More than two weeks after Michelle Obama and Jill Biden held their “Change We Need Voter Registration Rally” in the Quad, the event continues to attract positive publicity for FAMU.Tallahassee Democrat Associate Editor Bill Berlow, who attended the rally with his daughter, is the latest to share his reflections on what it all meant for FAMU and the democratic process:
We couldn't see the speakers that day, but to me it didn't matter much. I was looking at the faces in the crowd, listening to what the people in the audience had to say. The best word to describe them: "motivated."
As an Obama supporter, I was pleased. But as a citizen, I found it hopeful that so many young people were participating in the political process. I've watched for decades as voter turnout was often an embarrassment to anyone who cares about a healthy republic. Young people, in particular, seemed as if they just wanted to wash their hands of civic life in general.
Here's the thing: We need to know the stories of our respective heritages, be they the American story we share, or the ethnic or religious stories that make us members of various tribes. Because if we don't know our stories, we're always in search of ourselves.
Read the full story here.
Also see: FAMU a player in election 2008
This was a around the way backhand...please re-read the story...White people simply amaze me! When Good ol' Jeb had the machine in full gear to destroy FAMU Bill Berlow and the rest of the Dixiecrat were more than willing to lend a hatchet to the job! So in this article when he suggests, based on 20 students, that WE=AFRICAN AMERICAN Students need to know our history is an insult!
ReplyDelete“During my talk to the FAMU journalism class, I asked the students if they'd ever heard of the Freedom Riders or the names Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman, the three young civil-rights activists who were murdered in Mississippi during the "Freedom Summer" voter-registration drive in 1964. None had.”
He goes on to point out that this particularly bothered his colleague “black” Meredith. What bothers me is that white people, including Mr. Berlow, can speak to 20 students out of over 12,000 students at an HBCU which for five years they attacked with out mercy and conclude that it is their JOB to enlighten the masses of Black folk! We have Dr. Baldwin for that, but neither he nor Meredith visited his class. We have Dr. DH for that and hundreds of others; maybe the students were there concerning journalism and not a white liberal history lesson? I assure you had I been in the class I would have spoken to the worst injustice in the most modern history of white supremacy racism and it would have been the writing of the Tallahassee Democrat.
10/12/2008 10:22 AM the sad part is you will find more than 20 students who don't know our history and don't care to know. You are in the minority that do care and I applaud you for that.
ReplyDeleteI had Dr. David Jackson for Intro to African American History. I can recall on several occasion, I would see classmates reading magazines, texting or doing everything else behinds listening to what the man was telling us.
It's a sad truth unfortunately...
We must to consider without excuse that a good number of our students are not from the south and that a good number are from families who are not even from this country. I know a good bit of history, but I must say that I would be hard pressed to find it in me to entertain the gentleman from the Democrat (Dixiecrat)lol.
ReplyDeleteHow often has he even visited the campus? Does he know the history that requires us to remember those people in the first place? Who is he to questionably pity these students who may have chosen, for whatever reason or lack of, to disassociate themselves from our history. I bet the FCAT doesn't require that sort of information.
ReplyDeleteLets see if white people know white history.
ReplyDeleteWho murdered Chaney, Schwernerand and Goodman?
I had Dr. Baldwin/Kambon as an undergrad in 1998. Thanks, Anonymous 10:22.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Meredith, in my opinion it would serve you well to make sure that Mr. Berlow has a full picture of Florida A&M University, its student body and your experience in the future. And not one encounter with 20 journalism students, who were there to discuss journalism and not listen to the liberal posturing of Mr. Berlow. Furthermore, the fact that he felt a need to speak for you concerning his view of the situation was in my view insulting and condescending. I would think, as a college graduate, and alum of Dr. Baldwin’s class, the last thing that you would need if you were so “bothered” and “disappointed” would be anyone writing for you. In essence, according to Mr. Berlow the blacks did not know their history and the one who did was to upset, so Mr. Berlow needed to teach them the importance of their history and also speak for his colleague who was unable?
ReplyDeleteIn no way was the comment in anyway an attack of you Ms. Meredith, it was an assessment of the poorly written article and a historical interpretation of the Tallahassee Democrat.