As a first-year student at Morehouse College, Alex Bibb, 21, said the N-word every other sentence. Now a graduating senior, the word has nearly disappeared from Bibb’s vocabulary.
Morehouse is hoping to duplicate Bibb’s development from boisterous adolescent to trenchant Morehouse man with its new “Free Zone” campaign, focused on eliminating the use of cursing, sagging pants and the N-word from residence halls. Beginning this semester, every dormitory is a designated “Nigga” Free Zone, No Saggin Zone, and No Cursing Zone.
“We are not making it mandatory that you cannot say the N-word or curse or sag your pants. We want people to have an understanding of how these things affect the community,” says William Tweedle, first-year resident director of Hubert Hall at Morehouse and founder of the “Free Zone” program.
Disturbed by the frequency in which residents used the N-word and other expletives in casual conversation, Tweedle initiated the “N-Free Zone” campaign at Bowie State University in Maryland in 2004. Faculty, parents and administrators extolled the program, Tweedle says.
“The N-Free Zone was something that was started in two male residence halls, and in dealing with it some good things came out of it,” says Gladys Watson, director of residence life at Bowie State. “We were trying to make an impact on young men’s lives. We felt that [the program] would help them become better men. The majority of our residence hall programming is geared in that direction.”
Morehouse hopes adopting similar efforts will change attitudes and behavior.
“After starting the program, my residence hall at Bowie State became a model building,” says Tweedle, noting that issues of sagging, cursing and violence all subsided. “The good behavior even spread to our visitors.”
