HBCUs perpetuate racism
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are colleges or universities that predominately cater to the educational needs of African American students. The majority of these schools are located in the southeast of the United States. I believe that these schools are no longer important to students in today’s society. I feel that HBCUs perpetuates the gap between the races of America.
I had the privilege of visiting a HBCU in Washington DC, three years ago. The event that sticks out in my memory the most was a guest speaker from the debate conference. The speaker said he was an HBCU graduate, but he bad-mouthed other races. My fellow students and I were highly offended. This speaker tried to give us the “white man keeping us down speech.” He left me to believe that the students who attend HBCUs are from very disadvantaged backgrounds and that HBCUs fuel the fire of racism in this nation. From that point on, I knew that an HBCU was not a place for my college education.
Even though HBCUs cater to the education of African Americans, they may hinder their learning as well. Learning in a school with no diversity does not encourage acquiring global cultural knowledge. You are only subjected to variations in the African American culture, which may include the Caribbean and/or African cultures. I feel that when you are launched into the “real world,” you are at a disadvantage from those who have interacted with other cultures, and from others who have taken the time to learn about the diverse country we live in. Learning and accepting others cultures is paramount. HBCUs do not typically offer that essential people skill.
In today’s world, we should strive for equality for all citizens. HBCUs do not generally encourage this sentiment. In the past, when segregation laws were still intact, the HBCUs were needed for the education of African Americans. Now, it seems as if these institutions hamper the prospect of racial equality, and they continue the oppression of African American students.
This is not to say that HBCUs are not fine institutions. HBCUs produce scholars, entrepreneurs, and very successful citizens. I believe that HBCUs should open their doors to all races to close the gap of racial disparity. Human equality should be on the top of the priority list. Equality and diversity are vital to African American students.
HBCUs are open to all races. Those colleges are "Historically Black" not exclusively black. I do understand your point though. Yet in still you should take that speakers opinion as his own and not brand that as the opinion of HBCUs. They are still a needed part of society as they are for the most part the only institutions where the majority of students, teachers, and faculty can identify with the "black experience".
to be able to express the black experience everywhere. Isnt part of growing be able to adapt to others. It would kind of be restrictive to be around everyone that is simillar.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK
I do understand your point. However some (many) people especially from inner cities ( I split my childhood between inner-city & suburbs) can learn better in an environment that they are comfortable in. They search for the acceptance and familiarity that they find in others who have walked a similar path. The only way to solve for this is to actually desegregate all aspects of life which is highly unlikely.
I can understand that logic. I lived in both the inner city and the suburbs too but I never wanted to be around people like me. I liked diversity and meeting new people of al nationalities and races.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK
I see a lot of parallels between this argument, and that of going to a public school over a private school. I completely agree with you... in the "real" world we have to learn to work with all kinds of people, and the truth is the HBCU's have traditionally been racially exclusive and continue to be so.
colleges, I am not calling them racist or anything or that they are intentionally doing things a certain way BUT their system and set up in is not one where people of disadvantaged back grounds can make it through...
I mean it's a struggle for everyone BUT for people who come from inner city schools and make it to these places (it does happen), they aren't able to last in the competitiveness and money mindedness of those colleges
I know because I went to one for two years and I learned that they used to spin their statistics to make themself look diverse....well they lacked in it, I mean economic and racial diversity---I saw blacks and asians and hispanic but they knew that they were a VERY small minority.
"I leave my one and only grain of spiritual sand
to universal scales of humanity, all humanity...
forever is finding a solution to a solution." -Forever Begins, Common
http://www.progressiveu.org/231615-this-is-a-muslim-girls-plight
They were rejected though and they are minorities. So its not that easy.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth!~JFK