BLC’s many events offer learning opportunities

Jasmine Boyd waited in anticipation Saturday afternoon for celebrity speaker Jeff Johnson to conclude the weekend-long Black Leadership Conference.

Boyd, a freshman nursing major, had never attended a Black Leadership Conference prior to Thursday. At the conference, Boyd said she learned a lot.

“I learned how to be a leader,” she said, “and do whatever I want to do [in life].”

Through attending the Black Leadership Conference, sponsored by the African American Cultural Center, Boyd said she learned to have more self-confidence.

During Friday’s events a variety show was held in Hulman Memorial Student Union. The show featured various musical acts and interpretations of the arts from the 1950s to present day.

Saturday’s closing speaker Jeff Johnson, author and commentator for Black Entertainment Television (BET), diverted from the chosen speech after acknowledging a problem with today’s generation. Johnson then addressed conflicts with leadership in the black community.

“I want to face you with the reality of a leadership conflict,” he said. “I am troubled that this generation does not know what leadership is.”

He said this generation is more about attending continuous, never-changing meetings, instead of making changes in society.

“You are more about showing-up than making changes,” Johnson said.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Indiana State University chapter is hosting a week of events that center on leading the Terre Haute community.

The organization is sponsoring the first-ever NAACP Image Awards Wednesday. The awards will showcase students’ achievements in leadership.

Derrick Clark, a senior communication major, attended the conference for the fourth year and was intrigued with the information shared in the workshops Saturday morning in the Science Building. 

“I learned about how to better myself,” he said. “I learned some history and opened my eyes to the keys of success, especially in the black community.”

Clark’s favorite session was about affirmative action, instructed by Sheila Johnson, director of affirmative action.

“I learned why affirmative action is still needed today,” Clark said.

Sheila Johnson used the candy M&Ms to illustrate how affirmative action helps society and what needs to happen for affirmative action to no longer be necessary.

Johnson used the poem “Me and my M&M’s” to provide the context for her presentation and discussion. Marilynn Kern-Foxworth, president of Kern-Foxworth International and former professor of marketing and advertising at Texas Advertising and Marketing University, wrote the poem.

The poem ends with the phrase, “If candy can be prejudice free, why can’t we?”