As the black girl’s junior year of high school winds down to an end, her parents begin prodding her for the answer to one of the most dreaded questions of her teenaged life.
So where exactly are you going to college?
Back when she was ten they would ask her this question jokingly and coo when she told them that she wanted to go to the local university or to their alma mater.
Only this time her dad is enthusiastically jabbing his red and gold (Tuskegee) jersey, and her mom has done her best to squeeze into her once retired blue and red (Howard) pencil skirt. She’d prefer a college that wasn’t historically black, but she doesn’t know how to tell them without dad reciting the story of how a white guy slashed his tires that one time in Vegas, or mom shaking her head and telling her that she doesn’t appreciate her heritage.
To explore mom and dad’s point of view, HBCU’s—Historically Black Colleges and Universities—were essentially god sends to black students who weren’t getting the rights and respect that white students were getting in education. As a matter of fact, black students couldn’t even attend most non- black universities. George Wallace blocking black students from integrating the University of Alabama in 1963 was a testament to this.
This civil rejection is spoken of time and time again, and is responsible for the origins of many historically black sororities, fraternities, restaurants, party venues, theatres and more. Blacks weren’t given fair treatment, so they left and made their own all black facilities where they could have the same basic indulgences that white people had.
When civil rights became more effectively enforced, blacks began to spend their money and time at the newly integrated non-black facilities. It was a social statement yes, but it was also a threat to the all-black facilities established by black people for black people.
This threat to HBCUs may not be as poisonous to popular universities such as Howard, but for many of the less famous HBCUs this loss of man power and notability becomes more and more noticeable as black valedictorians begin to venture out towards never frontiers. This makes parents and grandparents who were restricted to HBCU’s because of prejudice feel like the efforts made by black educators to give their people the opportunity for education are being thwarted by their own children.
But the black girl, a hard working student, an aspiring doctor, lawyer, engineer, or journalist, feverishly argues that she doesn’t want to go to a non-black college because she wants to feel “white,” or because she feels like she is “too good” to go to an all-black university. In fact, if she’s anything like me, she would be looking forward to meeting the black students on the campus of her choice, along with people of many other backgrounds.
Neighbors and peers still ask if I am considering Howard or Spelman as my top choices for college. But when they ask, I confidently tell them that I’m thinking about Northwestern.
When I began my college search back at the end of my sophomore year, I didn’t decide on my top choice based on how many black people were going. I made my choice based on the location, majors, curriculum, over all livability, one very emotional college visit, and whether or not I could see myself there clad in purple and screaming for Willie the Wildcat.
The black girl shouldn’t have to be pressured into choosing an HBCU just because she’s black. Times have changed so that she can go wherever she wants if she puts in the effort and if anything, she is limiting herself by choosing an HBCU just because that’s what a black girl is expected to do.
If she chooses dad’s red and gold, or mom’s blue and red if should be because those schools can offer the academic opportunity and the college experience that she’s looking for, because whether she likes it or not chances are she won’t get that undergrad experience again.
What do you think black girls? Have your parents pressured you into going to an HBCU because you’re black? Did you go, or did you find another path?
Comment below!
