As a "financially challenged" student of color, I am often invited to attend outreach programs that are meant to teach people like myself about leadership, networking and good study habits.
Two weeks ago I attended the Gates Millennium Scholarship Conference, which aims to "provide scholars with an opportunity to reach their fullest leadership potential." Upon arrival, I was barraged with signs of wealth: the car that took us to the hotel came complete with leather seats, satellite radio and a driver in an expensive-looking suit; the hotel was the nicest that many of us had ever stayed in; and we were greeted with three forks at every meal.
Were the forks and other elements of unnecessary elegance just a nice gesture on the part of Bill Gates, or was the extravagance meant to add credibility to the overall conference? I'm not sure. But I do know that the extra two forks didn't inspire me to be a leader.
I wouldn't have been bothered so much by the luxurious details if I hadn't been so skeptical about the overall message conveyed to us in the conference. The speakers gave us the classic "suggestions" (demands): "Stay in school. Get a doctorate. Focus on studies, not on extracurricular programs." They even told us to eat healthy.
I, however, was expecting a very different message. After all, the founder of this scholarship is Bill Gates. Why didn't the speakers tell us to drop out of school and start a multi-billion dollar company? While it might seem strange for a scholarship fund to encourage its recipients to drop out of school, the scholarship is paying for us to attain financial stability. Obviously, dropping out of school to start a multi-billion dollar company is quite a challenge, but by encouraging traditional paths to financial success, the conference refused to recognize our full potential.
How come people of color are being told to attend graduate school so that we can become highly paid employees, instead of being told to take our lives in our own hands so that we can be employ ers? What the conference organizers should have told us is to follow our passions, no matter how risky the path, because our greatest potential can only be realized through our passions. If people of color are to succeed financially, we need to take risks. People who play it safe rarely make significant contributions to society.
In retrospect, the conference was like all of the others that I have attended in the past , with the exception of the extra forks. We, students of color from relatively poor families, are told to conform and to play it safe: attend graduate school, get a job with a reputable company and spend our lives paying off house and car payments . I don't want to scream conspiracy theory, but why do the programs that we attend continue to make us followers, yet refer to us as leaders? Is Bill Gates afraid of some competition? Are we supposed to think big, but not too big? Apparently, we are supposed to leave our barrios and hoods - but we are not supposed to try to leave companies like Microsoft in the dust of our financial triumphs.
It's fine to take the traditional route to a professional degree, success and financial stability. But if we, students of color, are going to lead our people out of financial inequality and social injustice, we can't all go to graduate school and start paying mortgages. If I go to graduate school, there's a good chance I will go on to work for a white heterosexual male who can trace his family roots back to a slave owner or someone else who directly benefited from colonialism through the acquisition of land. People of color need to attain wealth and then redistribute such wealth back into social programs geared towards "poor" people of color.
The conference speakers repeatedly said, "Be thankful. Don't say the money is not enough. Bill has been very generous." I don't mean to be a jerk, but isn't "Bill" still sitting in his $100 million house? Maybe if he sold one of the wings to his house, all of us scholars could have a full ride or more students could enroll in school.
I am thankful for what the Gates Millennium Scholarship Conference and others like it have done for me as far as scholarships and networking opportunities are concerned. But it is obvious that according to Bill Gates, the "underprivileged" children who have managed to "overcome adversity" should continue serving the more privileged.
Michael Ramos-Lynch '09 is looking for tamales for Thanksgiving.
