Founded in 1856, Wilberforce University, our nation’s oldest private, historically black university, was formed to provide an intellectual Mecca and refuge from slavery’s first rule: ignorance. ~Wilberforce University
Cochlea, vestibule,
& semicircular canals
discern our place
among vertiginous
spaces & dizzying
motion, determine
how we hear voices
even in the margins
& maintain balance
among surreal
sensations—
like the day,
decades ago, I walked
through a maze
of freshmen
awaiting registration,
mine, the only pale face
among the Black crowd,
their eyes poring
over my disquieting steps,
as if I were a skeleton
at their feast. Wet behind
the ears & straight out
of grad school, I followed
the director on my orientation.
I never felt so white.
My senses seemed
to leave me—my head
spun as words hummed
& echoed through the hall.
I felt myself waver on the edge
of a world I’d never been
aware of till then.
O how I needed them—
& need them still—
to right me.
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This struck me figuratively and literally. An old white guy who has tried to be as free of prejudice as I could be but felt clumsy and awkward (very white and unwoke) at times in doing so, I was literally floored a few years ago at this very keyboard in front of the old desktop. An intense dizziness overwhelmed me, the room was whirling, spinning, or I was. I put my hands in front of me as I slumped to the floor. I finely found a position where I felt safe, where I couldn’t fall anymore. I couldn’t get up or move. My wife called the ER. Tests, scans, no heart attack. Labyrinthitis. Had never heard of it until then. Now have some meds I carry with me. I’ve had one recent mild attack and some hints of it coming on, but I know what it is and what it isn’t. That darn old bony labyrinth.