Campaign season at HBCUs has an energy you can’t wait for but once it arrives is something we rush away from. The flyers are everywhere, group chats are active, Instagram stories are nonstop, and suddenly everybody has an opinion. What looks exciting on the outside, such as running for SGA or royal court comes with levels of pressure people don’t always talk about. Because in today’s world, you’re not just running a campaign, you’re managing an image. And that image must be perfect.
There’s this unspoken expectation that once you decide to run, you automatically sign up to be watched. How you dress, how you speak, who you hang around, what you post, everything becomes part of how people “judge your leadership.” It’s no longer just about your platform or your ideas. It’s about whether people like you, whether you look the part, and whether you can keep up with the constant visibility. Social media has also made this worse. One post can have people praising you, and the next could have them picking you apart on fizz.
But this is completely normalized, like the common saying “Heavy is the head that wears the crown.” People will say, “That’s just part of campaigning,” like stress, criticism, and even cyberbullying are just things you have to accept or put up with as well as you can if you want to lead. But there’s a difference between constructive criticism and being torn down. And there’s a difference between accountability and harassment. A lot of times, these lines get crossed so easily online that people forget there’s an actual person behind the campaign.
The pressure to maintain an image can start to mess with you mentally. You might feel like you can’t have an off day. Like you always have to be “on”. Because the second you go quiet, people start talking. It can make you overthink everything, and drain the confidence you started with. Â
Comparison is also truly the thrift of joy. Watching other candidates, seeing their engagement, their support, their visuals, it can make you feel like you’re falling behind, even when you’re doing your best. Campaign season turns into a graphic design and gift giveaway competition, and it’s easy to forget your whole “why” or purpose of leading. That’s why being gentle with yourself during this time is not optional,it’s necessary.
You have to remind yourself why you started in the first place. It wasn’t to be perfect or to please everybody. It was because you had a vision, a purpose, or something you wanted to contribute. Losing yourself in trying to maintain an image defeats that completely.
At HBCUs, community is everything. We take pride in uplifting each other, supporting each other, and creating spaces where we can thrive as ourselves. But during campaign season, that can get lost in competition or just pure hatred. It’s important to bring that sense of community back, not just in how we treat candidates, but in how candidates treat themselves.
You can be confident and still have doubts and you can be strong and still feel pressure. Campaign season will come and go, and titles will surely come to an end. So make sure you are kind to candidates, and candidates win or lose be kind to yourself.