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Spelman Spotlight Page 13 November 14, 1983 Spelman Sisterhood Existing Or Extinct? by Nancy Travis and Tiffany Bouknight Sisterhood existing among Black women: this is one aspect of Spelman life promoted in admissions literature, expected by incoming freshman and cherished by the students and administration of Spelman College. Many feel confident in asserting that sisterhood in an integral part of the Spelman experience. However, others feel that the achievement of this ideal is yet a dream unfulfilled. Therefore, we posed the follow ing questions about sisterhood to twenty Spelmanites in an attempt to determine the strength of our sisterhood and to reveal the barriers which still lie between us. WHAT IS SISTERHOOD TO YOU DO YOU SEE IT EXISTING AT SPELMAN? DEIRDRE HAYWOOD: “Sisterhood is a deep caring, loving and concern you show for others you feel close to. I would like to be able to say ‘yes’ but there is always room for im provement. At Spelman it is not as visible as it should be. It’s not displayed until a time of crisis.” ANONYMOUS FRESHMAN: “To me, sisterhood is a sense of togetherness, understanding and love. I see it here among people who know each other in dorms and clubs, but up perclassmen don’t care. It seems like no one will go that extra mile for someone they don’t know. The upperclassmen don’t treat you like a person; they have forgotten what it is like.” ANONYMOUS JUNIOR: “Yes, I see sisterhood at Spelman, but it tends to be in little isolated pockets.” JANIS P. MADDEN: “Sisterhood is unity, unity which incorporates love, patience and common sense. Common courtesy and a sense of respon sibility. At times I see sisterhood existing at Spelman, but most of the time I don’t. People who see you everyday don’t speak and people don't mind their own business. A sister here would rather pull a sister down, than help her up.” SANDY ANDERSON: “I see a lot of cliques. People don’t want to learn about those that are different from themselves. DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE RESPECTED BY YOUR SISTERS? Most questioned said they do feel respect. A couple Spelmanites noted that incidents of “disrespect” may occur because we just don’t think about it. ANONYMOUS SENIOR: "If someone doesn’t speak to you when they pass, you shouldn’t take it as a personal snub. People often just have other things on their minds.” JO-ANNA GRIFFITH: “I don’t feel there is mutual respect among Spelmanites. Everybody has one set image of what a- “Spelman Woman” is supposed 'to be. I was Jo-Anna Griffith before I cam to Spelman College and I’ll be Jo-Anna Griffith when I leave Spelman College.” MARVA WILLIAMS: “I don’t feel there is mutual respect among the students and I don’t feel that the upperclassmen respect the freshmen. I also feel there is a separation in skin color. Light-skinned women feel that they are more superior than dark-skinned women.” SHAUGHN SMITH: “I don’t feel that I nor others are respected except by my friends. I see a bond between friends, but what if you need something from your Spelman sister and she is not your friend. Will she be there to help you? In most cases no. If your parents income isn't the same as anyone else's and if you don’t wear all designer clothes, you just don’t fit in. You’re basically like a little “black sheep.” They don't measure you by what you have upstairs, they measure you by your physical appearance.” WHAT WAS YOUR IMAGE OF SPELMAN BEFORE YOU CAME HERE? WHAT WAS THE REALITY YOU FOUND? JANIS P. MADDEN: "I thought that Spelman College was going to consist of a group of Black women who laughed, cried, worshipped and in some places partied together. I thought there was going to be a great bond between the sisters because of people who told me how much they loved Their friends at Spelman. My image of Spelman now is a chocolate factory or rainbow, where there are different types of chocolate. Some come out to be sweeter than others. You have chocolates who are trying to be white and snotty, chocolates who are really into their African heritage and chocolates who are really down to earth and will always be there when you need them. But even though the snobs and the cauca- sion acting people exist here, they have not devoured my image of a Spelman women. I wouldn't leave or try to change my establishment here for the world.” ANONYMOUS SOPHOMORE: “I thought that Spelman would be much more organized and put together. I was told I could major in certain things, only to find out once I got here that I couldn’t. I also thought that Spelman was an academically great institution. My image now is exactly the opposite. There is entirely too much friction and competition between all of the other schools in the Atlanta University Center Complex. The image of the institution seems to be more important to the institution, than the education that the students leave with.” JO-ANNA GRIFFITH: “I thought that as a dark-skinned woman coming to a school that had mostly light-skinned women, that I, the dark-skinned woman would be left out and ignored. I found my image to be very invalid. Even though I have come across several people who are color-struck, I have found that most people accept you for your mind and personality." ANONYMOUS SENIOR: “Before I came to Spelman I thought it would be like a fashion show, that everyone would be light-skinned, have long hair, great clothes and be stuck-up and unfriendly. I found that Spelman is not like that. The people I associate with are down to earth. Sure, there are some stuck-up people here, but you’ll find some of that everywhere.” ANONYMOUS SENIOR: “I had pictured a sisterhood that would go beyond appearances and labels. However, since com ing to Spelman I have become MORE aware of this preoccupa tion with physical appearance, skin color and hair texture. I thought a sisterhood would allow us to escape this pettiness. Some sisters told me how lucky I was to have “good” hair, yet I was bothered because I knew where their concept of "good” came from. I felt they were viewing me with like or dislike based on my physical apperance: seeing me as a “semi-white” rather than as a true sister." IS THERE ROLE PLAYING OR IMAGE BUILDING AT SPELMAN? IMG IA BASKIN: “Yes, I like when they bring Black leaders to campus and alumnae who have furthered their education to take important positions in society.” SHAUGHN SMITH: “Yes, I see a fashion show everyday. It’s all about who can dress better. Everybody is all about can you top this and who can get the cutest boyfriend." KIM BRONSON: "It is hard to be unique. If one person has a mini-skirt, everybody has a mini skirt. If one has a Polo shirt, everyone has to have one. Many people play the role of being an Economics or English or any major, but they are in name only; they spend most of their time hanging out.” ENID CRUISE: “Most of the girls here are trying to be something they’re not. They put themselves on a pesdastel, but they eat, drink, and fart just like everyone else. We are all Gods children and to the White man we are all the same.” WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF LACK OF UNITY (if any)? WHAT CAN BE SOME SOLUTIONS? SANDY ANDERSON: “Spelman has a slight lack of unity. It needs to start tooting its own horn. The Administration and students tend to live under the shadow of Morehouse. We should have our own homecom ing. It doesn’t have to be a football game. We need to establish an annual homecoming outside of Founders Day.” RENEE CHUBE: "As a senior it is hard to relate to freshmen. I’m not in contact with lower classmen. Once a month we should have some type of program to assemble together. It may have to be mandatory. Also, try a little harder to appreciate each other for what each of us can offer.” MARVA WILLIAMS: “The night of thefreshman initiation is when all of the lack of unity starts because the freshmen are turned off. People need to get rid of the snobish, goddess, or I’m better than you attitude. There are so many cliques with people who won’t “clique” with anyone else. We need to get rid of these phony people and focus on being ourselves.” ANONYMOUS FRESHMAN: "Silly stuff divides us. One thing that ruined the bond between upperclassmen and freshmen was the tradition of waking us up in the middle of the night to dog us out. It didn't promote sisterhood, it just made us angry. By telling us we were stupid because we think these guys (Morehouse) were going to abuse us ruined the brother/sister image. Made it seem like a battle between us. You have to develop a rapport before you go off on somebody.” NEIMAH WARSOME: “The Administration should en courage sisterhood awareness by having a day just for Sisterhood Day.” ANONYMOUS SENIOR: “There is a lack of unity because of a lack of participation. At the Town Hall meeting only five percent of the Student Body showed up. Why should the SGA put forth the effort?” JANIS P. MADDEN: “The lack of unity hereatSpelman isdueto a lack of concern, compassion and too much egotism, vanity, arrogance and not enough love. We should stop looking at ourselves and look towards the general needs of others. Such as, respecting one another and what they believe in.” KIM HARDING: “There is a lack of participation. The SGA or Administration invite speakers and the turnout is not so good. I can't blame the Administration because students should take the initiative.” SHAUGHN SMITH: "Everybody is stepping on everyone elses toes to get to the top and once they get there they don’t want to help anyone to get where they are. People need to get together on different things and stop judging a book by its cover. We need to dig deeper for other qualities in people. Everybody is different and everyone has something to offer. The school has opened my eyes to a lot and has showed me how I don’t want to be. We are all one paycheck away from poverty.” INQIA BASKIN: “If you don’t look a certain way or in a certain class, you can’t hang. We need to stop prejudging people and assuming we know about them, we should look inside. Begin to communicate and stop being so fake.” ANONYMOUS JUNIOR: “We don’t ever come together (ex cept in party situations). So how can we do anything? J 0| A N N A GRIFFITH: “Women have always been raised to look upon each other as their enemy. Whereas, men have been raised to look upon each other as their allies. We should start worrying less about attrac ting the Morehouse man and worry more about getting ourselves together as young Black sisters of our future.” JUNE STEWART: “The students have no ability to accept people as they are. We need to be more friendly to those inside of the Spelman community as well as outside.” KIM BRONSON: “There is a lack of unity because of color consciousness. Even at parties during freshman week there was a favortism to girls with light skin and long hair. There are other things which exist to divide us like, the Honors Program and State Clubs divide us. There is also a lack of unity because so many women are so darn busy competing for men. ENID CRUISE: “The girls are afraid of one another, so they put a shelter around themselves because they are afraid of gettin' hurt.” Among the barriers which separate us, one seems to stand out and this trend among Spelmanites is noted by alumnae (c'1975) and music faculty member CAROLYN IRVIN BRAILSFORD: “Most Spelmen women look cute, fine, beautiful, like they stepped right off the cover of ESSENCE. It seems as if they are more in terested in being beautiful than in cultivating their inner beauty or spiritual values: those earthy things that in the past have gotten us over.” Why have our values changed? "The media and television have a lot to do with it. We do what TV dictates without exam- ing or questioning. If they say drink Diet Coke, we drink Diet Coke. If they say drink Perrier water, we drink Perrier water. If they say wear blue eye pencil, we wear blue eye pencil. If they saw wear short dresses, we do, without questioning if it is suitable for us.” Now that some Spelman sisters have voiced their opinions on sisterhood we must begin to recognize the problems and individually take one step towards solving them. Do you believe that the Spelman sisterhood is in trouble? Do you think the sisterhood is strong?