HBCU

From the time I entered college until now, I have heard about the many good things about Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and am often questioned as to why I didn’t attend one.  My answer back then was, “I don’t need to see a Monday thru Friday fashion show and I can party for free anywhere”.  I have never attended an HBCU and have no desire to.  I graduated from high school and got accepted into Purdue University and, of course, I heard that I was meeting their quota which is the only reason I got in.  Black folks can be sooooo mean to their own.  This is coming up now because my sister has finished high school about 2 or 3 years ago and has yet to attend any college or university.  Before graduation she did the SAT/ACT and submitted her applications and got accepted into her these schools:  Syracuse University, Temple University, Howard University, and Purdue University.  She wanted to go to Howard.  I asked why?  She said because of their business program.  (Insert big fat hearty laugh here!! And I wanna go to MIT for thier excellent Art program)  Howard University and Business Major….only time the two should ever be used in the same sentence.  Of course, I was trying to shoo her toward PU (great engineering and management programs) but that didn’t work out too well since she said, “ain’t nothing but white folks there and I heard it’s boring!”  Well, what do you go to school for?!  A school is supposed to be known for their academics and sports not based on how happening it’s nightlife/social scene is but, for me, I was never a party person until I crossed the burning sands and it was all downhill from there.

My sister has a friend who attends an HBCU in Alabama.  He came by the house on Christmas and we began a “debate” about the pros and cons of a young Black person attending an HBCU versus that same student attending a HWCU.  He claims there is more alumni and better networking for future graduates of HBCUs.  I said, “of course if you major in drama because I don’t know any other famous graduate of an HBCU that was not in the arts unless you can name a few (silence).”  He said there is more community outreach and support at HBCUs for black students.  I said, “that might very well be true but just because it’s accommodating does not mean we should go.  Segregation was accommodating to a certain extent but thank God that is the past.  Some things are uncomfortable and that is just life.”  He said the education is better at an HBCU because your professors are black as well.  I said, “so a white professor is incompetent?  Flip that around and a black person will holla racism so don’t do it to someone else.  Second, HBCU and education is something I rarely hear in the same sentence.  Not that you can’t get a decent education but one to rival that of a nationally known or prestigious HWCU?  I highly doubt.”  He wanted to pledge Alpha Phi Alpha at the time so I thought that was great for him to be interested in a Greek organization.  He said Greek Life is so much better down south anyways.  I said, “so I’ve heard but I wouldn’t change going Greek up north amidst the subtle but apparent racism of fellow students at a top ranked university.  Naw, it makes my letters and my college years one that wasn’t easy so it wasn’t taken for granted.”  We could have gone on and on with this one but we didn’t.  In the end, my sister has yet to pick a school.  Lazy bum!

Why blacks feel we as a people are only empowered by other blacks I do not know.  Why must we send our kids to all black schools to ensure a good education and result in a self-imposed segregation?  I don’t know.  The workforce, most employers, and most upper management are still white so how much more difference does it make?  Again, I have never been to a HBCU so I don’t know firsthand how it could be but I am quick to refute claims against HWCU based on something those who have attended and graduated from a HBCU have heard.  Yes, you probably went to a HWCU, heard from a friend about one, read about the stories of one but it does not sum up all of them.  It is unfair and downright ignorant for us to down others like us because I choose a school where I am a minority in all of my classes.  That was my decision and my letters are the same as those worn by a soror down south except you have 27 people on your line and I only had 7. 

Remember the days when the north and south battled each other and we had the Civil War.  Black folks are so hard on their own kind that I have called another black guy (he used to be my friend) a KKK.  He dissed his own, talked down about his own, used stereotypical reasons all the time for why black people will not amount to anything and, I swear if I looked away, I’d think I was listening to a white person.  He didn’t like the fact that I called him a KKK and he tried his hardest to argue his point but to no avail because, in the end he forgot who the hell I am, and he lacked the average literacy to know how to argue so I won that hands down.  See how I just dissed him partly out of arrogance?  Yes, that is how some of us act all the time.  The real test of what someone gets out of their education whether from grade school to post-graduate is what you put into it and how much drive and ambition you have.  So what you sat in class with every face looking exactly like yours.  Does that make you better than me?  My education worthless?  My credentials not worth the paper they are printed on?  The world is diverse but still majority white with a shift toward Asian ways….learn to position yourself to survive either way the wind blows unless your sail is aimed back toward Africa.  Good luck with that and DON”T bring me back something!