White Valedictorian Makes Morehouse History
Reader Comments
How is Morehouse one of the top schools in the country?? It's not even ranked in the top 100 schools in the country, and is ranked as a "third tier" liberal arts school.
Why someone would turn down a top 10 national university (Columbia) for Morehouse? I'll never figure out...
It's like a football player turning down Florida, Texas, USC, or Ohio State to play at Grambling or FAMU....
Seems like somebody just wanted to be a "big fish" in a "small pond"...
Response to "face on face off"
Your comments about Josh Packwood just broke my heart. Everyday is bringing more and more progress to race relations in this country. People looking past color to see the character...good AND bad...in all of us. We probably will have an African American president come November and yet, no matter what Caucasians do, in your mind, is not enough. You're absolutely right...Mr Packwood was not born black, BUT he was born with the character to know that it's his duty to learn about other cultures. You want other races to look past your skin color, why aren't you looking past Mr. Packwood's. Is it ok that you're assuming that he's not going to help the African-American race in the future? Should he ONLY help the Black race? Or can he help the Latino race? If he helped struggling Latinos in the inner-city, would that make his character any less worthy? Comments like yours only put the brakes on race relations. It makes someone like me think, why should I even try anymore because everything given is still not enough.
face on face off
mr. packwood,now that you white face is back on, the black experience that you claim you got from attending morehouse will be like it never happen. black people are born black and die black,some thing that you will never understand. you got what you wanted ,now do some thing for the black race by promoting after school programs.a black morehouse man deserved this far moor than youll ever understand,you white chance was at columbia
Lest not forget Joshua Harris
While I have mixed feelings about Packwood, there is another young man, that seems to be totally overlooked. Joshua Harris. This young man also completed his work and studied hard and deserves as much recognition in this matter as Packwood.
A few thoughts...
To the gentleman from Valdosta state who presumes as many others do that attending an HBCU does not prepare you for "the world", your perception is just flat out flawed. Such an ideology should also mean that black children should be adopted by non-blacks and vice versa in order to make sure they do not have a skewed perception of the world. Such is not the case. As a member of the class of '98, I can tell you that the students who attended the Spelman/Morehouse reunion were quite successful; not to mention that a large number of those graduating classes made it back (so as to say that it wasn't just the "few" that were successful; a lot of us were there). Having come from Morehouse and Spelman, we seemed to not only survive, but excell past many others in this "diverse world". As I attended USC for graduate school, the few blacks who scoffed and belittled me for not going to a "good school" are now somewhere behind me in THEIR endeavors to "make it" in this world, despite their ivy league background. By all accounts, they should be as successful as me and my brethren if not moreso; however, I think their apparent self-racial loathing has held them back.
Morehouse is not just a good school for Black Men, it's a great school regardless; now more than ever. It is hilarious that this is news at all, or that anyone could think that attending a school like this one is not going to prepare you for the world. I have never been so sure of the contrary as I am today, having seen my classmates who are leaders of industry, managing attorneys, real estate moguls, emergency room doctors, plastic surgeons and police detectives: all of us being on average only 31 years old.
Not bad for a Negro college, huh?
This is so cool..
So finally, I heard about someone who turned down an Ivy league school for the sake of a college that fits him/her best... THIS IS SO COOL!! And I have to say Ivy League schools are not that great as people believe. They have their flaws like other institutions in the world.. I hope people can go beyond this whole school name drama. I have seen enough students devasted this admissions season b/c they did not get into any Ivy League schools. Best fit is what matters.. Go Morehouse and Spelman.
Proud of Packwood. His skin color doesn't matter, neither should it.
My name is Greling Jackson. I graduated from Morehouse in May 2007 last year as the top scholar in the Philosophy department. I knew Packwood and had conversations with him several times. He is a good guy and completely deserves this honor. It is entirely based on his merit. The commentator that wrote that Morehouse has had its "crown stolen" doesn't get it at all. It is remarks like this that make me sick and only wish that there could be more men like Packwood out there just to make them even more frustrated. Dr. King envisioned a society where we would be color-blind and our children would walk hand-in-hand. That day is today. Though we have much work to be done, we are seeing change take place within the younger generation that will inspire a society that our ancestors could have never dreamed they'd see. Just as we cheer when there is a black valedictorian at Harvard, we should be cheering when he have a white one at Morehouse. And, more and more as they years go by, the boundaries that divide us on dubious things like race, gender, and sexual orientation will fade, and a new, more free and more liberated people will arise in this nation, where we are all treated equally and truly live as one people.
L-A-K-E of TX
Thanks, but I got all the ecomonics classes I needed when I was majoring in Mechanical Engineering....please go back to your job as a teller at the local WAMU.....
The only purpose of Investment Banks is to line their pockets with cash, and fleece shareholders, and the general public. "Create jobs"!!!! haha...who told you that??? Your eco-101 professor???
Secondly, you missed the entire point of my previous posting....which is, if the greatest minds of the next generation, such as Josh, are heading to positions in Investment Banks, rather than becoming Doctors, Fire Fighters, Teachers, Janitors or anything else that gives back to society......our Country is screwed.......
Propaganda
Thats why the news posts articles like this....to illicit moronic arguments over some bullsh*t story.....OK, hes white, Moorhouse is predominantly black....who the **** cares?? Theres how many other valedictorians graduating this season around the country?? thousands, tens of thousands? And how many black white yellow brown students just graduating in general??...plus plenty of other extremely successsful people starting out in their careers who never even went to college.....man, this is SO typical of the press...and yes, I realize Im even getting sucked into by reading this......My personal opinion, since you are asking... is Josh sounds like a complete moron, and an egomaniac..and IF he is so great, why the *** is he working at yet another scumbag Investment Bank like Goldman Sachs.....for the money!!.....if you are so GREAT JOSH......go actually do something for society now that you are so FAMOUS........what a crock! ....He just another pretty boy banker living in NYC.......
