BSA, College Republicans Invite Akinyemi to Mason

By Broadside Asst. News Editor Dan Abernathy
Photo by Broadside Photographer Mahmoud Lababidi

Although Black History Month has drawn to a close, George Mason University students explored and celebrated many related topics right up to the end, especially social injustice.

This was evident when about 40 students gathered at Johnson Center Cinema on Feb. 25 to hear the “inspirational and educational” speaker, Akindele Akinyemi, present “The Emerging Urban Family,” an hour speech/slideshow aiming to help the black community empower itself through financial, moral and spiritual means.

The event, co-sponsored by the Black Student Alliance and College Republicans, ended with a 30-minute question and answer session that quickly turned into a debate over Akindele’s conservative claims.

“He’s a strong-minded individual,” said Tiffany Reaves, president of Mason’s BSA chapter, prior to the event.
She also stressed the purpose behind it. Despite Akinyemi’s preacher-like demeanor and conservative viewpoint, “tonight’s talk will be about rebuilding urban communities.”

Standing in front of a refreshment table in the JC Cinema’s foyer area that was quickly filling with both liberal and conservative students, Reaves, who was the first point of contact with Akindele, outlined how the event came together.

In an effort to reach communities outside of Michigan, “Detroit’s only conservative blogger” (self-proclaimed) sent an e-mail describing his presentation to a select group of Virginia colleges, primarily those with sizable black student bodies or BSA chapters, such as Howard, GWU, Georgetown and Mason.

After Reaves responded, and contacted Mason’s College Republicans, a group whose conservative values might also resonate with Akindele’s, event details quickly fell into place.

“When you co-sponsor an event, it’s easy to get the word out,” Reaves said, adding what many organizations now admit. “We have a Facebook page.”

Following an invitation to speak at Mason, Akinyemi drove eight hours from Detroit to arrive at Mason the night before Tuesday’s presentation, and his enthusiasm to talk about one of America’s most critical issues, the disenfranchisement of the African-American community, was evident from the moment he approached the microphone wearing a tightly-cut black suite.

“How y’all doin?” he began.

Akinyemi’s first slide was a quote from the Ghana’s Ashanti culture, “The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people.”

From there, Akinyemi outlined his assessment of the factors contributing to problems such as the disappearance of the black nuclear family, economic injustice and degraded moral standards.

To fight these, he prescribed many of the remedies conservative pundits tend to cite, such as heterosexual marriage, financial security through self-acquired wealth and the discontinuation of liberal behavior under the principles of the Bible.

Akinyemi also cited the Genesis Project and his company A-1 Management, two entities working to generate projects like “family-centered and college preparatory charter schools in urban settings that focus on traditional moral values in a school setting.”

These were no doubt possible solutions, but much of Akinyemi’s presentation drew skepticism, primarily in regards to statistics, the presentation of his facts and the reasoning behind his assertions.

Akinyemi zipped through dozens of slides, many full of questionable statistics, figures without cited sources and hundreds of generalized statements surrounding the black race that did nothing to support a presentation about “emerging urban families.”

In addition, he colored his loosely-scripted speech with distracting language and wordplay, using words and phrases such as “hatoraid,” “race pimpology” and moving from “civil rights to silver rights.”

At the core of Akinyemi’s message was that in order for blacks to achieve happiness, security and social and economic justice, they must, must be morally superior, heterosexual nuclear families that attend church and manage self-generated wealth while owning a home and getting a first class education. In other words: the previous American dream.

When he opened up the floor for questioning, hands shot up everywhere. Students aggressively questioned many of the topics and positions haphazardly woven into his speech like abortion, social versus economic injustice, homosexuality and relationship stereotypes, just to name a few.

Students also questioned Akinyemi’s failure to contextualize his claims, including his limited point of view as a conservative living in liberal-dominated Detroit.

But questions were raised by conservatives and liberals alike, the most controversial coming from a student conscious of university-economics. “Did you receive an honorarium [for speaking at Mason], and how much was it?”

“I don’t have to answer that,” said Akinyemi, now fully-aware of audience suspicion.

Although several students and teachers debated with Akinyemi, often inciting emotional outbursts and real-life experiences that countered Akinyemi’s claims, the presentation was effective in many ways.

“I was really moved at the beginning,” said Toni White, a communications major, who adjusted some of her stances when the question and answer portion began.

Della Khonikboyera, a global affairs student, put her position in practical terms. “Change is not defined by imposing your morals on others.”

Calvin Haney, the Office of Diversity’s advisor to the BSA, called the discussion a success. “It was a good cross-cultural, political dialogue. His [Akinyemi’s] presentation on his ideas is a process, but he’s passionate.”

Perhaps Akindele Akinyemi represents exactly what Black History Month is all about: discussing where a community is, where it was and where it wants to go.