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I remember going on a campus tour of Spelman College in Atlanta as a bright eyed, inquisitive 18-year-old in 1998. As I listened to the tour guide extol the virtues of attending the prestigious institution, the calls of young men and women cheering excitedly caught my attention.
Gazing past beautiful trees and outstanding architectural structures, I saw the young men of Clark-Atlanta University's Omega Psi Phi chapter stepping passionately, while throngs of students – many with dreadlocks, some wearing African dashikis, all smiling and grooving – looked on with pride and a palpable sense of community.
It was then I realized that I was giving up my childhood dream of attending an Ivy League for the Ebony League. I was home.
However, based on a 2009 report by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund – an organization that provides scholarships and resources to almost half of the nation's 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities – the proportion of Asian, Hispanic, and multiethnic students enrolled in HBCUs has jumped from 6 percent to 8 percent from 1986 to 2006.
In short: "Home" is undergoing a drastic renovation.
Gazing past beautiful trees and outstanding architectural structures, I saw the young men of Clark-Atlanta University's Omega Psi Phi chapter stepping passionately, while throngs of students – many with dreadlocks, some wearing African dashikis, all smiling and grooving – looked on with pride and a palpable sense of community.
It was then I realized that I was giving up my childhood dream of attending an Ivy League for the Ebony League. I was home.
However, based on a 2009 report by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund – an organization that provides scholarships and resources to almost half of the nation's 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities – the proportion of Asian, Hispanic, and multiethnic students enrolled in HBCUs has jumped from 6 percent to 8 percent from 1986 to 2006.
In short: "Home" is undergoing a drastic renovation.
While many white and ethnic students have a wide array of reasons for enrolling in an HBCU – ranging from more career opportunities upon graduation to a desire to experience a more diverse, holistic educational experience – there is still an innate, often justified hesitation felt by many members of the African American community to embrace this trend.
A study done by Dr. Ivory A. Toldson and Aviella Snitman revealed that problems related to discrepancies between education and attainment depend on two key factors: higher-paying occupations are more commonly held among white people, even when controlling for education, and the lack of education increases the chances that a black person will be unemployed or live in poverty.
As a result, an African American person with some college has a greater chance of living in poverty than a white person who did not complete high school. Similarly, white people with master's degrees are more likely to live above middle class than black people with doctorate degrees.
With Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which clearly states that any institution that receives federal aid may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed or sex, dictating that certain HBCUs recruit non-black students, it has become a topic of debate among scholars and laymen alike.
Why should HBCUs provide scholarships to white students – defined as minorities on black campuses, when so many in our own communities are still being discriminated against with or without an education? Shouldn't we still be taking care of our own first?
According to Theodore West, an entrepreneur who was a young boy in the violent trenches of segregated Mississippi and a 1971 graduate of Alcorn State University – the first institution created explicitly as a black land-grant college, affirmative action should be "across the board" if blacks want to utilize it.
"However, I believe that non-black students wishing to attend an HBCU be required to attend an orientation on the rich culture and history of the Black College Experience," said West. "Unfortunately, I attended an ASU graduation, where the majority of white students did not stand for the singing of the Black National Anthem, and that is unacceptable. An understanding of the important role these institutions have played in our communities must be a pre-requisite for anyone, of any color, to attend."
Trish Williams, dean of the W.E.B. Du Bois College House at the University of Pennsylvania, believes any fears that the HBCU experience will be compromised are unfounded.
"No group of institutions that has the rich historical legacy of our Black schools should be defined by its number of whites," Williams said. "It is up to the administrators and student leaders on campus to ensure that the culture remains intact."
That HBCU culture encompasses a more comprehensive focus on social justice than its white counterparts do.
A study done by Dr. Ivory A. Toldson and Aviella Snitman revealed that problems related to discrepancies between education and attainment depend on two key factors: higher-paying occupations are more commonly held among white people, even when controlling for education, and the lack of education increases the chances that a black person will be unemployed or live in poverty.
As a result, an African American person with some college has a greater chance of living in poverty than a white person who did not complete high school. Similarly, white people with master's degrees are more likely to live above middle class than black people with doctorate degrees.
With Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which clearly states that any institution that receives federal aid may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed or sex, dictating that certain HBCUs recruit non-black students, it has become a topic of debate among scholars and laymen alike.
Why should HBCUs provide scholarships to white students – defined as minorities on black campuses, when so many in our own communities are still being discriminated against with or without an education? Shouldn't we still be taking care of our own first?
According to Theodore West, an entrepreneur who was a young boy in the violent trenches of segregated Mississippi and a 1971 graduate of Alcorn State University – the first institution created explicitly as a black land-grant college, affirmative action should be "across the board" if blacks want to utilize it.
"However, I believe that non-black students wishing to attend an HBCU be required to attend an orientation on the rich culture and history of the Black College Experience," said West. "Unfortunately, I attended an ASU graduation, where the majority of white students did not stand for the singing of the Black National Anthem, and that is unacceptable. An understanding of the important role these institutions have played in our communities must be a pre-requisite for anyone, of any color, to attend."
Trish Williams, dean of the W.E.B. Du Bois College House at the University of Pennsylvania, believes any fears that the HBCU experience will be compromised are unfounded.
"No group of institutions that has the rich historical legacy of our Black schools should be defined by its number of whites," Williams said. "It is up to the administrators and student leaders on campus to ensure that the culture remains intact."
That HBCU culture encompasses a more comprehensive focus on social justice than its white counterparts do.
More than just a college education, it was about mobilizing a generation of black youth who believed in fighting on behalf of the marginalized, stereotyped and the exploited. A generation who understood what their white brothers and sisters did not – that racism was so deeply interwoven into the fabric of the American conscious that it would take a movement of behemoth proportions, armed with knowledge and purpose to combat its ramifications.
My favorite quote from Audre Lorde states, "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." We cannot fall into the trap of exhibiting racist behavior because of residual bitterness due to racism. As long as we continue to embolden our young people with a sense of pride and community, no change in the ethnic makeup of a student population can change the historical and current importance of our HBCUs.
My favorite quote from Audre Lorde states, "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." We cannot fall into the trap of exhibiting racist behavior because of residual bitterness due to racism. As long as we continue to embolden our young people with a sense of pride and community, no change in the ethnic makeup of a student population can change the historical and current importance of our HBCUs.
Comments: (25)
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By: ooozzzzz on 10/08/2010 9:20AM
A dirrerent world?
Yes but the the larger dose of White creamer in the Black coffee is mainly due to the lesseining of young African American males attending's HBCU (and college as a whole) in the Unites States.
According to data from the American Council on Education, only four in ten Black men aged 18 to 24 choose to go to college. Sixty percent of Black women enroll and the key phrase here for HBCU's is college enrollment and if those HBCU's (classified as mid size or small schools) don't have the annual quotas or numbers of students enrolled, then it makes it hard for them to get state or private funding; money allocations and maintaining it accrediation status across the board so to make up the difference and especially in this economy, HBCU's are now targetng non-Black students to enroll to satisfy their enrollment numbers.
You do what you have to do to survive.
So in essence, it's not so much a take over of non White students wo can't afford to go elsewhere, eventhough certain states like Georgia want to combine HBU's with mid size and smaller White colleges in order to deem it a larger college/university and save money, our young Black men just don't want to go to college and get a higher education and sadly, for many, you just have to find a way to persuade them that college is where they need to be but if yo have to persuade & convince them, then it becomes a losing battle: an issue of forcing them to go and that spells failure since the college dropout rate for Black males is also high.
We are shooting ourselves in the foot once again by not taking advantage of the HBCU system specifically set up & tailored for our people because young Black men want to live and dream the "get rich quick" on the streets, on a pro sports playing field or in the entertainment business in which only a lucky few will attain and while that's happening, our cherished and traditional HBCU's and highly educated young men from those schools across the nation, a valuble asset in the Black community, are slowly becoming a thing of the past because they can't see the big picture.....and where to place the blame?.....squarely on us and nobody else.
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By: ARNEADER on 10/08/2010 10:27AM
I know Jackson State University has a WHITE QUARTERBACK! And the team is winning!
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By: bob on 10/09/2010 9:09AM
ooozzzzz If a person cannot pass the entrance exam to get into a white college it is not racism! This is why a lot of asians and whites are attending black colleges, They cannot get into white colleges. Institutional racism is in you imagination!
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By: Tate on 10/08/2010 10:28AM
Let me get this straight... You want HBCUs to stop accepting students who are not black? That must mean you want racism to live on. You ask "Shouldn't we still be taking care of our own first?". Now think if ALL white people felt that way. I'm not saying some don't, but if you want to end racism, wouldn't you want others to understand how hard and real the struggle is to deal with it?
You should think before you type. Your way of thinking, would be to setting time back before civil rights were initiated. When schools were segregated.
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By: ooozzzzz on 10/08/2010 11:22AM
Tate, I don't know if you're pointing your comments at me, but you need to re-read what I wrote.
The issue is not HBCU accepting non-Black students (in order to stay revelant, you do what you must) but the work of the Black community, high schools and families to point their young Black males to attend HBCU's and all universities (including community colleges) all across this nation.
The HBCU historically and purposely was set up to accept & educate Black children when White colleges and universities did not accept Black people because of institutional racism and practices all across the US so the HBCU, the base of the roots of our educated community, the main vessel that created hundreds of millions of highly educated young Black men and women in this country to achieve and prosper generation after generation, needs to coddle and intensify it's efforts once again to get our young Black men back on the education track to academic success.
I have no issue with non-Whites attending HBCU but my first concern is the young Black men and women population in our community who has forgone and set aside education & academics simply because "I'm tired of school", I don't have the grades" or for a potential pipe dream of "American Idol" type success that only benefits a chosen few without a back-up plan to fall back on.
The power of the HBCU and it's effect on the Black
community throughout our history is paramount and it needs to continue and maintain it planned course of producing successful Black educated men & women.
And the revelence of the HBCU to the Black community cannot be denied or washed away simply because Black men don't attend but it will, over a period of time erode and become that if we don't take care of our Black youth who in turn, will take care of the HCU by applying, attending, achieving, graduating and beyond.
This is not about racism, this is all about the survival of a community and the prestine and important institution rooted on the Black community, an entity to itself, the HBCU.
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By: Tate on 10/08/2010 11:26AM
ooozzzzz, My comments were directed torward the author, not you. You made valid arguments in your belief. She on the other hand, did not.
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By: ooozzzzz on 10/08/2010 12:18PM
Tate, my bad. Thank you.
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By: girlking on 10/08/2010 12:24PM
Tate and oozzzzz are absolutely correct. We have to get our young men early; expose them to math, science and language. The more they are expose to education the more they will embrace it.
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By: The Cynic on 10/09/2010 12:05PM
Eight percent really isn't a big number to me. Hell if the quarter of the students were non-blk I wouldn't see a problem. After fifty percent it is no longer an HBCU. Now I am not sure if HBCUs are still needed, but I can say that integration doesn't exactly make something better. Sometimes people just like to be around there own culture(including white ppl).
I think one of the biggest problems after segregation was blk ppl begging whites to integrate with them when they clearly didn't want it. Just look at white flight or any study on racial profiling in hiring. This is why I am anti-affirmative action. If a white guy didn't want give you a job, make one for yourself and for others in your community. If they don't put POC on tv make your own damn show.
Basically what I am saying is that even though we want every race to be together maybe it's a little unrealistic. A little segregation & celebration of cultural/historical differences is not exactly a bad thing.
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By: drtblue on 10/08/2010 4:05PM
I have no problem with equal access to higher educational systems. I am a proud graduate of Xavier University College of Pharmacy. I do see a trend of White Americans and other ethnic minorities attending HBCUs because of the nontraditional entrance requirements of the HBCU professional schools. Black American students who would not normally get entrance into majority White institutions had access to the HBCUs. Now, White American and other ethnic minority students see the HBCUs as a pathway to achieving their professional goals and dreams. I will give you an example of what is occuring on the high school level. You have a majority African-American(99.9%)high school. In the junior/senior year of the high school, you get a couple of nonblack transfer students with high academic grades, SAT/ACT scores, etc. Why? Many universities private and public give automatic scholarships to valedictorians, salutatorians, and the top 10% of your high school class. They have just learned to play the system to their benefit.
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