r/nextfuckinglevel • u/matori_tester • 1d ago

Billionaire speaker Robert F. Smith tells 400 graduates he's paying off all their student loans ($40 million in total)

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u/Legal_Guava3631 1d ago

HBCUs were founded for the black students that wanted to go to college but PWIs said fuck no, yall not coming in here. Anyone can apply, but it’s not really common for a white person to be seen on campus as a student.

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u/EdwardBigby 1d ago

Very interesting. I've never heard of those. Definitely makes sense from a historical point of view but the concept of them existing in a modern day context still seems bizarre to me.

What do most Americans think of them?

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u/Legal_Guava3631 1d ago

I’d like to think they don’t care, but it isn’t a perfect world. Some people hate it saying it isn’t fair because they think it’s a school only for black folks and that it’s racist, but the schools literally only exist because of, you guessed it, racism.

Personally, I love it for my people, but it’s a harsh reminder that we had to make our own schools because we were deemed unworthy because of our skin.

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u/This-Is-Voided 1d ago

HBCUs are great and especially needed because we never get places for Black folks to thrive. I go to a HBCU (NSU 🔰) and it provides us access to education and community without the fear of racism. It’s a supportive environment and you can meet other Black folks across the diaspora. We needed them back then and we most definitely need them now. And it’s not just Black people, mixed people, and other minorities attend too. White ppl attend too but it’s not common because they have other options that they could choose from.

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u/Dry_Presentation_197 1d ago

The same white people who bitch about Black Americans having this are the same ones who have no issue with schools using loopholes to only allow white students basically. (Daughters of the American Revolution, for example, SAY they allow anyone. But you have to prove you're descended from someone who fought in the revolutionary war. Which obv is gunna be 99% white people.)

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u/Castabae3 1d ago

Nah the one's who are bitching are the one's that can only afford community colleges with PELL grants.

I guess in your worldview all white students come from a wealthy background where their parents have a good lawyer that seeks out loopholes to give opportunities to their children.

But IMO no-one's really bitching about those schools cause most people just don't know they exist.

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u/Dry_Presentation_197 1d ago edited 14h ago

Don't assume anything about my "world view"

I live in the American south, and am white. Any time DEI/Affirmative Action/Equality is brought up, SOMEONE brings up "But BET, but BLACK ONLY SCHOLARSHIPS" etc.

Happens constantly. You're lucky if you've never had to try to explain to a racist why minority scholarships aren't themselves racist. They just play the "it's racist against whites" card and pretend they have moral high ground.

Tbh I don't understand why my comment is being downvoted. It's just a fact that there are racist white people who see things like this post as racist against them. shrug

Edit: Oh, also, I went to community College on a Pell grant. So...

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u/TheNextBattalion 1d ago

I don't think most Americans think about them at all.

It's like with women's colleges, which still exist; they were set up when the target audience was barred from mainstream colleges, and they've shifted a bit since that fact has changed.

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u/TRAVMAAN1 1d ago

I would love to go to a women’s college. Sign me up immediately.

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u/SpadoCochi 1d ago

That's because you have no idea how recent this is, the how prevalent institutional racism is, and how important it is for black people to have a safer space to operate in.

It's not bizarre, it's a beacon of light.

What's bizarre is that these were ever necessary.

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u/AnonElbatrop 1d ago

White American here, never put much thought into it other than “HBCU so popular school for the black community.” Lots of schools that shift in other directions demographically and more with a healthy diversity too.

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u/BabyBabyCakesCakes 1d ago

They’re just schools

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u/fieldsports202 1d ago

Americans don’t have a negative view of them. There’s white people who attend HBCU’s as well. The HBCU attended if majority black students but there’s white people who attend… the nursing school there has a lot of white students…. It’s very affordable compared to other schools.

Our HBCU has 7,000 students.. the next one 40 mins away has near 13,000 and is the largest HBCU in the country.

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u/RealPrinceJay 14h ago

Well they were never just going to disappear, but white people still don’t really apply that often even though they are welcome to. About 25% of all HBCU students are not black iirc, so it’s a bit more diverse than some people realize

It’s important to remember that HBCU stands for historically black. It’s not anymore, that’s just what it was and the history they carry

Personally, I don’t see how anyone could see anything that bizarre about it, especially considering how many problems still exist in our society

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u/GrandMarshallFunk 1d ago

It's modern day racism.

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u/premeditated_mimes 1d ago

What a shit take.

They don't bar people from attending based on color like the people whose policies created the university in the first place.

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u/GrandMarshallFunk 1d ago

I'm not talking about the students. I'm talking about the black man that chose to donate to a majority all black school on purpose. It's racism.

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u/premeditated_mimes 1d ago

So if a "white man" chooses to donate money to an ivy league school is that also racist?

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u/GrandMarshallFunk 13h ago

Yes, if that white man chose that school because it was all white?

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u/fieldsports202 1d ago

Anyone can attend a HBCU. Lots of white people have attended mine due to its great nursing school. Some of the same rural Americans who are conservative have attended an HBCU for various degree programs.

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u/GrandMarshallFunk 1d ago

Yeah but a black man donated to a majority all black school on purpose. He chose that school. He is racist.

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u/fieldsports202 1d ago

Yeah, ok.

Also, please don’t look at this man’s page.

Says a lot about someone who has to use Reddit as a hookup 😂😂

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u/GrandMarshallFunk 13h ago

You looked. 😂

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u/Hey_GumBuddy 1d ago

Well… most of these HBCU’s have a football team. And all football teams have a kicker… so there’s usually at least 1.

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u/lafolieisgood 1d ago

The baseball team will have white players as well

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u/FraggleRock_ 1d ago

Unless they're a kicker.