Vibe Magazine Article on Morehouse Dress Code Misses the Mark
By Chuck Hobbs, Esquire – The famed theologian and philosopher Howard Thurman, Morehouse College Class of ’23, once said about his alma mater “Over the heads of her students Morehouse holds a crown that she challenges them to grow tall enough to wear.”
Crown—not tiara.
Much to the chagrin of Morehouse graduates, this week, Vibe magazine debuts an article entitled “The Mean Girls of Morehouse” chronicling the lives of several current and former Morehouse students who identify themselves as androgynous. Of particular disgust to this group of students is the dress code enacted by President Robert Franklin that includes a complete ban on students wearing women’s clothing.
For over 140 years, Morehouse College has been one of the country’s leading institutions of higher learning. Affiliated with the Baptist church, Morehouse is one of only three Black colleges with a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and in the past fifteen years, has been one of the nation’s leading producers of Rhodes and Fulbright scholars.
Its rich history reads like a “Who’s Who” among Black leaders, counting among its many successful graduates the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., former Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan, former Surgeon General David Satcher and Filmmaker Spike Lee.
With the success the school has enjoyed, it is easy to understand that for years the school has had its share of detractors, many of whom have heard the rumors that the school regaled for developing leaders is also a haven for homosexual behavior.
One memorable scene in Spike Lee’s “Skool Daze”, which was shot on and around the Morehouse campus, included a standoff between students from fictional “Mission College” being accosted by several local mendicants led by Samuel L. Jackson, also a Morehouse alum, who quite hilariously states in an effeminate voice “is it true what they say about Mission men?”
What “they” have often said is that Morehouse Men are gay. Indeed, no matter how successful a Morehouse Man is, at some point, we all have found ourselves having to answer questions from family members and friends about the perception of homosexuality at our alma mater.
While my parents were certainly in support of me attending Morehouse, one of the last things that my father told me prior to leaving me at the dormitory on my first day on campus was to watch my temper if “one of them” ever made a pass at me.
Fortunately, no such event ever occurred during my tenure, as I found that the overwhelming majority of my classmates and friends were overwhelmingly heterosexual. If we were not competing in class for top grades or on the football field or basketball court, we definitely were competing for the attention of the thousands of young women at college campuses across Atlanta, including our de facto sister school, the all women’s Spelman College.
In honesty, there were some known homosexuals on campus during my matriculation. But they were few, at least openly, as it is apparent in retrospect that long before former President Bill Clinton introduced “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” into the military lexicon, such was the unspoken practice at Morehouse.
In the 16 years since I graduated, times have changed—to an extent. Atlanta is often called the “Mecca of Black America”, but the truth is that Atlanta is home to a very noticeable gay culture. Rumors run amok about the many celebrities and powerful black figures drawn to Atlanta because of its tolerance for homosexual behavior and lifestyles. The recent controversy with Bishop Eddie Long has only exacerbated the conversations within the black community about homosexuality and its seeming lack of acceptance in black churches and on black college campuses like Morehouse.
With that in mind, it is understandable why the young students who are referred to as “The Plastics” or the “Mean Girls” in the Vibe article feel as if they are somehow being singled out—if not discriminated against—by the school’s dress policy.
But the truth is that they are being treated no differently than Morehouse heterosexual men who for years have felt that some of the school’s strictures were Draconian and stymied their self expression. For us, in the 90’s there was a particular disdain for the school forbidding women from spending the night on campus (an oft broken rule if I may add). Morehouse was also a “dry” campus, too, and random alcohol checks were a regular occurrence. (Thankfully I was never caught with my Jack Daniels or Canadian Mist).
Looking back, the wisdom in such rules was a school teaching young men restraint and control. It was not enough for us to argue, “Hey, on other college campuses they have co-ed dorms and allow liquor.” That, we were told, was why other colleges were not Morehouse. That, we were told, is why other colleges cannot find their graduates among the most influential figures in human history.
Somehow, the confused young androgynous men who refer to themselves as “girls” or other derogatory terms for women have forgotten this very critical fact that Morehouse’s mission is to prepare future leaders. And as far as I can tell, the overwhelming majority of jobs in America, whether it is teaching, preaching, building, selling, advocating, healing or praying, simply do not allow for a man to dress like woman at his whim.
To that end, it is not the homosexuality that the “mean girls” are being singled out for, but the socially deviant behavior they exhibit through dress. If they cannot comport their conduct, there is always the local state or public university.
