Commemoration
On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill, making the third Monday in January a federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. specified. King, a member of the civil rights movement, proposed in 1994 that King's holiday be made “a day off, not a day off.” Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King and thank him for his tremendous contributions and the countless others who shared in them. Fight against white supremacy. So much has changed since the signing of this bill, but so much remains the same. In fact, some people say that the speed with which we have progressed has made Dr. King and the unsung heroes of the movement. I've written about it before. Letter to Dr. King But I would like to leave that convention behind and speak directly to you. Scholars, leaders, activists, debaters, vocalists and athletes From Wiley University. Dr. Herman J. Felton
current climate
On January 12, 2024, Elon Musk, one of the most stubborn billionaires of our time and founder of TESLA, Inc., retweeted io@eyeslasho.
“The average IQ of a USAF pilot is around 120, while that of a major airline pilot is between 115 and 130. By contrast, the average IQ of graduates of the two United Airlines HBCU “partners” ranges from about 85 to 130. Based on the school's average SAT, it is 90 points. (The SAT has a fairly good correlation with IQ.) To put this in context, the HBCU IQ average is within 10 points of the threshold for what is considered “borderline intellectual disability,” while the pilot's IQ average is within 10 points of the threshold considered. It is within 10 points. “Intellectually gifted. I would like to add that IQ is a well-studied and well-established predictor of job performance, especially for high-processing, mentally demanding jobs like major airline pilots.”
Elon Musk responded, “If we change this crazy DIE policy, planes will crash and hundreds of people will die.”
Their point is that students and graduates of HBCUs are inferior. Both Dr. King and Congressman Lewis were HBCU graduates (Morehouse College and Fisk University, respectively) and exemplify the competencies developed, utilized, and implemented through an HBCU education. And yet, on this day that commemorates Dr. King's life and legacy, people like Elon Musk are turning to white supremacy to attack affirmative action/diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts designed to right the wrongs of institutional racism. do. It has been experienced for generations.
I think the fact that the timing of Musk's latest attack coincides with national commemorations of Dr. King is both serendipitous and a reminder of what our ancestors and grandparents wisely admonished us. “To get half as much, be twice as good.” Even at this moment, 60 years later, march on washingtonI know it well too part The landscape of race relations has changed. That's why I'm grateful to the activists who risked everything to give me the life I enjoy today. On a day when we honor a man whom the federal government once sought to destroy and whom the American public condemned, it is a painful reminder that we are still discussing black excellence.
HBCUs: Where Opportunity and Empowerment Collide to Create Magic
I strongly support repealing this tool (affirmative action). Even though this tool was born of necessity due to prevalent patterns and practices of exclusion. I can partially agree with Mr. Musk. DEI must die, but only with equity and respect for you. Magic No enforcement by the highest court of the land is required. To be clear, the value cannot be assessed. Magic Products produced by HBCUs like Wiley University should be “DIE”! However, the current situation in this country says this. Magic Despite known consequences when our God-given rights are celebrated, they continue to be mistrusted, denied, and systematically suppressed. Magic This happens and Musk and others know it. They are acutely aware of the risks posed by HBCU graduates, so they want to dismantle all the tools created to discredit you and demonstrate what they believe happens when capabilities and opportunities collide. Magic.
Elon Musk's narrow-minded response seemed to gather a slow response and many people had their day, and perhaps the limited response from HBCU graduates and students was due to our fatigue. Nonetheless, we cannot continue to ignore individuals who are increasingly unstable and have platforms, as if we believe these things about ourselves. I can attest first-hand how exhausting it is to be black in America. It also demonstrates what happens when HBCUs like Wiley University provide intentional spaces where opportunities and capabilities can collide. again, Magic happens. my beloved wildcateh, you are a producer Magic! America benefited from this. Magic; Musk needs to know this. Musk had the mistaken idea that he should join the chat and offer his unsolicited opinion on United Airlines' announcement in an attempt to find the best and brightest information. Drawing from the quacks of the eugenics movement who use “research” to raise awareness is elementary. “First, there is a ton of evidence showing that the SAT reflects and even promotes racism in America. That has been true since testing began. Both the SAT and IQ tests were developed in part by eugenicists who feared that ‘racial mixing’ would lead to the decline of America,” the National Educational Association said.
The fear that partnering with more than 100 HBCUs across the country to strengthen the airline industry will be detrimental because of beliefs about the inferiority of blacks who attend and graduate from HBCUs is preposterous. Our institutions continue to serve as a breeding ground for billionaire businesswomen, military generals, researchers who invent vaccines, Nobel Prize winners and more.
I feel invested in encouraging a call to action and challenging Mr. Musk to sit at the table with other HBCU presidents for candid conversations. To be honest, I'm inviting him to meet with us because I'm intrigued by his inferiority complex theory and his willingness to argue for this claim. I am confident that he will not be willing to participate because people like him are in hiding, and I offer this open letter to you and to him in the hope that they will not be challenged. Perhaps Musk's agreement with the aforementioned beliefs stems from his formative years, which were invariably shaped by the lingering vestiges of apartheid in South Africa. We might conclude that he and his family most likely benefited from it. So he and others like him were unable to see the sight. Magic People suffering as a result of apartheid.
I believe that, given his penchant for space exploration and STEM sciences, it was perfectly reasonable for him to hope that at some point he would come across an outstanding example represented by a genius like Katherine, an African-American female HBCU graduate. Johnson – West Virginia State University, Dorothy Vaughan – Wilberforce University, and Mary Jackson – Hampton University served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: NASA's launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. With confidence, it changed the course of the space race and revitalized the world. great movie, hidden figureSummarize the contributions of HBCU graduates.
movie, great debaters chronicle Magic This is the story of Wiley University students who stood up to racism and violence while simultaneously defeating an “academically superior” institution. Curiosity should have led a competent person on a journey to test his or her lazy premises. Certainly, with satellites, he can use a Google or Wikipedia query from anywhere in the world to prove that students and graduates of HBCUs are not “borderline intellectually disabled.” Someone should also let Musk know that Tesla has an internship partnership with Huston-Tillotson University, an HBCU in Austin, Texas.
Rather than continue to reiterate the irrefutable facts about the need for the creation of HBCUs or enumerate the numerous contributions to America by Wiley College, her alumni, and the alumni of 103 other HBCUs, racists and bigots like Musk Let's take a look at the pathology. Use their belief in white intellectual superiority to disguise their fear of your mere existence, your magic. Similar white supremacist forces cannot be trusted to: lynx You may be intellectually superior to that person, or at least be able to match their intellectual abilities. So he and others like him, even though our ancestors escaped 400 years of slavery, were treated as three-fifths of a human being, terrorized during the Jim Crow era, and denied fair or equal education, housing, banking, and healthcare. and deny your intelligence. Access to care, employment, and every art piece imaginable is critical to pursuing the “American Dream.”
Perhaps those who have watched Elon Musk continue to feed narrow perceptions of his own grandeur will resist the urge to boycott him. Instead of returning the Tesla and deleting the X, occupying that space and owning it might be the answer. Occupy, own, and metaphorically collapse through organized anger that changes the financial trajectory of these organizations. Maybe you will finally be like that sick and tired It's enough to grab people's hearts and metaphorically march to disrupt this new comfort in white supremacists' bigoted performances.
At some point we will realize that Elon Musk and others like him are dangerous just because we are not. We are free and do not have to tolerate the flow of prejudice as usual. As we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., we must remember that we are the custodians of the future and that we can create this future without racism. Like Elon Musk.
Dr. Herman J. Felton is President and CEO of Wiley University in Marshall, Texas. This letter is from dr. Reprinted with the assistance of Felton and Wiley University.