The Unruly Negroes at Howard have struck again.

On Sunday morning I awoke to a virtual attack on Howard University and their despicable Negro students for damage done to Edgewood Community Park. The nice folk over in the Edgewood neighborhood were devastated by the damage done at a barbecue attended by students from every major University in the district, and displaced their anger by publicly defaming Howard University. 

On Saturday afternoon, in the Edgewood community park, a group of excitable Scholars gathered to celebrate the highly anticipated blossom of Spring with an event they dubbed DrankNik. For the non-ethnic folk reading this, it's a likeness of a similar event, which takes place annually in Atlanta, and has become a large part of HBCU culture. The event drew crowds from as far as New York, Atlanta and Philadelphia, as well as from UMD, Georgetown, George Washington, and UDC. In anticipation of this, hosts of the event, an organization known as Dreams Never Die, (DND), obtained a city permit for use of the Edgewood park. They also enlisted the help of the MPD to ensure crowd control, which proved extremely effective as the crowd of 1500 were kept within the vicinity and without incident.

Per chance, on the eve of this event, members of the Edgewood community spent hours toiling to plant seeds in their garden, pictured below, and completed a massive beautification project. It was, of course to their dismay, that 1500 college students came and erased their hard work from merely hours before. So they took to twitter.

Members of the Edgewood community proceeded to implicate and slander Howard University in the damage done to the park, stating claim that irreversible damage was done to THEIR park; THEIR park was defamed, debris was left on THEIR sacred grounds. #HowardIsNotCommunity, was their plight. And why not, having had their Garden of Eden completely destroyed?

   

Garden before, and after cookout took place.                  

It's hard for one not to sympathize with the members of the Edgewood community up to this point in the story, however, pray, allow me to continue.

After the festivities, the function's hosts, DND, went about cleaning up the park, bagging all trash and setting it aside to be picked up by DPW.

Apparently, community members arrived at the park that evening also to assess damage, and came to a resolve with DND about repairing any damage caused. So it was, of course, to the surprise of the Howard University community that we all awoke to the Edgewood  Garden’s twitter page, @EdgewoodGarden5, defaming and implicating Howard University for damage done. 

   

I can't help but think back to two years ago when a group of native Washingtonians became involved in an altercation with Howard students, and resulted in the firing of several shots, an issue that has constantly been a concern of students'. Blame for the incident was placed on the University by the new members of the community, who penned their annoyance in an open letter. It is, at this point, incumbent upon me to remind them that not all young people of color, donning dreads, are students at Howard University. Also, I might remind them that there remains still, a significant African American presence in the Eastern Quadrant of the city, that of families who have not yet been displaced by the systematic and rapid occupation of traditionally black neighborhoods.

I'm tired of being recipient to pursed lips, furrowed brows and stares of disdain in my own neighborhoods. I'm tired of the systematic racial and economic deprivation of my demographic through the gentrification that you people may refer to as development. I think it's absolutely incredible that these people have the gall to brandish their entitlement in such a way, deeming it THEIR neighborhood and THEIR garden. To the Edgewood Community Garden and its cohorts, grow up. These students reached out to you, and have exhibited far more professionalism throughout this entire ordeal. I won't be foolish enough to think no damage was done to the garden, but to publicly bash the organization, University, and the event’s sponsors was extremely tasteless, considering the willingness the students showed to help rectify any issues.


Update: Before the Backlash, let me say this;

As my Grandmother stated, University students aren't 5 year olds, and should have been able to have fun while leaving the park exactly as they found it.

However, the damage is already done, and a hand of service was offered to rectify the damages. The Howard slander was then, unnecessary. I stand by this opinion.