Black Solidarity at Yale

This weekend I went to Yale. My sister was in charge of the Black Solidarity Conference at Yale, so we all went up to go to the banquet at the end of the conference. So, yes. My sister goes to Yale. And I didn't. Ivy League schools aren't exactly known for having great engineering programs after all. In fact, most don't even have engineering programs. So no Ivy League for me. Instead, I went to Black U. HOWARD UNIVERSITY. The Black Ivy League.



So first, a few things about the differences in our schools and my informal tour of Yale. Then we'll get to all the conference details.

We got into town Saturday afternoon after a 3 hour drive. After checking into the hotel mom gave me the most informal college tour ever. "Ummm, this building has history. There's something significant about this building but I don't remember what." That kind of stuff. The library was cool. Apparently the guy wanted to build a church, but they would only let him build the library. So he built this.



Yup. The guy built a church for them to put the library in. Now that's what I call creativity. Loophole found. I can just see it now. "Fine. I will build you a library. It will hold all of the books you want it to. But you never said it had to look like a library..." I think I might have done the same thing. Although I'm kind of wondering if this is just as bad as throwing a temper tantrum when you don't get your way..



Anyways, after the whole campus tour we went to the bookstore so I could look at all the shiny stuff. I found these two shirts. Two sport we don't have at Black U. I mean we have lacrosse, we even brought the baseball team back. But these are two sports we don't have. I kind of understand crew. Mostly you do that up north. I can't really think of any school that far down south that has a crew team. I guess there's the same kind of idea about hockey too. Not too many inner city schools have an ice hockey team.


So after the bookstore that was pretty much all the excitement I could handle for awhile. So back to the hotel for a nap.


Then came the banquet. First, we met up with my sister. Met the Dean of the Chapel.

He's the one wearing the purple tie. Yeah. To a Black Tie Event. Not a big deal to most people. But if you know me at all, you know I caught on. I go to Black U. The main people to wear purple to a black tie event are...

Yup. He's them. It's almost funny how since I met so many in DC now I can never go anywhere without finding one. Although I guess it's just like finding Howard Alumni. The girl sitting across from me at the banquet table lives down the street from where I did when I was last in DC. I love HU.


The speaker for the night was Michael Eric Dyson. He was pretty cool. His speech was all about progress. Pretty much he was trying to explain that after the conference was over, we all needed to go back to where ever we came from and help the people who aren't at the level we're at. People without the opportunities or education that we have. The main idea is that the only way everybody gets better is if the people who get better turn around and help other people get better. He's a really good speaker. It takes a lot to make politics and social commentary go together. I think everyone left feeling like they had more to give to the world and wanting to come up with a way to give it.

All in all, I think my weekend went pretty well. And now, back to the regularly scheduled week.