the veneer. In a series of essays, Andrews documents the lives of so many young black women who appear to have everything: looks, charm, Ivy League degrees, great jobs. Closets packed full of fabulous clothes; fabulous condos in fabulous gentrified neighborhoods; fabulous vacations, fabulous friends. And yet they are lonely: Their lives are repetitive, desperate and empty. They are post-racial feminists who have come of age reaping the benefits of both the civil rights movement and the women's movement, then asking quietly: What next?

"Gone are the [college] days when friends are an elevator ride away, dinner plans are made on the way to somebody's hall, and Thursday is Friday or Friday is Thursday (who cares, you'll figure it out in Philosophy C203)," Andrews writes. "Soon enough, the little old lady living in a shoe is you -- and the rent is effin' unbelievable, and nobody comes to visit because you're too far from the Metro. Adulthood comes in little jigsaw pieces. Once the painstaking work of fitting them all together is done, the picture doesn't look nearly as cool as it did on the box."

Andrews writes about what it is like for a young, black woman dating in D.C., trying to find a mate who seems ever elusive. The futile rituals are familiar: the dressing up, the eager cab ride over to the party, the hold-your-breath as you walk in, scanning the room quickly for any looks returned. The mantra sounding in the back of your head: "So-and-so found a man last year at a party like this. Maybe tonight is my night." Then one by one, the men prove to be disappointments and disappointing: married, uninteresting or uninterested.

The disappointment as you end up at the bar once again, committing straw violence in your drink (stirring the drink frantically and unconsciously).

Andrews writes the truth of those nights. The truth is for too many, they never work out. Not for Andrews and not for her friend, Gina, who is a prominent character in her life and in the book.

"For a lot of black women, especially young successful black women, we have a lot of boxes on our master plan list checked off," Andrews says.

"We think happiness should come immediately after that. But that is not always the case."

Love is much too hard to find and when these women do, it may go all wrong because of issues that are too complicated for statistics, Andrews says.

She is quick to say, "There are tons of black families who are healthy and good.." Even so, black women are more likely than white women to grow up poor or otherwise struggling financially; to be fatherless and to experience a myriad of other societal and/or familial dysfunctions. Ironically, the "issues" can also include being a "strong" woman: the can-do, opinionated type many black women become after growing up in a matriarchal household, the type with whom some men still just can't deal.

"I have tons of friends who are extremely successful lawyers and lobbyists, staffers on the Hill. They are great at what they do. They are in their late 20s and early 30s," Andrews says, sipping Ethiopian coffee. Her dog, Miles, is sitting beneath the restaurant table, whining softly.

"But there is loneliness at their jobs, because most likely they are the only black person there and people treat them like they are the only black person there. They dress a certain way. They go out on the weekend. . . . And still they end up going home, and it's you and your damned dog."

Talking about a suitor

Andrews is presiding over a table at a chic restaurant, this one in downtown D.C., on a Saturday night. It is the kind of restaurant that is crowded not for the food but for the chance to see and be seen. Crowds are spilling out the door into the darkness of 14th Street. The once-desolate street is filled with beautiful people. Who knew this about Saturday night on 14th Street?

Andrews is speaking with two polished girlfriends, a lawyer and a political staffer, who didn't want to be named because of their jobs.

"I went on a date last night with Cornrows," Andrews says, using the nickname that her friends have given the man. "I got in his car and there was this strawberry smell fragrance. I had to roll the window down by hand. I assume it's paid for.."

Cornrows, she says, seems nice, but that is the problem. "He can put together coherent sentences, but they are not in any way related to my life," she says. She laughs, but catches herself. She knows the man is trying hard. She also knows Cornrows doesn't stand a chance.

"I'm a mean woman. I don't date nice people. That's why I'll be alone for the rest of my life. I will always have to settle.."

Staffer: "You need a man in your life. They come in handy for labor."

Andrews: "He offered to help me move.. That was nice."

Lawyer: "He wasn't nice to offer. He just wants to get with you."

Andrews: "I don't find him attractive. If he was funny, that would go a long way. He could be my winter boo. I need a boo. My life sucks. When your life sucks, a winter boo with his own apartment would be awesome to have."

What is a winter boo? you ask.

And they explain a winter boo is someone you hook up with when it's cold outside, someone good enough to take to office holiday parties, someone who has a car and who can drive when the wind is whipping down the sidewalk.

"It's like a booty call, but it's not," Andrews says.

"It's like you like him enough to bring him out to public settings. They, like, serve a seasonal purpose."

But what happens in the summer, you ask.

"There is no such thing as a summer boo. You are supposed to be out. Be free."

The catch?

"A winter boo doesn't know he's a winter boo," until summer comes and he has been set free.

'Why is she single?'

The genesis of Andrews's book came from a conversation a few years ago between Andrews and Gina, a social scientist who lives in Los Angeles. They wanted to start a blog to explore "why black women can't find a man." The day she talked to an agent about this idea and pitched it as a book, one of her sorority sisters committed suicide.

It jarred Andrews. "We stopped. Discussed what happened. We think each other's lives are fine. You got a good job. A good place to live. You will handle it." But some people can't handle it. "She looked like any other successful black woman," Andrews says of her friend. , "Good clothes, stylish. Ivy League degree, master's." Nobody saw it coming. She won't discuss the details, but you can see it in her face, the mind racing over the why.

"People keep talking about the black single woman in D.C. But do you know who she is? Does she know what she wants? They should stop saying we have it all together. . . . I am that single black woman in Washington, D.C. Why is she single? This is who I am. Tell me."

Andrews' résumé is a snapshot of upward mobility. She graduated from Columbia University, majoring in English literature and creative writing,

worked at O Magazine, then went to graduate school for journalism at Northwestern, and in 2005 landed as a news assistant in the New York Times Washington bureau. At the moment, she is not working, but waiting for all the deals to be sealed with the movie.

But there is more. Born in California, grew up on Catalina Island and in Los Angeles. Her mother is a lesbian. She has seen her father once, when she was 6 months old. When Helena was 7, her mother decided to move to Spain, but the girl's grandmother kidnapped her.

Is this a true story, you ask.

"Yes, it's my life story."

Helena's mother, Frances Vernell Andrews, 57, who lives in Stone Mountain, Ga.., says in an interview that it is indeed a true story. When she read the book, "initially it was like walking down memory lane from my child's perspective. Initially she kept saying, 'Mommy, you can't read it. I am not showing it to anyone.' I had come up to Washington for Thanksgiving two years ago. I went on her laptop and e-mailed some of the chapters and read them when I got home. She didn't know initially. But I said I needed to know a little bit about what you are putting out there. But I was delighted.. She is a terrific writer."

In the book, Andrews recalls the abduction. And her mother recalls the story, too. "We were on our way to Spain and my mother didn't feel I should go," Frances Andrews says. "She wanted me to stay and marry this man. She drove us to the airport and said, 'Go in and check your bags. The baby can wait.'

"I go in and get my boarding pass. I come out and my mom is gone. I thought she must be circling the block. I waited two hours. Then I gave up and went back to my mom's home and sat and waited. She came back without my daughter. She said, 'You need to settle down and stop chasing the world,' " says Frances Andrews. "I am a lesbian. My family thought I should not have had a child."

She promised her mother she would settle down. "Just bring me my child."

Her mother brought Helena back and Frances left town with her daughter for an island.

All about attitude

Helena Andrews says she is a mean girl. That is where the title of the book comes from.

"It's much easier if you have a mask, 'Don't [expletive] with me.' Then you don't have to worry about office politics." She once asked a colleague,

"Why does no one say hi to me in the morning?"

"Because you are a bitch," the colleague replied.

Andrews wasn't offended. That is her way of moving through the world.. That way you don't get hurt, you mask any softness or weakness inside.

She doesn't look like one of those mean girls. Perhaps that is the point. Andrews has that innocent cheerleader, preppy look, even as she strolls her neighborhood of Northeast Washington, with her cute little black pug dog in her arms.

The homeboys on the sidewalk part like a sea to make room for her. A man rolls down the window and asks her to buy him a car. And she smiles. She turns around and smiles again. He has no idea who she is.