Its
funny how one moment can remind you of something you’ve seen or heard
before. That’s how I’m feeling about the
Koch brothers giving such a grand amount of money to support UNCF
colleges. In this moment I’m remembering
the iconic School Daze’s depiction of an HBCU caught up in the divestment
protests that were a part of the Black College environment of the late 70s-early
80’s. I’m thinking about the fictitious
Mission College discourse between President McPherson (played by Joe Seneca) and Cedar Cloud (played by Art Evans) in which the seminal question was asked: “why don’t black people give to black
schools?”
And
in this moment, I’m irritated that HBCUs don’t have the luxury to turn down a
25 million dollar donation in an economy that has left many “would-be” students
unable to attend college. But that’s not
all, many overworked professor, administrator, and/or college executive is
asking the question in this “furlough” season, “where do we go from here?” So when an unexpected 25 million dollars
shows up on your doorstep, it can be hard to turn down “a gift horse.”
Let
me paint the picture for you. The
reality is that HBCUs aren’t schools that are simply teeming with overeducated,
incompetent, money-grubbing loons. In
the main, most of them haven’t had two nickels to rub together almost since inception. Most people, most presidents even, don’t have
the lucrative packages that their counterparts at PWIs receive, even though
they are carrying out tasks that require them to do triple duty. Most HBCUs are filled with people doing two
and three jobs for the price of one, and executive leadership is left trying to
figure out how to stretch the dollar as far as it can go. And, in my time, I have seen faculty, staff,
and executive leadership pay for books, food, clothes, lodging, and tuition for
students if they could pull the money from their own personal accounts. In my firsthand experiences as an eager administrator,
I taught two classes, mentored several students, worked with all of the NPHC
organizations, ran Student Activities and Residence Life, served on the
judicial committee, and planned Orientation.
In other spaces, one of these duties would have been the mission of just
an office of two or three…as it is here at Duke. And while it was an exhilarating
experience, it was also overwhelming to make magic happen on a little salary at
a little college filled with people who cared but who were definitely doing too
much.
I
say all of this to explain the conditions that precipitate the kind of
gratitude one might feel in this moment as others "type around" facebook and
twitter, providing trendy protest rhetoric that ends with: “give back the money
before you become a puppet.” I think
that’s a beautiful response for the idealist who sits in Ivy settings or even
well regarded prestigious settings like I do…where we have the privilege of
saying no to money. But, many HBCUs do
not have that privilege. I wish they
did, but I realize that such a perspective isn’t helpful in this moment when
students and staff need the resources to keep moving forward.
I
think it is challenging for us to expect institutions to be more righteous than
we are personally, or collectively.
While Kim on “A Different World” was able to turn down the fictitious
Orange Glow’s apartheid-laden money, most of us have not. In fact, many of us talking about giving up
money ought to take a long hard look in the mirror. We ought to think about how we jumped for joy
upon entrance into schools who disenfranchised black communities, or accepted
fellowships that were built out of exploitation, or graciously thanked
benefactors whose scholarships had been born out of guilt. Maybe we ought to ask even harder questions
since we are being so righteous. Should
we be going to schools, like Tuskegee, designed by Booker T. Washington, who
took money from folk that never wanted him (or any other black person) to have the right to vote? Should we
attend schools like Spelman, which is rumored to be a school that benefited from
mixed-race illegitimate children of the turn-of-the-century elite? Should we be proud of Clark Atlanta
University, which has been held together by Coca-Cola money? I wish the questions were easier. I wish the sordid histories and narratives
were easy, but they simply aren’t! The
perniciousness of systemic institutional racism has had Black institutions
crawling on their bellies eating the scraps of others…and somehow making it all
work!
Therefore,
while I wished that UNCF or HBCUs could be pickier about whom they accepted
money from, I realize that this moment is tricky and there are consequences for
turning down much needed resources. But
I don’t just wish that for HBCUs, I wish I could have turned down the
scholarship from Macalester, when I was told over a dinner with the benefactor
that he couldn’t believe he was supporting “the help.” I wish I could have turned down the loan
money from Sallie Mae that continues to be a shackle, when I made the decision
to attend an HBCU for graduate school (in a non-STEM field). I wish that the world was less complicated,
but like Dr. Walter Kimbrough said almost year ago in an open letter to Dr. Dre
when he (Dr. Dre) gave a $70 million to a PWI…“I wish you had given that
money to HBCUs.”
In
this moment, we must put our money where our mouths are…or shut up with the
strategic complaining. The lack of
support from Black people, who too often forget that HBCUs have played a vital
role in helping Black folk have access, is more challenging to me than Koch
brothers money. Their 24 Million dollar
gift pales in comparison to our wholesale abandonment.
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