I WHOLE HEARTEDLY DISAGREE WITH THE STATEMENT THAT MONEY TRUMPS ALL. No disrespect brother, but maybe I'm not reading this the way you intended it to be read or taken. If so, please forgive what I am about to say. I grew up in the south, my grandparents lived very close to Tuskeegee and told me with first hand experience about the tuskeegee experiment as granddad (a sharecropper) was supposed to be in it but luckily or unluckily, my grandmother got seriously ill and he chose to stay with her instead of going to get himself enrolled into "free health care". I sat at my elders knees and heard all the stories of Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham. My grandfather only finished 6th grade and was able to barely read and write, but he worked his fingers to the bone...literally to provide for his children and made damn sure they got morals, a work ethic, and wisdom from real life experience.
I said all that to let you know where I'm coming from in that there is a sense of pride, and a knowing or rather owing to the ancestors that came before us. they are the real deal mofos that paved the way through blood, sweat, tears, prayers, dogs, beatings, hoses, jail cells, lynchings, murders, voting, marching, homegrown terrorists, and shit that will never be televised. The elders and ancestors paved the way for someone to start small, underfunded, damn near starving in falling down buildings colleges and institutions for higher learning BUT THOSE institutions gave and fostered graduates who got more GRIT DETERMINATION, and GUTS to get out there and compete in a hostile world and still make great strides in all facets of life. they literally became some living legends...AND HERE MOFOS UP IN HERE placing these PWIs on a pedestal bc they don't know what really goes on behind those spoon fed, trust funded, coddled walls.....I graduate from a HBCU and went on to have experiences literally all over the world. but straight out the gate, I face a challenge during a program in Rhode Island...here I am, the little young black man from the backwards south from a "let you tell it no-name HBCU" in the middle having debates with graduates from MIT, Harvard, Brown, Notre Dame, the Naval Academy, and etc... I aint going to lie, I was intimidated like hell going in bc these were all graduates from some of the "ivy leagues' best schools". Who was I to them? My parents were NOT ivy league educated authors, nor famous congress men/women. My people were just good folks who worked hard and literally did the best they could. I flailed during the first opening salvos of the competition. went back to my room with my tail tucked keenly between my legs. I called one of my old professors (Dr M Brown-will never forget this lady...although she was a mount Holyoke grad and double doctorate from a PWI). She said something to me that I will never forget. SHE REMINDED OF WHO I WAS, WHERE I CAME FROM, AND WHAT I HAD BEEN THROUGH TO GET WHERE I AM. she reminded me that NO I wasn't a trust fund baby, I wasn't a congressman's son, nor graduate of easy street...I was the grandson of a sharecropper, the son of 2 blue collar workers, I AM the descendent of ancestors who bathed in their own blood and endured worse to produce little country ass me. Who was I to DISHONOR their blood , their sacrifice, their hardships, their heartache, and give in to fear of these so-called goliaths of education.
Brothers on BGOL, let me tell you. She lit a fire under me that still burns to this day.....
I may have done poorly the first day, went to my room with my tail between my legs, BUT AFTER THAT CONVERSATION..............what emerged from the room the next morning was an inhuman juggernaut breathing fire, welding brimstone in one hand and lightning in the other. I couldn't wait to let loose the thoughts in my head. I went in breathing fire and threw retorts and responses at people like a giant mace looking for its next victim to crush. The look on my face must have the other people shook.....and by the end of the day, it wasn't the people from the ivy league schools that folks were scared to draw, it was the guy from the "under funded, half starved, falling down buildings, piece of crap black college".
At HBCUs, you are not going to get things given to you. you will have to earn them. that extra shit and hardship you go through builds character and determination. The lifelong friends you make from being "in the trenches" at the HBCUs. the PREPARATION FOR REAL LIFE, the acquisition of knowledge of self...who you are and what you are capable of....no amount of money can buy that.
The wolf on top of the hill isn't as hungry as the wolf coming up the hill. As an HBCU graduate, you will always be the wolf coming up the hill. the underdog, the discounted, the quota/minority representative, the long shot with something to prove, determination in your heart, and grit enough to persevere in conditions that would make your PWI counter parts run bc they never will have faced the kind of opposition, challenges, and obstacles that you have.
I know from all the cyphers we had on the yard, in closed rooms, and debates on every subject known to man...at a HBCU, someone will challenge you, someone will call you on your bullshit and sooner or later you will have to put up or shut up. You don't get that knowledge of self, helter skelter firing squad test of grit/toughness, kind of immersion at PWIs.
when you leave an HBCU, you will be a stronger more whole person for it....no matter what name your diploma has on it, every HBCU grad knows that feeling of graduating and being ready to jump feet first in the real world...not that rose colored bullshit they sell you at PWIs if they see you at all. you are not just a number at HBCUs, you are a member of the alumni family and ever better, an alumni family of all the HBCU families.
This is not to say that PWIs don't have their benefit. go if its what is best for you but don't lose yourself, or your soul in the process of trying to make money. money is great, but knowing that you have been tried, tested, and approved by your peers, your professors, and your circumstances at HBCUs is a feeling of confidence that can take you as far as your dreams go.
PWIs IMHO are useful as finishing schools like putting a coat of polish on black leather that is already tough, with or without it.
