Why Are People Mad That Black Students Are Choosing HBCUs?
In a clip from the Roland Martin Show, Dr. Glenda Glover defends Tennessee State University regarding questions from a politician about why so many Black Students are enrolling in Tennessee State University rather than attending their local PWI.
[00:00:01] Welcome, welcome, welcome. You are listening to the very first episode of NBG Radio. I am your host and founder, Leonard Young. I'm excited about to bring this opportunity to you.
[00:00:26] So for a long time we've been posting a lot of great stuff on our Instagram account and on our website.
[00:00:32] And you know there's plenty of times when, you know, I just want to add an extra, a little bit of extra dialogue to the stuff that we see in here.
[00:00:40] But of course I don't get the chance to and I'm definitely not going to be arguing with people in the comments.
[00:00:45] So we started this podcast really with the goal of being able to kind of go deeper into some of these subjects and really for me to just give my personal take on some of this craziness as happening around our black community and involving our black culture.
[00:01:01] So today, the very first thing I want to talk about there was a recent post going around the internet involving a white politician speaking about why black students were attending an HBCU instead of the local white institution.
[00:01:26] And I'm about to play a clip right here. This is from Roland Martin show. So I'm about to go ahead and play it and then I'm going to speak about it real quick. Watch this.
[00:01:39] When we go to the chancellor at UTC and say why aren't you recruiting more black students? The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and they're all going to TSU.
[00:01:54] Are we doing a disservice to all the other universities on trying to recruit African American students and minority students because y'all have made such an aggressive promise to these students to come there that they're bypassing and get the same education?
[00:02:16] I mean, what I'm trying to figure out in my mind, all this all of a sudden 2000 students out of the blue decided no pun intended but why did they come to TSU? Was it the aggressive marketing campaign?
[00:02:33] So first of all, when he talks about the aggressive marketing campaign. HBCUs at one point did not have an aggressive marketing campaign. Still to this day, I feel like they still do not have an aggressive marketing campaign.
[00:02:47] A lot of the stuff we see regarding the HBCUs is stuff we see on social media. So social media, I mean, HBCUs have always been hyped. They have always been lit. Their homecomings have always been legendary. The band, the college experience.
[00:03:03] So when he's talking about this aggressive campaign, I see him as saying. Promoting black culture, black excellence and you know where people can really go to learn themselves but here they're clearly calling it an aggressive campaign. Or was it because?
[00:03:24] It was the high standards of TSU, the quality education on getting a TSU. The reputation of whether the folks who have been there. We had, you know and the people who are there now.
[00:03:35] I have some people come because of the band. I mean we like to come because of programs. But here students have told me I want to go to TSU because of risk-credit band.
[00:03:43] Who by the way, I'm going to throw this in. Who by the way just today got voted to be nominated for a Grammy award. Two Grammy awards. Our risk-credit band. So that's one of the reasons.
[00:03:59] And you know, you said it's almost like a punch them or a blame of them. We're not blaming them. We're happy. I just make the point that we did do some aggressive marketing. I said aggressive marketing. That means that we started meeting students where they are.
[00:04:12] We had more digital marketing because you know, students live in a digital world. For out of COVID, they live in a digital world. COVID just pointed out to so many others that they live in a digital world.
[00:04:23] But because they're choosing TSU, I mean, that's a great thing. Let's keep it as a great thing. And not that it's taken away from UTC because for years they took. Right. And then on the other note, shouldn't they be happy that these black students are going to college?
[00:04:42] Period. No matter where they go, you know, why do they feel like the standard has to be attending these PWIs? And you know, a lot of them, nothing wrong with PWIs. You know, people go there for different reasons.
[00:04:56] You know, I always find it so interesting where people get on other people for attending PWIs. And I know for a fact, you know, sometimes, you know, there are people who don't get accepted to HBCUs.
[00:05:08] There are people who need to be close to home and there's just no HBCUs in the area. And unless they had, you know, some great influences or just the knowledge of, there are a lot of black students who don't know about the benefits of attending HBCUs.
[00:05:26] So I'll speak personally for myself when I was in high school, if it were not for the fact that my grandmother at one point worked on the campus. The campus of Florida A&M University under the president and my father partially grew up on the campus.
[00:05:46] He attended the school that was right on the campus. That influence for HBCUs slash Florida A&M University might not have been for me either. So, you know, let's take it where it is. There's nothing wrong with not attending a PWI.
[00:06:05] But let's not take that away from HBCUs. Away from TSU and went to other places. So we're happy they're coming back home. So, you know, I thought that was just a great clip because I think a lot of HBCUs can relate to this.
[00:06:22] And so, you know, I was just trying to look for an article real quick where it said the 10 powerful advantages of attending an HBCU. The first one is coming from college express.com.
[00:06:35] The first one is education and you know, I know people may joke about certain things regarding HBCUs. But we know that there are many, many, many scholars year after year coming from HBCUs Hampton Howard Morehouse Spelman Florida A&M and a list of others.
[00:06:54] Next, let's talk about the caring professors and faculty. One thing that we wouldn't, we would know for sure that most HBCUs is that racism would not be an issue.
[00:07:07] A lot of these teachers can look at these students and you know they can see parts of them, the selves in these students, they can relate to some of their experiences coming in, whether they're first generation students,
[00:07:19] whether you know their economically challenged. So, you know, I think it's a whole relating factor where, you know, a lot of the faculty can relate to the students and the students and probably relate to a lot of these faculty a lot better. Let's not talk about black culture.
[00:07:36] When you go to an HBCU, kind of like the president of Tennessee State mentioned Dr. Glenda Glover. You know, there are a lot of factors involved. We're not only talking about the education. We're talking about the band. We're talking about the culture. We're talking about the experience.
[00:07:55] We're talking about the community of black excellence. So you know there's a whole lot of things that and not even to mention the alumni, the alumni networks are strong in many areas so you know it's more than just, you know, a one trick pony attending an HBCU.
[00:08:18] And for many, it's also the chance to continue legacy. You know people are very proud of where they came from.
[00:08:25] I'm always excited when I hear about people talking about, you know, my grandfather went to HBCU my parents went to an HBCU I'm going to HBCU my cousin going to HBCU.
[00:08:37] So you know there's just a whole lot of factors that, you know, I think are just beneficial for myself personally. I'm very thankful I went to HBCU the high school I went to was a predominantly white high school.
[00:08:53] The sports that I happened to play were predominantly white in my area I was on the swim team which at that point had no other black swimmers but myself.
[00:09:04] And I was fortunate enough to receive a swimming scholarship to Florida A&M University. They were one of the only HBCUs besides Howard and North Carolina A&T that had a swim team and with A&T just having a women's swim team so I was very fortunate to be able to take my swimming career to the collegiate level.
[00:09:25] But you know there's just so many things if I had not attended Florida A&M University. I almost hate to think about where I would be because I know that I needed that black experience and yes, the first year was a culture shock.
[00:09:42] And after that you know I fit in and kind of like they say you swim with the sharks and you know I definitely swam with the sharks and that experience has really guided me to where I am now.
[00:09:55] So just to recap, there's nothing wrong with attending a PWI college or university but I will say there's nothing like the black experience of attending an HBCU.
[00:10:11] And with that said I want to thank you for joining me for this first episode of NBG Radio. Hopefully we will come on to you weekly just talking about subjects that are in the news that you should know about. So until next time make sure you follow us.
[00:10:28] NBG Radio will be on all the podcast platforms, follow us on Instagram, National Black Guide and check out our website for news and announcements.