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HBCU OR NOT HBCU—A RECRUITMENT ISSUE? PART 1

         A few years back, I got into a heated discussion with a member of a local organization dedicated to helping young Black men and women to attend the college of their choice.  Keep in mind that this local organization had been ‘discovered’ by the local Caucasian money brokers and were now ‘flush with cash’.  Thus, the group—in my humble opinion—did not have to ‘recruit’ young Black students from the ‘hood’ anymore, meaning urban schools.

      They could ‘wait’ for the Black students to come to them.

      “You’re going to have to recruit at EVERY High School and Middle School.” I mentioned to one of the members of this Black group. “You can’t just ‘pick and choose’ where you go. There are even young Black men and women IN the Juvenile Detention Center who have the mental skills to go to college IF someone would mentor them.”  I concluded my conversation.

      Speaking of the Juvenile Center; when I was a Probation Officer, I had a similar discussion with my superiors downtown on how to build fill our ranks.  More than seventy percent of our clientele were Black, or non-white. Yet more than seventy percent of our Probation Officers were Caucasian. The rationale from the bosses—they did not ‘need’ to aggressively recruit Black men who graduated college for the Probation Department. Black women who were college grads were enough.

      They could ‘wait’ for the Black men graduates to come to them.

      So, when I recently saw articles appearing around the ‘lack’ of young Black men attending HBCUs, my FIRST thought?  Are they aggressively recruiting young Black men who have the true ability to go to college, or—like the other two agencies I mentioned earlier—are HBCUs paying ‘lip’ service to recruiting and are content to ‘wait’ for young Black men to ‘discover’ HBCUs and attend?

      Or, in a racially diverse society, do HBCUs have anything to offer young Black men?

      Now, we must be honest about this HBCU topic. A few months back, it was reported that applications to HBCUs were way up. Further, the cast of A Different World were going to do a reunion tour of HBCUs even earlier than this. Thus—in my view—it seems that the ‘lack’ of young Black men attending HBCUs may be a tempest in a teapot. The REAL issue? How are colleges and universities of the ‘lighter hue’ managing to recruit top Black talent, not only teachers, administrators and Black students in the classrooms—and HBCUs are not?

      Let me take the long way around the mountain to answer this question.

      Full disclosure here. I came out of both an urban (or, as we used to say public) school and a suburban school background. I was well trained, had great teachers in both systems, and was prepared for ‘life in the outside world’ when I graduated high school and ‘moved on’ to a public state college for higher education. My knowledge of HBCUs comes from what I’ve seen and experienced from those who taught at or attended HBCUs. My view? Some young Black men may not be able to afford to go to an HBCU and may get ‘more bang for the buck’ at a college or university in their home state. There is NOTHING wrong with Black students who do not make the choice to attend an HBCU. College—even a Black one—may NOT be for every Black student.

      Let’s be honest. Many urban public schools are not as ‘great’ as they used to be. Check around the country via the Internet. Since the Covid-19 (Wuhan) Virus, the double-dealing of the NEA Teacher’s Union, and the poor test scores posted by schools in Democrat-controlled cities, urban public schools have taken it on the chin simply because there is no sense of urgency to improve. Poor performing urban public schools are content to take money in and watch many Black students drop out…with NO penalties imposed on poorly performing public schools, or poorly performing teachers. When attempts are made to impose penalties, strikes are threatened.

      Education neglect seems to be the new mantra of DEI success in public education. Meanwhile, teachers who teach in failing urban public schools send their kids to charter, private or religious schools while campaigning against others in failing schools to have the same right. I find it highly interesting that teachers have been teaching everything OTHER than reading, writing and arithmetic to OUR Black students, but have been sending THEIR kids to better schools OUTSIDE of the urban schools where they get their paychecks—and continue to demand MORE public money for ineffectiveness.

      Yes, I’ll dare say it, the urban church has been woefully absent in this discussion.

      Over the years, as a Minister, I have been blessed to serve in a variety of urban churches.  Many of the Pastors of these churches have sent their OWN kids to charter, private and even suburban schools.  What makes this situation even more curious is these same Pastors are strong supporters of the urban school districts in which their churches are located—but won’t invest the academic talent of THEIR children in these school districts. They are quite content to ‘complain’ about the ‘crumbling nature’ of this—but won’t pay more than lip service as to their improvement.

      Why? To eliminate future competition for their OWN children.

      Then, there is the nature of urban public schools themselves. In my view, they have let down young Black students to the point where many of them may think they have been abandoned. These young brothers don’t see much in the way of ‘public praise’ for their efforts from the public schools they attend—unless you count the ‘occasional’ visit from a sports or entertainment ‘star’ for a photo op and a tax write-off

      However, they see plenty of praise heaped upon Black male students from suburban schools.

      On many a Friday night, all one has to do is turn on their local TV station for the high school football or basketball roundup. It USED to be that you would barely see young Black brothers featured on suburban or rural high school sports teams. Further, you wouldn’t hear that much about the teams of urban school districts. This has changed in a major way. Urban high schools have done little to improve relationships and attitudes with the media outlets in their OWN cities, while their suburban counterparts have done a wonderful job in ‘keeping their flag planted’ with many local media outlets. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to list the fact that many of the children of those ‘stars’ within the local media community attend schools outside of the urban areas where their stations and papers have resided for years.

      Add to this the fact that more than 30 percent of Black families NOW live in the suburbs—proof positive that not only have we overcome, but we have also THRIVED among people of other races.

      As I come to an end of the first part of my column, let me throw this into the mix as to why HBCUs may be having a hard time drawing in young Black male students. It rests with someone that you may know—Football Coach Deion Sanders, now in his second season with the Colorado Buffaloes.  ‘Coach Prime’ did the HBCU thing, and invested himself, and his family, finances and talent into an HBCU (as many remember) as a head football coach. For the several years that he was involved with the Jackson State University Tigers, leading them to a championship. However, during his coaching career at Jackson State, Sanders made it very public that the HBCU was not serious in helping him uplift and upgrade the football program.

      One of the things that may have upset the apple cart was the fact that it was alright for him to round up sponsors for the Jackson State athletic program, and even put his own money into the football program.  However, Jackson State insiders and alumni, in Sanders’ view, did NOT do enough to provide for their OWN. So much for HBCU loyalty and brotherhood.

      Sanders, who graduated from Talladega College, and had one of his sons graduate from Jackson State before joining him at Colorado, unearthed a sensitive issue previously not discussed concerning HBCUs: It was OK for young Black men to ‘move on’ to other colleges and universities IF their talents, skills and abilities ‘grew them’ past the HBCU experience.

      Perhaps urban public schools—and HBCUs—need realize that the world has changed.  Young Black men are not all living in the cities and many of them are attending schools of the charter, private and even parochial variety. HBCUs are NOT the only college option out there for Black folk in a culturally diverse society. Isn’t this what the Civil Rights struggle was all about?

      Remember history, HBCUs.

      More to come.

      Mike Ramey is a Retired Minister, KJV Bible Teacher, syndicated columnist and Bible Prophecy Specialist who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.  “The Ramey Commentaries” is one of a variety of his columns appearing and abounding in print and cyberspace, written from a biblical, business, and common-sense perspective since 1996.  To drop him a line—or a whine—the address is still the same: mgmikeramey@yahoo.com.  ©2024 Barnstorm Communications International.