Bomb Threats Targeting HBCU’s – Prank or Possible Hate Crime?

Since late December of 2021, several HBCU’s across the country have been under bomb threats. This includes Bowie State University, Delaware State University, Albany State University, Howard University and The Southern University and A&M College. Students were told to stay in their dorms until further notice and those coming on campus are limited. If only HBCU’s are being targeted in these bomb threats, then there are grounds for this to be considered as a hate crime.
That said, this is not the first bomb threat targeted to Southern University. In Fall 2020, students were forced to evacuate their halls immediately in wake of a similar threat made towards the campus. But although this wasn’t the first threat made on our university, people are praying that it ends up being the last. Instead of focusing on having a strong start to the semester, students are worried about their future and hoping that they can get to see the day of their graduation.
If HBCUs are the institutions primarily being targeted, then without a doubt, this is a hate crime. Let’s think about it; racism is ongoing and something that we can’t control. You can put restrictions on it, but you can’t change the way a person feels about another. If my mother was born in 1969 and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, what does that tell you?
Racism has always been an issue for the Black community. Black people can’t do anything innocently without being accused of doing something suspicious. Can’t buy skittles, can’t jog, can’t sit on the couch in our own home peacefully. Now it’s to the point we can’t even get an education within in our own community peacefully.
I am speaking for the Black community when I say, “We are tired!” When will the hatred towards the Black community end? Understanding that black people are no longer under the power of White supremacy, us having rights has become a problem for those who would see us continually oppressed.
The intimidation we receive from anti-black people is obvious. It’s an issue that our parents and grandparents have been dealing with, and soon enough, the next generation will be as well. Being Black in America is like trying to survive in a society that was not created for you. Black people do not feel safe, and have never felt at home here in the United States of America. It has always been a fight to just be alive and free.
Threats of any sort towards the Black community must end. Threats of any sort towards the African American educational institutions must come to an end. Why bring us here, then slowly try to get rid of us? Is it because we are no longer of a use to you? Did you not know that we were going to eventually fight back and rise? This was inevitable.
We are the blueprint of this country, and we demand our respect. This is not up for a debate. It’s time we gain the respect and honor we deserve. It has been one too many protests to fight for our right to be treated with decency. How many more Black people will you try to destroy, kill, and steal from? Black people have been fighting for their lives the moment they touched “the Land of the Free.”