When I was growing up, my mother ran a literary circle during the summer for Black kids in St. Louis called “Hurston & Hughes.”
Every summer, we read and dissected stories from the Black diaspora, and because of her, I can recite “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar front and back, side to side. The world was a whole lot different then, crazy to say. It was 2014, Obama was still president, and I hadn’t even started high school, yet. The year before in eighth grade, we explored the concept of “The Pyramid of Hate” in a deep dive of the Holocaust. In typical 14-year-old girl fashion, I knew everything about everything, and no one could tell me otherwise. But no matter how many times my mama made us recite “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, I never understood.
Langston Hughes asks a fundamental question: “What happens to a dream deferred?”
At 14, nothing seemed impossible. In fact, my dream career was to be a writer/fashion designer/singer/actress because how could I ever pick one thing? Needless to say, after a particularly embarrassing rendition of “Let It Be” by the Beatles (I forgot the words) at the eighth-grade talent show, my days on stage were short-lived.
Now, almost nine years later, I completely understand what Hughes meant.
From September 2024 to January 2025, I spent time applying for graduate school, particularly Columbia University. For those months, I researched, wrote and re-wrote, and occasionally cried, of course. I never had a dream school, but Columbia became my dream, and all of my future success hinged on me going there and only there (dramatic, I know).
Hopes Lifted Sometimes Fall
Coming from an HBCU, it was important to choose an institution that allowed for freedom and expression. Columbia University has an HBCU fellowship that covers tuition and board for HBCU students, and that became my ticket.
March slowly crept along and in my email, I saw an admission letter: “Congratulations, you have been admitted to Columbia University.”
But by April, I got the follow-up letter that I did not receive the fellowship I sought, and everything came crashing down.
The week before I found out that I didn’t get the fellowship, the Trump administration had cut $1.3 billion from the university’s funding, and the day before I found out I did not get money, I had called my dad about how the school had been treating its students. I was questioning whether I’d even feel safe at that school. The façade had started to fade.
Dog Whistles and Disillusionment
Now, a couple of months later, I see that Columbia University is an example of why you do not answer to dog whistles.
Alice Walker has this quote that perfectly explains these serious or unfortunate events: “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
History has shown us countless times that when the educational system is attacked, the foundations crumble. The current administration has ruptured critical structures in a short seven months, but it should never be a surprise because they said they would.
What is a surprise is that Columbia did not even put up a proper fight. The university has arrested students, revoked diplomas, allowed DHS to search rooms and allowed ICE to arrest a former student. They have now agreed to a $221-million settlement with the Trump administration and are also allowing the White House access to admissions data broken down by racial demographics, GPA and test scores.
By waving the white flag in surrender, the university has given in to white supremacy and anti-intellectual ideology that completely erases historical context, free thought and exploration. And despite this all, the acting president stands on the illusion that Columbia still preserves its academic integrity and freedom.
The Palestinian people are being ethnically erased, and there is no way around that. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has resulted in extreme human-rights violations, and covering up any criticism from student protestors as antisemitism is a dog whistle.
College students, the heartbeat of this country, are at times quite vulnerable, so seeing a historically prestigious institution aid in the deferring of its students’ dreams is disheartening.
Before I graduated high school, my final article at my high-school publication spoke about my desire to attend an HBCU. I wanted a sense of safety and belonging. Even then, I wrote about how the Trump administration was cutting funding from these institutions. I craved an academic setting where I was just Kiden, and not the only other Black girl in an advanced-placement course. After graduating from my HBCU, Jackson State University, that sentiment became even more important.
So I’m not going to Columbia. Funds aside, I cannot support an institution that inexplicably harms its students, blocks free speech and is fuel for dangerous propaganda. Columbia University is aiding in historical erasure by giving in to arbitrary demands, and to say this settlement will have no impact on the American educational system is naive.
Leaving the Mississippi Free Press
Now more than ever, it is so important that we push back and obtain education, encourage higher thought and constantly evolve. What Langston Hughes talks about in “Harlem” is more than just an aspiration or goal; it is the dream to be. It is the dream to exist, freely. Hughes is talking about a promise of the American Dream that was never really meant for those two shades darker than alabaster.
Although I’m not attending Columbia, which was once my dream school, I’m still pursuing higher education. I am getting my MBA in marketing at the University in Connecticut, which means that I am also leaving the Mississippi Free Press. Supporting, engaging and encouraging free thought in today’s socio-political climate is vital to keeping the heartbeat of freedom, democracy and integrity alive, and it has been such an honor to be a part of that here.
Throughout “Harlem,” Hughes asks about the many ways a dream is neglected, withered away, bent up and tossed away. He ends the poem with: “Or does it explode?” I have similar questions. How long will the American people give in and allow the butchering of ideals, freedoms and truths? How long will we wait until it explodes?
Improving the state of our country and ensuring freedom for all will require the sacrifice of our comfortability and privileges. Columbia is not the first institution that has sacrificed their students in the state of their comfortability and they won’t be the last: but the true question is what side of the history book do we want to be on?
This MFP Voices opinion essay reflects the personal opinion of its author(s). The column does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints