To employ or be employed

What type of education are you getting from Southern University?
The issue that faces the student body at SU is one that is an underlying problem, not just here, but at many HBCUs. This problem is not monetary, but rather the type of education that you receive from the university.
Basically there are two types of education taught in institutes of higher learning today-education to employ others and education to be employed. So which do you feel you are getting?
There is the education that teaches students to be the best employees they can be. This type of education prepares students to work for companies of various sizes and disciplines while applying concepts and knowledge learned at the college level.
Since adolescence, young Black Americans have been taught and steered towards the perception that there are two things needed have status in life. They needed a good education and a good job after that education is obtained. However, what has been instilled in our minds only holds partially true.
We do need an education and a good job thereafter but does this mean that this job must be obtained under someone else’s name, firm or leadership? No.
Which brings me to the education that I feel should be taught at black universities nation-wide. Teach us to be employers.
At Southern we have only a select number of classes that teach how to employ others, while courses offered to teach employee education are as vast as the ocean is deep.
By continuing to teach the status quo we are perpetuating the never-ending cycle of education to be employees. We deserve better than that.
There is a large number of HBCU alumni that have gone on to hold prominent positions at large firms and have prosperous lives.
However, when compared to the number of young Black Americans stuck in dead end jobs, that are only marginally beneficial to the total black population the numbers will be greatly disproportioned.
We hear all the time that as blacks we need to build-up our own communities and educate our children on the reality of the world and the history of our people; but ,while doing so we must also remove the folklore that we are workers and not employers.
Since the start of this country there have been cities, churches, educational systems, homes and industries built on the sweat of our brows. Now that we are blessed with the education to produce these things for ourselves; communities, buildings, industries, and schools, we can’t allow the type of education that we receive at black institutes of higher learning to handicap us from producing our own businesses and jobs.
However, it starts with the type of education we receive now. The choice is ours. We can continue to educate our children with the folklore of the past that says, “as long as you have an education and a good job everything will work out.” Or we can change the type of education we are receiving and teach young blacks, how to be employers and not just be another employee working to build someone else’s America.
This is not to tell you what to think but rather, what to think about.
To be employed or to employ others!