myHIN Blog

May 12, 2014

Much More Than Just a Cancelled Concert

So our university had the opportunity to host one of the greatest concerts of the current music age. The new rebellious hype of Migos accompanied by the classic hard rhymes of Pusha T had the potential to be the greatest concert of ones undergraduate career. This potentially great concert ended before it even began. Two days before the scheduled date of the concert I found out via twitter that the concert that we’ve been so anxious about had been cancelled.

I personally, like many of my colleagues, was looking forward to this concert. This concert was supposed to help me get through the week. As soon as I found out that it was cancelled my mood completely changed. I had my stress reliever for the month taken from me. Stress is real, and when a stress reliever is taken away what do you have left; STRESS.

But this is much more than just a cancelled concert. We as the African American community on campus have had the repeated issue that our voices aren’t truly being heard. Even if we are “heard” our ideals are effortlessly tossed away as trivial or even not relevant to a “bigger” issue. For example there was a historic low of African American students that got accepted by NC State this past fall semester. A total of 215 African American freshmen were accepted to State last semester; yup only 215 out of a school of 35,000.

I know one of the biggest fears coming to state is that I would become white. Straight up, I thought I would be white washed by the very PWI I chose to get an education. I came to African American visitation day before it was renamed “Embrace NC State” and I perspective changed completely. Seeing people “like me” is important, not the most important, to my social skills, my culture, and the quality of my education.

Aside from my disappointment I had to find another way to relive this accumulated stress. I ended up hanging out with friends and just talking about the entire issue. Stress is real and we all need a healthy way to deal with it.