After speaking to parents of other black children in Bowling Green, Sheila Brown noticed a trend.
One of Brown’s friends was upset because her daughter came home from school and told her she wanted to be white.
As surprising as this may sound, Brown, assistant director for the Center for Multicultural and Academic Initiatives, said it is a situation she faced when her son began school.
“They are around white people all the time,” Brown said. “So naturally they don’t want to be different.”
But now this concern has morphed into a goal: To unite black children and young adults in Bowling Green and show them they can be proud of who they are.
This weekend two Greek groups, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and Omega Psi Phi fraternity, have teamed together to create an event called It Takes a Village. It was named after the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” Sheila Brown, adviser to AKA said.
Brown went to the sorority and expressed the need for black students to come together and spend time with one another. The women of AKA thought it was a great idea, she said.
“I think that especially in a community such as Bowling Green, where black children are so few and far between, it is important for them to get together and see there are children just like them,” Leah Shaw, president of AKA said.
In early October, the group offered the first It Takes a Village. Six children participated and Shaw said it was a great experience.
“They were crying because they didn’t want to leave,” she said. “It was sad, but it was nice because they had such a wonderful time there.”
At the first event the children could take African dance l essons and get their hair done by members of the Greek groups and various volunteers. Also, AKA wanted to incorporate one of their national programs called the Ivy Reading AKAdemy, reading to the children while they had their hair done.
This weekend the event will include the same elements, but the focus now is working on having more children attend.
“I hope we will have a variety of age levels — children to high school students,” Brown said.
Anetria Cook, another volunteer for the event, handles the dance classes. Dance is her minor and she enjoys using her skill to help out.
“Dance is helpful because it gives them a different idea about history and culture,” Cook said. “All the aspects can be tied together.”
The group’s organizers aspire to unite black children and encourage their families to come to more University sponsored events in the future.
“Kids that aren’t affiliated with Bowling Green don’t know about events we put together, like our Kwanzaa celebration,” Brown said. “But this is a way they can learn about their culture.”
To the organizers of the event, their efforts are also about giving black students self-confidence.
“We want students to think, ‘I am not the only black child in Bowling Green. There are other people who look like me,'” Brown said. “We want them to say, ‘I can be proud of who I am.'”