Facebook/Matt Wiggins
Morehouse Interview
This morning Matt and I met up with a group of Morehouse College students for an interview before they left for Christmas Break. Since most colleges are in the middle of exam time or about to leave for the semester, we were fortunate to get them on camera. Morehouse is known for being one of the top predominantly African-American universities, with famous graduates like Martin Luther King Jr., Spike Lee, and Samuel L. Jackson. I’m not sure what the exact racial mix is for the school itself, but the group we interviewed was entirely African-American.
Their backgrounds ranged from all black high schools to predominantly white high schools or upper-middle class to near poverty, so the reasons for attending Morehouse varied. Some thought it would be a great way to surround themselves with people of their own ‘community’ and others just wanted to be in the majority rather than the minority.
I’ve noticed that many of the conversations we’ve had with minorities around the country very quickly head towards the topic of race relations whether we direct it there or not. I believe it’s a point of pride more than an animosity towards the ‘other’ side, but this conversation started the same way. Between the seven of them, cultural identity seemed to be an omnipresent factor in their lives.
We spoke about the connotations of ‘black’ vs. ‘African American’, the nature vs. nurture issue, and the status of the American Dream. Among other things, we spent some time discussing thefacebook.com – which seemed to be a large factor in their college experiences both for better and for worse. The facebook topic led us to a theme about the connectivity of our generation and the potential of the Internet when used properly. As a group, they seemed to view the Internet as the democratizing tool that was envisioned from the start.