S5E1 Culture vs Clout | The Black Student's College Dilemma

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• 16:18 (Cont.) S5E1 Culture vs Clout | The Black Student's College Dilemma

Transcript

Speaker 1 (0s): Okay, bows and bow ties. What's up? I hope you guys enjoyed your holidays. I enjoyed mine, but I just wanna talk about something I wanted to talk about. You know, are we chasing the culture? Are we chasing the, the clout? Are we choosing culture over career, career over culture? And what I mean by that is I wanted to talk about the PWI versus HBCU.

I don't even know if it's a debate. It's just a topic. Man, I couldn't even get the word. I'm like topic, so I'm sorry I couldn't get my thumbnail uploaded. It, it, the, my computer is shenanigan. So this is what it would've been. And I think once I'm done with this particular video, I will definitely get it uploaded correctly. So I'll just start out off to the side for a second. So, yeah, I wanna talk about are we looking at career or are we choosing culture?

Are we choosing clout? Are we choosing culture? So this is the thing for those of you who probably really don't understand this, where I'm going with this. If you don't look like me, this is a very nuanced topic. And for those who look like me, many of you understand what I'm getting ready to talk about. So if you look like me, we, we, many of us, I don't want even want to say struggle. I just wanna say we have these, this added choice, added decision to make when it comes to choosing a college.

And so for many students who look like me, oftentimes we are faced with, I actually wrote down a couple of notes. This is not well organized, but don't, don't judge me. Don't judge me. So that, so we are faced with this idea of like, Hey, do I wanna go to an HBCU? And there's so much pride, there's all this culture there, you know, you could have a good time. Or do I go to a PWI now for those of you who don't know, who don't look like me, and you're like, what is she saying?

And HBCU is a, his is a historically black college and university. PWI is predominantly white institute. Okay? So I wanna make sure I get that settled before we move on because believe it or not, there are people who don't know the difference. So as, as most students who look like me, if, if they're thinking about it for sure, 'cause some of them is not even a thought. There's this whole thing centered around like, you know, do I go to a PWI do, I go to an HBCU.

Now, let me just say this. There are questions regarding finances and access to opportunities and there's perceptions and all other stuff like that. So let me just, I just wanna read a little bit here for a second and then we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll move on to this, to the conversation. So we're just gonna talk, start talking about a couple of the facts here. So the pew, I believe this came from the Pew V search, I gotta double check.

But basically in 19 76, 80 5% of black students who were enrolled in college were enrolled in HBCUs. And then by the time we got to 2022, that number had declined to about 70, 70, 70 6%. Sorry, I have notes all over the place. So, ha by the time we got to 2020, I know I'm skipping around a second. You had 1976, we had 85% of our, our collegiate, our our students, 85% of them were enrolled in HBCUs.

By 20 22 76, it had decreased to about 76%. Now what I'm reading here is it says about by 2020 half of the black students in 2020 were actually enrolled at PWIs with only 7% choosing HBCUs. Now there's all kinds of little twists and stuff like that happening right now because I think the numbers are gonna be in this, this fluid trending motion right now.

I think we're gonna see some shifts here. Now, this is just based off of what I think, based off of the data that I write right now. I know we're in this time where after the affirmative action, the Supreme Court ruled on affirmative action. When was that? Was that 2022 or was it 2020? I can't even remember what year it was. That's how much I've, I've mentally. So for those of you who are not fa familiar, the, the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative actions.

A lot of these prestigious universities are no longer required to basically admit students based off of their ethnicity or anything like that, or their racial background. So what they're seeing now is there is a trend in some of these really top universities. They're actually starting to lose some of the black students. So for example, Tufts, I believe that's in Massachusetts, it's now down by about 2.6%. You've got Washington University outta St.

Louis. That's, I think they're good for medical. I can't remember. They're down by 4%. Now, I did not look into all of the schools, right? I mean, I'm sure there's data out there everywhere. And I do have a point in all this, but I'm just talking about this shift in enrollment right now. So we went from black students shifting towards predominantly white institutions away from HBCUs. Now, before I get into more of this conversation, I want to use myself as an example because, you know, I'm not above approach or anything like that.

I just wanna talk about me. I was born in 1976, so I'm old. I'm 48 years old now. When I was applying to colleges, okay, where I live was a pretty multicultural area, but it was still predominantly, you know, consisted of people who didn't look like me. I, I, I just gotta see if I can find some of my old videos.

I applied to competitive colleges. I was not gonna get into like Harvard or anything like that, but I applied to really hard to get into schools and some safety schools. But at the time I remember I wanted to go to an HBCU. I applied to one HBCU, got in and I was so excited. I had never even visited the school 'cause I was too poor, believe it or not. Now let me check this out. When I went and visited schools and attended summer programs and stuff like that, they were all at PWIs.

I never even got an opportunity to visit an HBCU, but I just thought the allure of going to an HBCU, I get to be around people who look like me. And I could study and do these things and, and, and attend the campus activities or whatever. I didn't even know a whole lot about HBCUs, but I felt like that's where I should have been. So I applied to one HBCU and I had never even, let me just put it to you like this.

I wound up rescinding my acceptance the entire time from the time that I accepted to the time that I was supposed to hopefully. And I matriculate into the university. It was a nightmare. The admissions was a disaster. Everything about it, they kept asking for more money. Money that was already spent. Like I had a lot of scholarships, okay? I was a scholarship kid. So the admissions kept asking for fees and stuff that were already paid for.

It was just a disaster. Everything about it made me feel so uncomfortable. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you want to view how I present this information. I ended up canceling going there. And luckily I was still able to attend the PWII applied to, now let check this out. I knew the school that I applied to was a pre a prestigious institution. I didn't realize how, how prestigious it was. You know, I went for engineering and I remember when I got accepted into that school 'cause I was telling people that I had changed, blah, blah.

And they were like, you got accepted into this school and you chose to go to that school. And then fortunately, I, I mean that's the perception. Like, wow, like why would you get into this? You got into this school and you were gonna go to an HBCU. That's how people talked about it. And I was so ignorant about everything. And by the way, this school that I applied to, I had not actually visited that school. I visited other schools. I was out there. But anyway, I got into the school that I graduated from. Not knowing this was, I knew from an admission standpoint because it was a competitive, it's hard to get into, but I had no idea.

Like I knew, but I didn't know. So I'm just kind of like laying the groundwork for my experience of getting into this particular institution. Now, at this point, I no longer held these great feelings about HBCUs based off of one HBCU. And it had nothing to do with the academics, it was just the process.

When I was applying, when I applied to the PWI PWIs and got into them, I felt like I was being handled with kid gloves. The process of just making sure that I was ready to, to arrive on campus and all of this stuff, it was like, for me, it was seamless. Now, for those of you who are gonna listen to this video, I wanna make sure I make myself very clear. I am not knocking the HBCUs because I actually wanted to attend one.

I did not apply to Harvard. I mean Howard because I didn't wanna be in the city. I, I just did not want that particular college experience. I did not wanna be in the city proper. Now, when it comes to my experience at a PWI, there are pros and cons, okay? Because there weren't a lot of people who looked like me. So, and the people I was around, when you're dealing with these expensive, hard to get into schools, you're dealing with a lot of students who come from an environment that is, when I say some of them are wealthy And they come from these elite kind of backgrounds, it's just a whole other level.

It's a whole other level that I was exposed to. But anyway, I just wanted to, to, let me, let me pause right there and just focus on the enrollment trends and why, like, what was happening for the last 30, 40, 50 years, whatever it is. Okay? When you started off with students, they started off going to HBCUs and then there was a shift towards PWI. Now I'm gonna talk about why I think that's, so I think part of what you were seeing in the last, I'm gonna say 40 plus years or whatever, however many years is there is a perception centered around HBCUs and we, we, we need to talk about it, right, wrong or indifferent.

And it's, and I'm torn because I'm actually a fan of HBCUs, but there are things that would drive me crazy. I can see how if you are a first generation collegiate, why you would want to secure something that is consistent and reliable, right? What, what do I mean by that?

This is okay, this is what I think. I think when you have many students choosing PWIs, I'll tell you what's happening. For one, I think the PWIs, they have larger endowments in general, right? So they can offer more assistance to someone who needs assistance. And we know generally speaking that many of these HBCUs, they are struggling for financial support. They're struggling for financial support.

So they're struggling to just keep the universities going. They're struggling because they can't hold on to, they can't, they can't attract your five star athletes to go there because they don't have the, the, now what I would say back then, we didn't have nil, but now nil money, the NIL money, you know, name, image and likeness money, they, they didn't have, they don't, they don't typically have the topnotch training facilities. They don't typically, from my understanding, offer scholarships as as large as some of the PWIs.

So I think the attractiveness of like, look, I've got all I can handle to try to just even get to this college and make it through, right? But now you want me to deal with the admissions office and the, the, the births are the financial aid office, right? I don't wanna have to deal with that, right? And, and, and, and I know people hear, hear all the rumors and stuff like that and, and, and, and there, there's a reason why. There's a stereotype, there's a perception there. So I think people are, are thinking about those things.

I also think that oftentimes people are concerned about career connections, networking opportunities. Now that's not to say that people don't network within the HBCU environment, right? I mean there are a lot of people who are networking there, but I think depending on what it is that you're trying to do, if you're trying to, and, and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. And please, I would love to hear everyone like, comment and provide feedback, right?

I think like for example, if you're trying to do something that's in the finance industry, you, I think people are definitely probably pushing more for, oh, my computer's notifying me of everything. They're pushing more for I probably the pwi so they can have access to your, your, your Goldman Sachs internship or something like that. Or you know, so, or maybe they wanna work in the city. Hey, I'm live, so don't make sure you don't come here. Let me turn this, my son is cooking something and try not to make as much noise.

So I think people are gonna wanna have access to those internships in the city, right? So I would say typically that doesn't mean that this is written in stone. This is not chisels and concrete. You're gonna wanna have access to those elite institutions that, that have that kind of relationship with the city, right? That's not to say that you can't get that from an HBCU.

I think when you are looking for certain types of networking, like it is probably harder. And let me just say for the record, much of what I'm, I'm I am talking about has nothing to do with the the academics because the academics are fine at the HBCUs. But what I will say is when I was at the PWI, I attended the amount of money that was poured into research and the, the access I had was ridiculous.

As a freshman, I was granted the opportunity. Now check this out. When I look back, I didn't even know what the heck I was doing. I started off as a physics major at the PWI attended and at the end of my freshman year, 'cause my first semester was not that great. My second semester was really good. At the end of my first year, my advisor wanted me to come with him to China with his PhD students.

Now I'm a, I'm undergrad, I'm a whole freshman. Well, I had just finished my freshman year. I was also an ROTC. So at the end of my freshman year, I am on a plane to China for part of the summer to study intense ertz lasers. I wanna let that one sink in. Now, I didn't really study much.

I wound up coming home early. I had a family situation, but I had an opportunity to tour China with PhD students. I realized there, now check this out. I didn't realize how shady I was. I was like a, a a little bit of a dole bird. I realized that I did not want to study the science. I wanted to apply the sciences, right? So at the end of my freshman year, I come back from China, my advisor says, Hey, would you like to work with me over the summer and the rest, the rest of the summer?

And he says, you can help study with me in my lab. Now I'm gonna butcher this. He said, only 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of the people in the world have access to this kind of equipment. Or I forgot what it was. I was like, no, I don't think I want to be a physics major anymore. And he was like, really? I was like, I don't think this is for me.

And I had opportunities just tossed it, didn't know what I was doing. And I swapped into engineering and I had other opportunities. I don't even remember what they were, but I just wanted to just put that out there. I had an all expense paid opportunity to go to China to interact with, I can't remember the guy, but he was also, he was a stu he was gonna be at our uni at our institution, our university in the fall as a PhD student.

And he was also like one of our guides. 'cause I didn't speak Chinese. And he was showing us about China and we were getting to, to know the Chinese students. And then they were gonna, I just remember the one guy in particular. And then he was going to come with, I think it was two more, I can't remember. He was gonna come back in the fall and study with us. And I was gonna get all this mentorship and everything and I was just like, yeah, I don't like it. I think I wanna be an engineer.

And I was as a freshman at the end of my freshman year, where am I going with that? A lot of times what I'm seeing is there, the HBCUs don't always have access to some of these enrichment opportunities. What I saw that was happening at my school was, I remember I was either a sophomore or a junior, I can't remember, and maybe I was a sophomore, but I saw there was a black woman from Spelman and there was a black guy from Morehouse, I can't remember if they were juniors or seniors, but they completed their last year, I think at my school.

And I was like, so wait a minute, where do you graduate from? And I don't, I think their, their degree would say my school and Spelman, I can't remember. But the point I was making was, they were saying that, but they wanted to study, they needed to complete it at my school. I was like, wait, what? They were coming from prestigious schools like Spelman, hello Morehouse. Hello. And they had to come complete. There was some sort of program that they were doing with my school where they had, I don't know if they had to do a year or something like that, but they came from Spelman and Morehouse North to complete their education at my school.

And where I'm going with that is, I remember they were talking about there was some sort of internship or some sort of co-op or I don't know, it wasn't a co-op, I forgot what it was. But they're saying like they didn't have some of those opportunities where they were. And these were prestigious HBCUs. Now many people are gonna look at me and probably think I'm like trying to shade the schools or anything like that. If that's not the case at all. It wasn't that their intellect wasn't because they were like super smart. The concern was they didn't have access to some of the equipment that, I forgot what they were studying.

It was studying something really hard. They were, they didn't have access to the equipment, at least at that time. I don't know what it is today. You didn't have access to some of these other enrichment opportunities. The opportunity I got was at the end of my freshman year, I, I didn't even know what I was doing. I was like, okay. And then get that afterwards. I was like, Hmm, I don't think I wanna do this anymore like that. That's the kind of stuff I wanted to talk about when we're talking about do we wanna go for the career, do we wanna go for the culture?

Do we want the the networking in the career or do we want the clout? I think that's what a lot of people at the time when you saw that decline from 1976 to 2022 or 2020 or whatever it was that I just read. That was what I think many of the, the, the black students were thinking about is like, man, like they probably couldn't, didn't say words like endowment, but they probably said things like, man, this PWI offered me more money and more opportunities.

And that's what I did. I went after that and I didn't even know what the heck I was doing when I, when I swapped out of the one that I got into when I'm talking about the HBCU. And the reason why I'm not naming is because I don't want anyone, and I may have named it in another video, but I don't want anyone to think I'm bash in the HBCU because I still think very highly of many of these HBCUs, especially places like for example, Howard University. Many of our doctors and, and dentists and lawyers come from Howard University. Very prestigious, right?

Only reason why I wouldn't go to this is 'cause I don't wanna be anybody's city. I just, I I've not, no, it has nothing to do with being HBCU. But then I was reading where people were saying like, Howard didn't offer them as much money as when they apply to A-A-P-W-I. Well these PWIs have a lot more endowments. Now I'm not gonna get into why PWIs have more endowment money. That's a separate video. That's that, that's not this video. But I am seeing is I'm seeing this a lot.

There's, there's this extra decision to be made on whether or not people should attend A PWI versus an HBCU Uhuh. Let me see, lemme see. Go ahead. Go ahead. I don't think you're on camera, but you have to go all the way over there. Yep. All right. Okay. I just don't want my son to Uhuh. Yeah, go ahead. They can't see you. He's just off camera. So what I wanted to get into was, we're gonna talk about perception for a second.

One of the decisions that you're seeing play out now in the media, well, maybe not in the media, but this is what I'm noticing now, you got this whole like Supreme Court decision to, you know, get rid of the whole affirmative action thing. There's a decline in, you know, black enrollment as some of these prestigious in institutions. And lemme just say for the record, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, when we talk about some of these prestigious in institutions that are not necessarily the Ivys, I did not go and check every single one of these, but there are some big name prestigious institutions that are technically not Ivy Leagues because they weren't one of the original nine Ivy Leagues, right?

So when, when I say Ivy Leagues, I'm talking about your Harvard, your Princeton, your Cornell, brown, Dartmouth, university of Pennsylvania, Columbia, I'm having a brain dump here, right? I, I don't remember, there's nine of them. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the other really prestigious institutions like Tufts, Washington University, Vanderbilt, university of Chicago, Northwestern Duke.

Like these are all schools that are really hard to get into Stanford, right? I'm gonna brain dump here, right? Trying to get into your Vanderbilts, your North East, your Northwesterns, sorry, your Northwesterns, your Dukes, your, your Swarthmore's, your Lafayette, your have my brain up. They're really hard to get into these institutions, right? So we've already seen a decline in Washington University out outta St.

Louis, Missouri. We've already seen the decline from at Tufts University. I think they're outta Massachusetts. I cannot remember. We've already seen the decline in black. I don't know if it's black enrollment, I think it might be enrollment. Well, and it could, I don't know if it's because they're not accepting positions or if they're not being offered enrollment or admission into the university. So now with the rise in pop culture promoting HBCUs, for example, was it four or five years ago when Beyonce, I don't know how many years ago did her Coachella thing, when she did homecoming highlighting that HBCU culture and the band culture, the southern culture.

Then you had Dion, primetime Sanders, Dion Sanders, he was the coach at Jackson State before he moved over to Colorado. And even currently right now we have Michael Vick set to take over Norfolk State. So now all of a sudden there's this, there's this rise in promoting the black, the black colleges, the HBCUs. So you've got these young kids out here having to make a decision.

Do I want this culture or do I want this clout? Do I want the culture of the HBCU because I still wanna get a good education, I wanna have a good time, but I know that maybe I may struggle with some of the financial insecurity or do I want the career? Right? Don't want the networking, don't want the clout of the name. Oftentimes people who don't look like me are unaware of HBCUs, right? They don't know that these schools, there's tons of really good schools in HBCUs.

There are schools who are struggling to remain open. You've got there, there's some corruption in terms of h how the money is handled, of course, but, or I shouldn't say corruption, I would say mismanagement. Who knows if it's corruption or who knows if it's incompetence, there's a lack of consistent endowment money coming in or contributions. So you got these students who are now seeing that they're the, the HBCU is a viable option and they're torn because they know that if you're, like, with the exception of a, a freak athlete like Travis Hunter who's still off at Jackson State, then went to Colorado and now is a Heisman winner and will most likely be a high draft pick in the NFL, outside of a freak athlete like that, many of these athletes are like, I need to be paid.

Do I go to an HBCU? I think I like the HBCU, but I know if I go to big name university, if I go to Notre Dame or Michigan or USC or Oregon or, or, or I don't know, whatever, I can get paid. Look at, look, this isn't, I wouldn't even say that Bill Belichick represents pop culture, but like he's gonna go coach at unc. So now there, there's this shift. So you got kids who are having to make a decision like, hey, if I am a football player and I can get coached under Bill Belichick and have access to the NFL whatever talent training opportunities that I'm sure there's a struggle there.

Do I go for this clout? Do I go for the big name? Do I go for the money? Do I go for the HBCU struggling to give me money and shenanigans with financial aid? And I remember talking with some students who attended A PWI versus HBCU students and one of the things that they were talking about was like, yeah, we were always having to deal with the financial aid office and you know, they never had enough books. And here I am, I never even thought about the book situation. I just went to the bookstore, got the book I needed and moved on.

Granted, I was on scholarship, but there was never an issue with there even being enough books in stock. I was like, wait, what? What do you mean you couldn't get the book? They're like, the book doesn't exist. So we're all taking turns sharing a book until they got the books. And I'm like, what? What is this shenanigans you talk about? So I'm just talking about those kinds of experiences. I don't know, I know a lot of times people are gonna look at me when I say these things. They're like, oh, you're anti H-B-C-H-B-C-U.

Yeah, I, I'm actually not. But I think because there is such insecurity in a financial aspect, that would be a concern for me. And I can see how if you're a first generation, of course collegiate, you know, college attendee, you probably wanna make sure that that is taken care of, right? But I can see why there is this, there's, there's, there was a concern there.

But definitely when I think Beyonce highlighted HBCU band culture, that was really kind of like a feather in the cap. Look, when I, the PWI attended, you know, obviously did not have that culture. And then there was a sorority I was interested in, but they were suspended. So I could not look into that sorority if you know, you know, so that was not an option for me.

Okay. Which made it difficult, you know, in the future because trying to be a graduate person of a sorority becomes really difficult. So anyway, I just wanna just like talk about or mention those things and, and let me just say this, it, you have people who are not familiar with HBCUs.

And I'm not saying I'm familiar with them, obviously I've visited other campuses and that type of thing before. But I think the concern would be sometimes it's perception. There are people who don't know better. So there's a perception of an HBCU being really bad. My, my perception of the HBCUs is just mostly the financial insecurity. So I can't deal with that. Like that's what's going on with the hair. You could tell I need to do something to it, don't judge me.

It's the financial insecurity, right? You've got financial insecurity that is not gonna sit well for me. You've got a reduced access to opportunities, right? So the curriculum is fine, but I think oftentimes you may run into a scenario where people want to have access to maybe some of the best like lab equipment or I don't know, internships or whatever it is.

You, you, we deal with that type of thing. I think there's a concern that some people I think, think that, you know, HBCUs are not teaching like the same level. And I don't know if I really agree with that, but there's just all those perceptions, like maybe you won't have great career connections. I think it depends on what it is you're trying to do and where you are located. I do think that that plays a part in it, but I can understand why there's this tug of war between the PWI versus the HBCU.

Anyway, lemme see. I think that's pretty much it. Let me ask you a question. Do you think that for those of you who might actually pay attention to this video, do you think that the dilution of top tier black athletes at HBCUs is part of the problem? I know that our top tier athletes are not attending these, these institutions, and I kind of get it right.

They don't have the top tier facilities training staff. They don't get as much visibility on television. They barely have reasonable uniforms. I think that's, that's possibly an issue I think. Do you, do you think there's a concern about career connections at, you know, HBCUs versus PWIs?

I don't know. Like I said, I, I love the cultural pride of an HBCU. I wish we didn't have to have an HBCU, but the fact of the matter is, regardless what pe regardless what people say, there is a problem with students who look like me gaining access to some of these top institutions. A lot of times people think like they, that that students who look like me are, are, don't wanna go to HBCUs, but I'm like, sometimes people forget, like not everybody lives in the south.

Not everybody can get there. Not, not reasonably. Not everybody wants to travel far. So their options are PWIs. Similarly for those who live in the south, you know, have you considered going to a PWI north of where you're staying? So those are things I just like to throw out there. I'm hoping that you enjoy the conversation about this or everything centering around this. Hopefully you'll take the time to subscribe to my channel. Hopefully you'll take the time to leave a comment.

Hopefully we'll take the time to send this to all your aunties and your sisters and your friends, your brothers, anybody else. Hopefully you know, you'll, you know, like I said, between sharing and saying something, I just hope you enjoyed this. I would love to hear what your thoughts are centered around this whole conversation. If you want me to talk more about it, I can, I'll give you my perspective on, or a deeper perspective on it. Because even the way I dated was different. I don't know if I would say it's different. Well, it's kind of different.

Maybe not. Like dating is different. I think my exposure to other things is different. So, and, and I think maybe that's another video I'll have. I mean, because I think the way that I went about things may or may not resonate with some people, but I'm a product of my collection of experiences. So I don't know. I have all these notes that I wrote down and I barely even, I printed 'em off and I didn't even use them.

All right, have a good one. Don't forget to subscribe because I'm amazing in every way. You can practically do no wrong....

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