I will miss Southern, but…

My time at Southern University has been a wild rollercoaster ride at minimum. From being up late during layout nights with lifelong friends, to learning my role as an educated black male, Southern has had a big impact in my life.
With that said, Southern also has unfortunately fed into my Nihilist view of society.
Like I said a few issues ago in my opinion “Obama is neither MLK or God: he’s a Politician,” I feel that the U.S. government is BS and I’ve come to realize that maybe a career in U.S. government corruption starts in student government.
For example, while George W. Bush and company have bent over backwards for the oil industry and even started a war for it, Southern’s SGA president has done the same for an attempt at Greek letters through a certain appointment and e-mails promoting their events.
Here’s a better example; while our U.S. tax dollars go to exotic beach paradise vacations and multimillion dollars houses for many politicians instead of helping make better schools and roads better, SGA, through the years, have paid people’s rent and insurance, and sent their significant others to conferences across the nation, instead of giving students a better homecoming or more events for students who stay on campus.
What’s even crazier to me is that no one has the testicular fortitude to stand up against the corruption and those that do are seen as nut-jobs anyway. Look at Cynthia McKinney, who introduced articles of impeachment against Bush and the dude that tried to do the same against our SGA president.
It’s also interesting on how the media that exposes the BS of both governments is seen as unbalanced or bias.
With all of this, my distrust of both SGA and the U.S. government has long been justified and being at Southern has only deepened this.
Being the urbanite and hood boy I am (raised on 82nd and Crenshaw which is Inglewood Families gang area), Greeks in my opinion are gangs, especially with colors and signs plus hazing—where I’m from is called gang initiation. Hell, they both have dances; Crips/Bloods have the Crip/Blood-walk, and Greeks step in their own way.
Any OG from way back will tell you that the purpose of black LA gangs back in the day were to protect it’s own people from police corruption and take over from other ethnic groups. With that said, I don’t have to tell you about what they’ve become. To me, the same goes for Greeks too; they started as a way to bring collegiate blacks together and now have divided so many—plus they seem kind of elitist.
Even teachers have taught me something: either fall in line or fail. This works the same way in the real world when you get that first post-graduation job. No matter how wrong a teacher is, let it go and move on, because unless there is another teacher who teaches that class, they hold the key to you graduating. This works the same way in the corporate world; do what the boss says or get fired and it’s easy as that. Unless you can find another job easily, fall in line. You can’t win every battle in the real world.
It’s interesting how we live in this bubble of being an undergraduate and not understanding how we mirror the real world until graduation. Because to me, some of the things that go on at Southern really worries me about the real world. But like the real world all is not hopeless, there are good people here who really care which gives me hope.
As my final advice to students, don’t be afraid to be different and speak your opinion but sit back and think about your approach. Don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid to expose the corruption in your government. Don’t be afraid to say enough to the violence in our community and don’t be afraid to even fight against some of the worst teachers this school has to offer….. just be smart about your approach.