This Historically Black College is supposed to be a safe haven for Black men in the wake of oppressive systems our country built to watch Black men fail in comparison to their white peers. It is because of these oppressive systems that Black people have crafted up spaces like Morehouse and Spelman to provide a safe space for the growth and development for the next world leaders. With this in mind, how is it that AUC students, specifically Morehouse Students, are forced to experience the same unnecessary, capitalistic, economic oppression that they experience in the larger society that is against them?

What am I talking about you may ask? The Infamous Bootman and the Morehouse Parking Enforcement.

I know that this may seem like something rather minuscule to hard working, upper-middle class adults to pay 25$ for parking however, to college students, being forced to pay $562 on top of their $46,000 Price of Attendance is a heavy financial burden on students already projected to have $33,420 in FEDERAL student debt after graduating in 4 years (not including accumulated interest and private loan). Let’s also put into perspective the risk of parking in the West End Community where vehicular larceny is the highest crime committed in Police Zone 1. Just in this past year alone, Vehicular Larceny increased by 20.84 percent in Zone 1 since 2015. At this rate, one would be able to safe assume, considering how small the community is in conjunction the other police zones in the city, parking your car on Parsons Street or over in College Town across from campus is not a safe thing for students to do. So how has Morehouse combated this issue to ensure that students are able to bring their cars onto campus safely, charge them for safety?

Morehouse College has utilized its students as a cash cow for their own capitalistic endeavors and is continually oppressing students by setting a price for their safety. By monetizing the need for safe parking spaces and allowing “The Boot Man” to exist on a campus that supports and develops leaders, we have moved two steps in a lateral direction for against liberating Black men. Adding car boots and parking tickets to the monthly list of financial needs of low or no income students, Morehouse parking enforcement is allowed to keep the hand of capitalism in the pockets of their poor, Black college students who can barely afford to pay for gas there car. Let’s not even begin to mention that the toxic concept of an “Evil Boot Man ” that is a dangerous narrative to allow to survive in the amongst Black college students on a college campus who are supposed to uplift the community.

This oppressive system then only benefits the pockets of the parking enforcement that isn’t even ran by or paid for by the college. In essence, the college has allowed outside entities to come in and drain the pockets of their students even more that the college already has (sound familiar). By charging student two to three dollars every time they park their cars in the parking deck or in the parking lot (only partially managed the college), we in turn subject our future Black leader to a financially oppressive system that attempts to keep them poor and co-dependent on a system that is not built for their advancement, what a coincidence at a college founded to combat this issue.

While this may seems like small change, overtime and over the course of a few weeks and months this fine for safety adds ups up be a measurably high. This oppressive system then, without us realizing it, provides the very same financial shackles for college students as lower income families attempting to gain government assistance, Black men and women looking for employment with criminal records, and many of the same systems that have been cultivated through institutional racism on a larger scale that we have already identified as issues for the Black community.

Why would an institution that prides itself on uplifting and cultivating the minds of Black men, support and protect an oppressive system such as this? How are we then teaching these Black leaders at Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University to be agents of change in the community against oppression if we only plan to continue to oppress them as that enter their own home away from home?

I once chanted at an event “I got my brother back” from my freshman year NSO Experience, but know I think to myself, does mother Morehouse have my back?

Call to Action: I think that it’s only right to allow students to park in parking spaces owned and managed by the college. This should be included in our student fees and applied towards our regular student account to be paid for through the school. ALL students should have to pay this small fee but, only students who register their vehicle should be allowed in the garage or on campus lots and should be indicated by a decal. That way, both student and vehicle are accounted for and parking on campus would be easier both for faculty and students who previously had to pay for parking individually. Visitor Parking and parking from other Students should be conducted the same way it has been with the same rates but, being a student at Morehouse should be enough to be allowed to park your car free of charge.