The Award Winning Newspaper Of Pace University

THE PACE CHRONICLE

The Award Winning Newspaper Of Pace University

THE PACE CHRONICLE

The Award Winning Newspaper Of Pace University

THE PACE CHRONICLE

Photo Courtesy of Pace Athletics.
Softball Sweeps Doubleheader vs Georgian Court
Dylan Brown, Managing Editor • March 20, 2024

LAKEWOOD, N.J.- Pace picked up two road wins versus Georgian Court University yesterday afternoon. Game 1 went Pace's way with a final score...

Front of Miller Hall. Photo Courtesy of webpage.pace.edu
President Krislov on Campus Involvement and School-Town Relations
Dylan Brown, Managing Editor • March 18, 2024

This article is on the topic of on-campus involvement and school/town relations. For the article about academics, the article about student life,...

Outside of the Office of SGA
Diaz And Tracey Wins 2024 SGA Election
Pace Chronicle StaffMarch 15, 2024

Incumbent President Nick Diaz and Vice President Paris Tracey have won reelection to their respective offices in the Student Government Association....

School Haze: A Culture of Blind Leading the Blind

School Haze: A Culture of Blind Leading the Blind

The most memorable scene in Spike Lee’s second feature film School Daze, an art imitating life adaptation of Lee’s experience at Morehouse College, was the scene in which all of the pledgees of the fictitious fraternity Gamma Phi Gamma, G Phi G for short, were lined up bent over holding the fraternities symbol up. Behind them were all of their big brothers, one of which was giving the pledges “wood” an action more commonly referred to as paddling. The pledges shouted words of adoration to their big brothers after every swing of this wooden paddle decorated with the fraternity’s greek letters slapped their backsides.

23 years later Lee’s film foreshadowed the scene Lagarian Bridgewater, former Southern University band member, described for journalist Frank Deford on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumble. Bridgewater describes that the “crab,” a term used amongst band members to describe freshman band members, would stand in the center of a circle slightly leaning over surrounded by upperclassmen band members while they are hit with a large slab of wood. Bridgewater describes the tradition as a competition amongst the members to see who could hit the “crab” the hardest, a tradition that would go on for hours, and the freshman is still expected to play with these members the next day, and for the remainder of their college career.

It’s the dark side of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) that was known but not spoken of, until the deaths of Florida A&M University (FAMU) band member Robert Champion in 2012, an event that came after a domino effect of previous hazing cases from other popular bands such as Bridgewater’s. It was a secret to the world but a normalized reality amongst the Black community, being that hazing has been going on under the noses of HBCU administration for decades, partly because the administration are HBCU alum’s. Even if a prospective member is aware of it they are faced with a confliction that calls into question whether the horror is worth the honor these groups bring?

It’s not a mystery why young impressionable Black students would want to belong to groups that are highly revered and respected within our community. All of them were created to give opportunities to a demographic of America that had been consistently neglected, belittled and dehumanized by the majority. Blacks have been told intentionally and subconsciously that we were not meant to be part of American history, so as a result, universities and greek lettered organizations were made to make a history of our own – to fill a void inside that said we were too inadequate to belong. It also helps that aesthetically, all of these organizations and bands possess a kind of cool that breathes an air of confidence into anyone.

But what has been lost in the hundreds of years of their existence and reputation building has been muddied by institutionalized abuse hidden under the guise of laws that protect the institution and not the victim. Prospective members are subconsciously pressured into protecting a sobering truth that everyone is expected to accept as a way of that world. Thus the cycle continues, a cycle Bridgewater explained that he could not wait to engage in once his time as a crab was complete. However, when Deford asks him why he was excited to partake in this tradition, he replied that it was in retaliation to what had been done to him. “The process is so intense that it’s brewing; you got your blood boiling for the next person like a vampire looking for blood,” Bridgewater said.

What is the purpose of this hazing? A ritual birthed out of a need for a process or journey into these groups that builds camaraderie and respect for the organization is the response Bridgewater gave, but how does any sane individual with even an ounce of self-respect subject themselves willingly to abuse for admiration from people who bleed the same blood, breath the same air and walk the same earth as them? And how does any human being with a soul and a conscious inflict this pain on another and not feel any remorse? There is no logic behind the justification that without shedding blood, sweat and tears, literally, you do not appreciate anything in life. Working hard does not equate to being on the brink of death, and no title is worth that degree of “work.”

The excuse that what was done to you should be done to another is null and void when a parent is met with the circumstance of having to identify their child in a body bag over the decisions of a sadistic insensitive individual, projecting their internalized trauma onto an impressionable child. This tradition of hurt people hurting people does not build a “brotherhood,” it builds an unhealthy relationship with an unstable foundation that psychologists would otherwise refer to as Stockholm syndrome. It does not go away once you get your band uniform; it does not go away when you finally get the validation you thought you needed. It is projected on to the next individual just as mislead and desperate as you once were. We must identify collectively that this is an issue in our community that we can no longer accept or fail to speak on until another life is taken. The only people who are able to change the ways of an institution are the people who are within it and not afraid to speak up, and if any group of people should understand that it should be the Black community. We all want to fulfill our purpose through belonging to certain things, but your self-respect will never be a worthy enough sacrifice to belong to anything.

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About the Contributor
Ebony Turner, Opinion Editor
 Ebony Turner is a journalism major and double minor in political science and African American studies. She's always had a vested interest in writing stories and thought pieces on people and subjects that would otherwise be unheard of. Ebony currently serves as the opinion editor of The Pace Chronicle, and has been writing for the paper for two years, introducing the first black culture column 40 Acres & a MacBook to the newspaper. She enjoys taking pictures of her food on instagram and watching episodes of Sex and the City 500 times per day - after her homework, of course. She has interned for Vanity Fair magazine, and is currently interning for ELLE. She can be reached at [email protected]
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