Before I begin, I would like to take you back to my senior year in high school. I was applying to different colleges and doing more research on other colleges.
As I was doing research on the schools, I would also look up reviews on the schools from sources like US News and World Report, Forbes and other publications while looking at reviews from students who went to those schools. Eventually, I ended up on social media to see what other students may have said about their school and to see which schools my classmates would go to. As I wandered through social media, I came across one of my followers going back and forth with another user over HBCUs and PWIs(For those who don't know, HBCUs are "Historically Black Colleges and Universities and PWIs are Predominantly White Institutions). They kept debating the benefits and disadvantages of going to each of the schools and soon, more people joined in.
As my senior year went on, I decided that I wanted to attend an HBCU due to the tales of the HBCU experience and the rising racial tension in the country. Fast forward to the end of my freshman year at my HBCU, Claflin Universtiy. I once again came across the HBCU vs PWI debate, however, I had a much different opinion on the topic. Before, I was on the side of HBCUs, but this time I just thought "Does it really matter?"
What I meant by this was if it really matters what type of college black students go to. While I do understand the importance of HBCUs and I do encourage black students to look more into HBCUs, I also feel that if some chose not to go to an HBCU, that's fine as well. I think that African Americans should be shaming students if they decide to go to a PWI or an HBCU because I think it's just a blessing to be a black person and be able to go to college.
What some of us forget is that America has stacked the odds against black people from the day they are born. The way things are set up in this country, America wants to see black men and women dead, on the street, or in jail. So for young black men and women to be able to pursue a higher education in this country is a blessing, whether they decide to go to Howard or Harvard. We should be proud to see so many young African Americans going on to achieve so much in this world.
