Look Into The Culture: HBCUs and Cultural Competency in a Race to the Top

Clark College's motto was "Culture for Service" before it was consolidated with Atlanta University. And, in this moment I can't help but pay attention to Clark's motto, as it seeks to set the tone for this essay.  I can't say I know how it emerged, or why "Culture for Service" was chosen, but I can say that as an educator trained in Christian Theology and African American Studies, I think a lot about the nature of "culture."  I'm not talking about a bourgeois sensibility that is based on Eurocentric values: rather, I'm talking about the ethos and tradition of a place and people that should be considered at all times.  

Now that we have that "cleared up," let me offer some insight.  One day, I and one of my mentees were having a conversation about what made HBCUs unique in the wake of so many vast arguments about the viability and validity of these schools.  Her thoughts were succinct and clear.  She said, "Palmer HBCUs are most valuable because of their social environment...when people think of HBCUs they always start by telling the story of the social experience."  Now, for my academics, my mentee wasn't saying that HBCUs don't carry their weight inside of the classroom.  What she was seeking to do was to describe the validity of a strong Student Affairs unit (as she has a M.Ed. in Student Affairs), in the wake of so many who think of that area of expertise as "Run, Jump, and Play."  Her understanding of HBCUs is actually quite perceptive as we think about how media seems to showcase HBCU's Athletic, Co-Curricular, and Greek Life traditions.  From School Daze to the Great Debaters, people seem to pick up on the alternate culture of HBCUs that is at the heart of the dynamism of our schools.

It would seem that HBCU leaders and advocates would pay attention to the culture of a space as much as we/they pay attention to any other thing.   But, the reason many HBCU leaders haven't done so is because we haven't valued the culture of the space, and we haven't hired that kind of leader to "fix" our HBCUs.  It seems as though we keep hiring the same person in different forms...academically sound, great on paper, and wrong for our schools.  Most of our HBCU leaders have not, will not, do not pay attention to the culture of the campus when they set out to change its culture from one thing to something else.  And, then, they do not hire people who can ask that kind question: what of culture.  As one of my professors at CAU said, "we have been taught to think that the white man's ice is colder."  She is right, unfortunately!  We are trying to contort our schools to a standard that continues to marginalize us.  "You can't out-wa-tootsie the originator of the wa-tootsie," even though many of us try.

It's funny how HBCU alumni can recognize the unique cultural milieu of a campus, and some of their/our administrative leaders have a hard time understanding it.  While there are a million examples, I cite a few from recent years.  I can remember quite vividly when a college president sought to cut down trees on one campus that had always been what one walked through in order to graduate.  A few years back at a women's college, a college president found a letter on her door step, written by student leadership, who wanted her to understand that her skirts and dresses were too short and were not in keeping with the tradition of their school.  At another school, alumni came home for a special weekend and found that the college's tradition of chapel service had been undone.  At another school, the president painted over original artwork that dated back to the Harlem Renaissance.  And just recently, I saw St. Paul's President Millard Stith, talk about another president who brought back football (to a school 500), without taking into consideration who the school served.  In this last case, it was a costly mis-step that led to the school's closing.  At the center of all of this is an understanding of culture.

Too often, leaders of schools focus on charting a disconnected tomorrow without thinking about the history of what a school is...and what the school has been.  Too many of our leaders, even as "degreed" as they are, don't possess an understanding and an appreciation of their environments.  They have no time for cultural competence...no time to acquaint themselves with beautiful legacies...only time to save and build and chart.  Too many leaders serve HBCUs with no intention of asking questions, and listening to the answers.  Too many leaders come with a mentality of "President or Vice President knows best."  Far too many regard the HBCU with the same unconscious disdain that they regard young black people: "if they could just pull up their pants..."  It is our own embrace and validation of all things not us that will actually kill HBCUs.  And this self hate is at the heart of why a Liberal Arts college or University (that has long sustained and provided cultural values and norms) would dismantle fine arts, education, and religion, even when the legacy has been to produce the finest musicians, teachers, and preachers.  

Why would you get rid of chapel, diminish orientation, sidestep student leadership...if the culture of the place is made rich by these experiences?  Why would you dismantle what makes you rich, unique, and a hallmark in higher education? It is because many leaders are "playing in the dark" "damned up with sorrow in the corners of their eyes," and not asking questions that put Blackness, Africaness in the centrality of the argument.  Instead, We are hoping that STEM can save us!  But, who wants to major in Biology without being able to master the jazz piano training begun at home St. Louis?  Who wants to major in Engineering at a school that doesn't have robust student leadership opportunities that push knowledge into praxis?  Who wants to go to a school where singing, poetry, art, languages, and oratory are obsolete? Who?

HBCUs are so often having to answer questions of validity that they never seem to get a chance to put questions on the table for others.  It is too often from trying to "race to the top" on a scale that always seems to have HBCUs in last place, that HBCUs never get to ask seminal questions of our/their PWI counterparts like: "What kind of culture do you create for students of African descent to thrive?," "How are these students centralized in your mission and strategic plan?," and "Can you instill in students of African descent an ethic and ethos that they can succeed and lead ethically?

I've always found it amazing that we can attend a school that seeks to make the sons and daughters of the African diaspora the center of its educational mission, asking us to think about the kinds of questions that don't start with what whiteness wants or what others need.  At the same time, it is saddening to watch institutional leaders struggle to put those same relevant questions on the table...or to watch them miss the obvious. Maybe what HBCU leaders need to be are culturally competent and aware/proud of the contributions made by people who look like them...and the legacies they represent.  Maybe we all need to ask ourselves, how culturally competent are we? Maybe we need to sit in a class and be reminded that this "culture" is unique and nuanced, and doesn't need be measured by someone else's standard.  Maybe if we understood that this "culture" was designed to serve the world, not exploit it we'd be able to create what was needed in this time to keep HBCUs alive!