Mr. Milloy,
I know that you wrote that you'd received numerous e-mails about your recent commentaries on Howard University, but I hope that you will indulge me and read one more.
As a proud recent Howard alum (this year to be exact) and current working journalist, I took umbrage with your first piece on several levels. I refrained from writing you originally because I did not want to send you the type of knee-jerk emotional reaction you showcased in your second piece, but now, having a few days to digest and re-read your thoughts, I'd like to share my opinion.
I was outraged at first by your characterization of Howard students as being more concerned with fried chicken than what is happening in the real world. Like President Swygert, I thought that it was stereotypical and appalling. But as a former Hilltop columnist, I realized that such a reaction may very well have been your desired effect. I once wrote a satirical column on how women shouldn't smoke because I didn't think it was attractive, so I understand saying something with the hopes of drawing an emotional response (for the record, my column on smoking was accompanied by a straight news story on the real reasons people should smoke, i.e cancer, among other things).
With that said, I dug deeper into why your characterization of my alma mater appalled me and I found it. Similar to my feelings on the television show College Hill, I don't believe that you painted a complete picture of the place I called home for four years. Yes, I look forward to homecoming every year. I just flew from Georgia to D.C. to revel in remembering all the fun and friends that I got to experience while getting a second-to-none education. But similar to those who wrote in with examples of other protests and civic minded activities that the Howard student body participated in, I think those things are necessary to paint a complete picture of Howard University.
Instead, you choose to trivialize those efforts in your second article because they were not the issues that mattered most to you. I'd suggest that that is an unfair standard. You say that Howard students wore "Vote or Die" t-shirts, but only 2,000 voted in the student elections. I can't deny that fact, and I'm as disappointed by it as you are. However, I don't think that such a low turnout is unique to Howard. I'm currently covering a mayor's race in a city of 16,000 in which 1,200 voted in the last city election. I for one never wore a vote or die t-shirt, but for the entire first semester of my senior year, I was president of an organization of students from Georgia that organized and funded an absentee voter registration drive so that our 300-plus members could have their voices heard. That may not mean something to you, but other than our work in recruiting for the university by sponsoring a bus trip for high students from Atlanta every year, there is nothing in my two years as president of that organization that I was more proud of.
There are efforts like that which go unheralded everyday at Howard University. No, everyday is not a million man march, but everyday someone at my alma mater is attempting to do something to make a difference. I spent a year during my tenure at Howard tutoring underachieving students at a local charter school in a program that is not affiliated with the university but composed almost entirely of Bison volunteers. The only reason I didn't continue to do it was that I decided to dedicate myself to the profession you and I share and work for the Hilltop. But trust me, I didn't do it because they paid me well enough to afford Soul Food Thursday.
I say all that to say that not only did your articles offend me as an alumnus, but it offended me as a black journalist. As such, I think our ultimate responsibility is to paint an accurate picture and let the reader reach their own conclusions. We already have the mainstream media depicting criminally misguided portraits of black life, such as the difference being black people "looting" post-Katrina, while everyone else was searching for food to survive. We don't need additional mischaracterizations, and a black journalist, of all people, should steer clear of them.
In closing, I think I remember having the chance to meet you last December at a Media Networking Banquet hosted by Howard's chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. I remember being very impressed by you and having read your work more closely after that encounter. I wanted to pattern myself after you because you had made it to the places in this business that I aspire to reach. But if it takes neglecting to tell our story completely, then maybe I'll have to re-evaluate those aims. While Howard students do have fun, as all college students do, my alma mater is far from a party school. That is our complete story. And if I was there protesting with my fellow students, which I likely would have been if I was still attending the university, Soul Food Thursday would have been the least of my motivations. If I really wanted chicken, I could fry my own.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and if you desire, I'd love to talk with you further.
Keith Laing
Howard University
John H. Johnson
School of Communications
Class of 2005
Reporter, The Brunswick News
Posted By:
Sunday, November 6th 2005 at 8:20PM
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