The Bison Fix: Are we The Mecca?

What is The Mecca? It is The Holy City of Islam. The city is sacred. Some consider it the holiest and purest of all places in the world. Yet, we call Howard "The Mecca" of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Now, there is nothing wrong with comparing ourselves to The Mecca to say we are the best. However, there is an elephant in the room: are we living up to these high expectations?

The Mecca is a pure and holy place, but when we, as Howard students, truly examine ourselves we see that we are not meeting our own expectations. Look at the way we are divided, how we treat each other, how cliquish we are, our arrogance, our feeling of superiority to other black colleges and notably not predominately white schools--the list goes on. This is not an attack, but rather, an eye-opener so we can better ourselves.

We have to adopt a new way of thinking and behaving. Our superiority to other HBCU's has caused them to strongly dislike us. We like to say that they hate us because we are "The Mecca" and the cream-of-the-crop. Really? I would disagree with that statement. Perhaps our self-importance and disparagement of our sister and brother colleges are the reasons why they frown upon us. Maybe that is the reason why whenever we visit them they give us dirty looks.

Don't you think we should factor that into this equation? It is always hard to see ourselves in a critical light, but if we want to make ourselves better and live up to being "The Mecca," then we have to take a look in the mirror and admit our flaws.

Not only do we mistreat other black institutions, but we treat ourselves the same way. I'll never be able to figure out why, but maybe the way we treated each other years ago at Howard, where there was a war of "light-skinned vs. dark-skinned" and the "bag test" seems to have morphed into something much more serious.

We can do better. We can change our tainted image that our brother and sister black colleges have of us. We can change this culture of cliques, self-importance, arrogance and the notion of being superior to other schools. As students who make up the fabric of this institution, we can help Howard reach its full potential and standing. If not, then we'll never be "The Mecca."