Category Archives: Editorial

No Matter The Party – Washington Continues To Fail HBCUs

Posted on September 24, 2012 by | 2 comments

By William A. Foster, IV

Many people are liberal in principle reluctant in practice. – John M. Burgess

just_say_no_to_republicans_and_democrats

I often wonder if our clamor and desire to make America live up to the idea of what we believe America says it is makes us illogical to the reality of which we live. Dr. Clarke once said “all people relate back to the geography of their origins no matter where they are in the world” which would relate to a group’s conduct in how, why, and who they acquire and share resources with. We can see America’s European ancestry take foundation in almost every geostrategic decision it makes with non-European states and players. There is very little reason to believe though any other group put in the same position would conduct itself any differently. Which is why the continued promise by certain people to just be “patient” is like feeding hot water and calling it soup to a sick patient who needs a brain transplant because they once had the flu. It leaves me to wonder who is more problematic at this point – the doctor who continues to misprescribe on purpose or the patient who knows the doctor is misprescribing and continues to give credence to the doctor.

I got into a debate of sorts on Facebook when I questioned the money the Department of Education was giving HBCUs because it was not clear in their press release if it was in addition to the $850 million (over 10 years) from 2010 or replacing it. Mind you this $850 million was promised just a year after the same funding was to be cut from the budget by the White House. Something my constituents seem to choose to forget. Given our history of being bamboozled I did not think this was that absurd of a question. The young lady told me to be patient because change takes time. Ask anyone what is “change” and I dare say they would be befuddled to tell you. Alas, I expressed frustration that people can not divide and apparently can not question anything Democrats and their savior complex or dependency ideology does for us because it can now hide behind a black face. Dr. Amos Wilson was once famously quoted in commentary about slaves who had risen to head the armies of the very people that had enslaved them, “Just because you rise to head an army, does not mean you’re part of the power system.” Unless we have control of the social, economic, and political capital of this country we are but slave generals serving European interest today and it appears Asian interest tomorrow. The $228 million divided by 5 years divided by 97 schools by the way is a mere $470,000 per school annually. $10.2 million of the money is designated to six “HBCUs” that the Department of Education knows have less than 30 percent African American populations meanwhile Morris Brown received none and still needs $13 million to avoid closing its doors. Why we get excited over miniscule change that is paid out in installments is oft times beyond me. It feels like I am being told “I make $100,000 a year and I know you make $10 and I know I owe you $1000 but let me pay you back over the next 10 years and would you mind being oh so grateful that I am “giving” you this money at all.”

The top 10 HWCU endowments have over $120 billion while the top 10 HBCUs have $1.3 billion according to NACUBO or 92 times less than their HWCU counterparts. Add to that fact HBCU Money’s own research shows that an estimated 20 percent of HBCUs have no endowment and the median endowment for HWCUs in 2008 was $91 million while HBCU median endowment was $6 million. If there is so much belief in correcting the ills of the past am I to believe they could not do a wire transfer of 5% ($6 billion) of that total spread out amongst the top 10 HWCU endowments and completely change the paradigm of all HBCUs and African America institutionally as a whole. The question is almost rhetorical because as a former banker I know it can be done even with complex portfolios. I went even further in an article on HBCU reparations where I called for the top 100 HWCU endowments which are equivalent to $250 billion to transfer 15 percent of their endowments, the percentage of the current African American population in America, which would work out to $37.5 billion. Yes, I recognize there would be some need for approval from the board of trustees and potential legal issues with such a transfer but can we please stop kidding ourselves like it is impossible. Yet, I am told be patient.

Last year alone the National Science Foundation handed out $1 billion in grants to the top ten awarded universities. None of which were HBCUs. I did not say it handed it out over five or ten years. No, it was in one year. Did I also happen to mention that all 100 plus HBCUs combined endowment value is between $1.5 and $2 billion? Our oldest HBCU was started in 1837 which means as an entity HBCUs are 175 years old. That means it has taken 175 years, much of it in a hostile environment where our assets in our communities have always been in danger of being taken and many times are, to accumulate when in the stroke of a pen that number could be doubled by the National Science Foundation. Again, I am told to be patient.

We get so focused on the re-election of the president as if the position is a monarchy that we forget to look at the rest of the political landscape and how possible or realistic it is for the person in office to actually deliver on said promises or our said “dream” of him delivering all our hopes and dreams in a mere 8 years. The last time I looked in Washington the congress was comprised of 535 men and women of which only 8 percent (43) are African American and a whopping 0 percent in the senate. I would even question how much of the 43 African Americans that are in congress had the majority of their funding from African America, which is where the real influence of politicians lie. Our political capital institutionally is so weak it appears we have no choice but to be patient to breadcrumbs. The playing field could be leveled with acknowledgement and the stroke of a pen from Washington or HWCUs themselves but alas I will not hold my breathe for either. As for HBCUs and African America, I guess when a people have been in the desert for over 60 years starved of water, anytime someone spits their way they confuse it with a flood. Even if the person who is spitting at them is the reason they were in the desert in the first place.

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Augusta National Golf Club: A Pacifier Not Empowerment For Women

Posted on August 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

By William A. Foster, IV

“Power only steps back in the face of more power.” – Malcolm X

APTOPIX Masters Golf

I always start with this example when discussing group power. Oprah Winfrey, who is roughly worth $2 billion, moves into a neighborhood of nine European Americans. Now for the sake of this example they could be Arab, Asian, Latino, or if you want to base it around gender with nine men and it would not change the dynamic and point. The neighborhood she moves into each household is worth $500 million and share the same fundamental and cultural values (social capital). Who has control of the neighborhood? Inevitably, because most people do not understand group dynamics and strategy they tend to assume Ms. Winfrey does. Let us examine why she does not from a SEP (social, economic, and political interest) point of view. Socially, she is the outsider who does not share the cultural or gender values of the group. This is not to say they have nothing in common but there are some fundamental differences that they differ on based on their social and cultural norms. Economically, from the outlook it seems as once again she is the winner. Wrong again, as the social values bind them it also binds their economics as a defense weapon against outsiders. In this case the nine households versus Ms. Winfrey equates to $4.5 billion against her $2 billion. Politically, it is pretty obvious to see she is at a loss. Any voting done on new neighborhood policies she would be outvoted 9-1 almost every time (see Supreme Court and party lines). This is not to imply these nine will always act in step. It is to say that the probability they do is highly increased in their favor and not in hers. Ultimately, that is what it is about. Ensuring the probability or odds are stacked in your favor for success whatever you deem that to be.

My views on Afrocentrism do not differ from my views on feminism. That is to say my view on any group that is seeking power will never gain the power it seeks if it is always seeking to force its way into institutions only to still be socially, economically, and politically outgunned as you saw in the example. Martha Burk would have you believe there was a victory in the admitting of two women at Augusta National Golf Club. I am going to examine the social, economic, and political realms as why I do not believe it is a victory and you can decide.

I have never believed in going anywhere I wasn’t wanted especially when I have the capacity to define where I want to go myself. The social implications of this situation didn’t empower women. It just re-validated that in order be of value you have to be where the men are. Are you still not giving the power to men? Yes, actually you are. If you wanted to impress upon the networking power that Augusta National Golf Club holds then these two women who were admitted would have said thank you but no thank you we can build our own. These women are going to socially be viewed as tokens that were admitted under public pressure and still will be social outsiders in the club. Just because you let someone in through the initial barrier does not mean you will not have different ways of excluding them. The beauty of protecting ones SEP interest is that as groups infringe on certain barriers you have created your strategy for creating new barriers evolves. I dare say the conversations that use to be had at the bar potentially now will only be had in the locker room. Are we to assume they will let the women in there as well? A more powerful statement would have been for young women to see those two women along with others in business form their own country club for women where they would be able to set the values of the club that promote the greatness of women in business and allow them to open networks with each other and discuss challenges as well as opportunities in industry amongst each other. To go even further would be a country club designed by a leading female architect, financed by a leading female banker, and anything else that would go into establishing of a place for women, built by women, and for women. What looks more powerful, two female members out of three hundred or three hundred out of three hundred and a foundation laid in every facet by women?

The economics of this admittance again we can examine the obvious. Dr. Condoleeza Rice is worth millions and Mrs. Darla Moore-Rainwater is worth based on her philanthropic donations in the hundreds of millions. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who are members of Augusta are worth approximately a combined $100 billion. That’s just two of the two-hundred and ninety-eight men. Imagine now for a moment a golf club with the likes of Dr. Rice, Mrs. Moore-Rainwater, Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook), Marissa Myers (CEO of Yahoo), Sheila Johnson (Co-Founder of BET), Linda Johnson-Rice (Owner of Johnson Publishing Company), and the list could go on and on. Now that is a room of economic might for women who dare I say would be able to make business deals among themselves and increasing the probability and opportunities for wealth into the arms of women. No separate locker room needed.

Politically this would boil down to the policies and outreach of the club. At current there is no LPGA Master’s Tournament. How hard do you think that would be able to get sponsored by a golf club that is socially and economically controlled by women? It would be like waking up in the morning and turning on the light switch. If you want it to be sponsored by the Augusta National Golf Club you would have to get 50% of the male membership to side with the two female members. Assuming they don’t feel socially pressured to not look like they are just voting for it because they are women. Now, where have I heard that accusation before? Again, if they control the club socially, economically, and politically nobody would question their motives because the motives are part of the very fabric of the club’s purpose.

As I stated in the beginning the unfortunate assumption that always kicking your way into an institution you would not have control over is somehow progress is missing the point of what capitalism is built on. Capitalism is built on ownership. As someone who has a teenage daughter I believe it is more powerful for her to see three hundred business women interacting with each other and making decisions in her interest than for her to see two women out of three hundred members where her interest for better or worse are marginalized. She no longer would feel like the odds are stacked against her. Success as a woman would be seen as the rule as opposed to the exception to it. She would know there is a place for her that doesn’t see her as a token they see her as just another businesswoman who is in the locker room headed out to the greens to network and maybe make the deal of the century. Tee-off ladies.

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HBCU Super Conferences And Profitable Move To Soccer Are A Must

Posted on May 16, 2012 by | 2 comments

By William A. Foster, IV

“A state without some means of change is without the means of its conservation.” – Edmund Burke

Something we should be clear on. There is no benefit for European American owned media companies to showcase HBCU sports or events. Nor their companies in general to provide more than token sponsorship which we continuously chase. It is not profitable for them socially or economically. The reality is HBCUs are Division 1-AA and Division II schools. HBCUs or not – only the Division 1-A six power conferences (SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, Big East, ACC) will ever be on European American owned channels. We know that even if all the best African American athletes returned to HBCUs they would still not be on television. The reality is it is less about the players on the field and more about the people in the stands. Even in pre-desegregation when HBCUs had the better talent they were not placed on television. You can say this was because of outright racism or you can look at the economics of it then and now. The demographics start with that at almost all of these HWCUs in the six power conferences are predominantly European American. By predominantly I’m speaking of 80% or more. They also have always been able to bring in 50,000 plus at football stadiums and 10,000 plus at basketball consistently. They have larger student population and alumni bases. Something one could argue we could have had by now but a mixture of desegregation and heavy domestic recruitment has limited that growth. The current median net worth of European America is approximately $98,000 versus African America’s approximately $2,200. Given that reality, who would you feature on television? Let me help you even further. In 2007, the buying power of European Americans in California was $1.1 trillion and the buying power for all of African America was approximately $850 billion according to the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business. That’s just the economics of it. Unfortunately, we sold off BET to Viacom, we are only a minority stake in TVOne, and OWN, while 50% co-owned by Oprah Winfrey, clearly is a channel not focused on catering to the African American demographic.

As such we need to focus on taking a different approach. First, what is clear is that we need to move first in creating super conferences. We can do this by a realignment which is badly needed regardless. Right now there are five HBCU conferences – we need to add a sixth and maybe a seventh. Currently, in the five HBCU conferences there are a total of 55 teams. That means roughly only 50% of HBCUs are in an HBCU conference. Schools like Central State University and Wilberforce University both located in Ohio, Langston University in Oklahoma, and Texas College in Texas are left to fend for themselves in non-HBCU conferences. Why they have not been extended an invite in football hotbeds is both the short sightedness of our conferences; as well in part due to the geographic nature of them which is why I’m suggesting the realignment that is more geographically and financially friendly. It would also do us well to include schools that are not traditional HBCUs like Roxbury Community College in Massachusetts, Medgar Evers in New York, Chicago State in Illinois, and a school without an undergraduate but would be worth the investment to build one in Charles Drew University in California. This would give us a coast to coast presence in every city with a dominant African American presence and allow for the establishment of seven HBCU conferences with fifteen schools in each conference.

Given that football and basketball are still the dominant revenue sports, at the moment, we could then have a twelve team playoff in football to determine the HBCU national football champion and a sixteen or thirty-two team HBCU basketball tournament. The events would be focused in major African American populated cities so that we’d be able to attract a large general African American population who might want to be a part of the event even if they are not attached to a certain HBCU. The cities would be (in order of largest African American populations) New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston, Memphis, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Dallas. All of which have African American populations 300,000 and above. There of course would be allowances for cities like New Orleans and Atlanta who have a geographical strategic advantages along with a strong cultural connection to HBCUs and African America as a whole to host events which would be approved by the conferences. Ultimately, HBCUs will make the majority of their money with major events not television money. An event planning company owned by the seven conferences will coordinate the HBCU football playoffs and basketball tournament. HBCUs with public access channels and television studios will produce, air, and stream online the events. So while the television money isn’t there the accumulation of social capital would be there. The student-athletes would be on television unlike their Division 1-AA and Division II counterparts and HBCUs would find themselves in front of more African American children which would lay the foundation for improving the paltry HBCU attendance number as it relates to percentage of African Americans who go to college choosing HBCUs. Currently, only 10-12 percent of African Americans who are college eligible are choosing HBCUs which has long-term implications on number of alumni and potential donors.

All of this said, as it relates to football and basketball, it will be a move towards a real investment in a strong soccer infrastructure now not later that can create a paradigm shift in HBCU sport financials and establish an immense global presence in the African Diaspora especially in Africa, Latin America, and Europe which constitutes a population of approximately a billion rabid soccer fans. The African Diaspora’s 4 wealthiest, all based in Africa, are worth a combined $28.1 billion. With Africa being the fastest growing continent economically there is an immense opportunity for recruitment of students, research, donors, sponsorship, and an African Diaspora who was in love with the Ghana Black Stars in the last World Cup. There were even a surprisingly large number of African Americans watching the team from Ghana. The move to soccer would do us well as African Americans as well given the realities of football both endangering African American men’s health and the enormous infrastructure cost that college football requires. Football is an American sport, quite possibly one who is witnessing its apex in American society, and demographics of globalization as well as youth sports, which show soccer has more children participants than football and basketball combined, indicate a shift has already occurred towards soccer. Pro soccer franchises are second only to NFL franchises in terms of average value and that is without a strong presence in America, yet. Forming dominant college soccer franchises lends us the opportunity to not only tap the African American consumer but the African Diaspora consumer.

It is clear the times of us being passive and taking a wait and see what our counterparts are doing has left us in dire straits far too often. We would do well to be out ahead of the curve for once instead of chasing it.

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An HBCU consortium to the United Kingdom?

Posted on April 24, 2012 by | Leave a comment

“Education is the biggest business in America. It has the largest number of owners, the most extensive and costly plant, and utilizes the most valuable raw material. It has the greatest number of operators. It employs our greatest investment in money and time, with the exception of national defense. Its product has the greatest influence on both America and the world.”

– Charles R. Sligh Jr.

choc

This idea all started with a conversation with a friend of mine who moved to Houston from London who was absolutely enthralled by the idea of the HBCU and her belief that it could work in London.  Initially, upon thinking on this idea I thought it would be best for HBCUs to recruit Afro-Britains from their secondary school into our undergraduate HBCUs here. After realizing the short sightedness on my part I’ve since changed my tune. This is in part because the vast majority of 18 year olds (and people in general) are not ready to go far from home let alone out of the country. We see this in the United States where the majority of a college or university’s student body comes from within state. Secondly and more importantly, there is also the added benefit of HBCUs expanding their international presence within the Diaspora along with an institutional foothold into how economic and political policies are contrived in Europe about Africa.

The demographics of the United Kingdom in terms of Afro-Britains are not as large as the Afro-American population but they are large enough to potentially support two U.K. HBCUs. Currently, the United Kingdom’s total population is around 62.2 million according to the World Bank of which 1.5 million are of African descent. Overall, 17 percent of the United Kingdom’s population is under the age of 15. Given the birth rate pattern of immigrants and socioeconomics of poorer classes its not hard to estimate that the under 15 figure percentage is even higher in the Afro-Britain community. This means that there are well over 250,000 Afro-Britain who at some point will become college age. This indicates an immense opportunity for HBCUs.

Jacqueline Brooks, the mother of Afro-British twin geniuses Jonathan and Marion Brooks-Bartlett, said in the Voice, a leading Afro-British newspaper, that many black parents often don’t understand he concept of higher education and are afraid of incurring a debt for their children. This statement alone screams opportunity and calls to part of the mission of HBCUs. It is often easier to deal with fears such as these when you believe the people talking to you have a shared interest with you which could be promoted through our shared African heritage. Her children are now 22, and set to complete PhDs in mathematical biology and chemistry respectfully and would be a wonderful set of researchers and professors to launch the new HBCUs. If we are talking of building a bridge between the groups in the African Diaspora then education is something we can all truly rally around. HBCUs can become one of the conduits of social, economic, and political exchange within the African Diaspora.

The set-up. There would be two universities created and owned by U.S. HBCUs through a trust. In order to make sure of non-duplication you’d potentially have the two schools located in the 2 largest U.K. cities or one located in an urban area and the other located in a rural area. Whichever would be more strategically beneficial. You would divide the research and professional schools, primarily with one having a law school and other a medical school, but both would have business schools with different areas of expertise and focus. The natural rivalry will allow for competition in academic and sporting events to feed off each other and build community pride. The board of trustees would be a mixture of Afro-Britain’s community and an advisory board of HBCU personnel from the U.S.

The benefit for U.S. HBCUs would be providing new research, studying, recruiting opportunities, and ultimately influence abroad. It would also allow for the natural expansion of the HBCU Credit Union to expand into Europe with two U.K. HBCUs to service. I’ve seen quite a few HBCUs expanding abroad in places that quite honestly have nothing to do with the strengthening of the African Diaspora. This is an opportunity to make a tangible statement about our commitment to who we are and who we serve. We are Americans by force but we are Africans by grace and HBCUians by love.

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The University of Power & Wealth

Posted on April 23, 2012 by | 7 comments

“Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves.” – Marcus Garvey

Many in the African American community believe that colleges and universities are simply there to educate a student so that they can go on to get a job. However, colleges and universities more than any part of our society are institutions of power and wealth creation more so than any other institution.  I’d touched on some of the economics of universities previously in the article “Can African American Muscle save African America?” This is mainly because they, more than any other institutions,  can touch all three parts of the SEP (social, economic, political) development model. Through their teaching they can influence the social aspects of a community by providing strong cultural identity. Through research they can create economic opportunities, and their research can also influence policy in local, state, and national governments.

The social development of students to serve their community can be seen in a university like Brandeis, a Jewish institution, which has a MBA program in Jewish studies. This program identifies potential Jewish leadership and hones their skills to run Jewish institutions in the community handling the social, economic, and political aspects of these institutions. Per their website it states “This innovative program prepares future Jewish community executives with the full complement of MBA/non-profit skills and specialized knowledge of Judaic studies and contemporary Jewish life.” They also offer a program called the MPP-MA in Jewish Professional Leadership which states “By preparing professional leaders with a full array of policy analysis and development skills, as well as specialized knowledge of Judaic studies and contemporary Jewish life, it trains students to design and implement innovative solutions to the Jewish community’s most critical problems, and to analyze and reform existing practices.” As you can see the university is catering to the core demographic that it was founded to serve. It is ensuring that their institutions that serve their community are well equipped with leadership that understand the historical & cultural (social), economic, and political aspects that the Jewish community face and will allow it to prosper and protect itself.

Next, let’s look at the economics that colleges and universities can produce for a community. What do Google, Time Warner, FedEx, Microsoft, Facebook, and Dell have in common? They were all founded on college campuses. Google founded at Stanford, Time Warner & FedEx at Yale, Microsoft and Facebook at Harvard, and Dell at the University of Texas. The six companies whose wealth value as measured by their market capitalization (except Facebook who has a private valuation are measured by a stock’s share price times number of company shares outstanding) is worth an estimated $530 billion. To put it in perspective these six companies wealth alone is 63% of African America’s buying power which is valued at an estimated at $850 billion.

Economically-speaking, colleges & universities primary driver of funding is research. Research in many instances is turned into businesses. These businesses tend to hire and have its initial investors come from the very university and nearby communities they are launched from. The wealth these businesses generate comes back to the university and community in the form of larger endowments, more research dollars, and more scholarships. These scholarships allow its students to graduate with less debt, which allows for early accumulations of wealth instead of paying down student loan debt. These businesses by hiring primarily from the institutions they sprung from help the employment of the demographic they serve. In the case of University of Michigan their research that will be transformed into business ventures will attempt to transform Michigan’s economy to one less dependent on the auto industry and its appears more into bio-tech businesses which should drastically improve Michigan’s unemployment rate (presently at 12.9% vs. National of 9.2%) in the years to come. The state of Utah’s UStar program (using taxpayer dollars) through its two state universities Utah and Utah State is focusing on the spillover industry from Silicon Valley. UStar’s mission stated on their website is stated as “UStar created a number of research teams at the University of Utah and Utah State University. Spearheading these teams are world-class innovators hungry to collaborate with industry to develop and commercialize new technologies.” BP in 2007 gave $500 million to the University of California-Berkeley to “develop new sources of energy and reduce the impact of energy consumption on the environment.” This $500 million is more than ALL HBCUS research budgets combined ($440 million) according to the National Science Foundation tracking of college and university research budgets.

Individually speaking we can see how this wealth has culminated into the hands of people at the universities who were fortunate to be a part of these founding companies. Facebook’s 1st investor Eduardo Saverin was a fellow student of Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard. His $15,000 investment, had he actually held onto it, today would be worth $7 billion. Google’s initial investors were professors from Stanford where Page & Brin founded the search engine. Same goes for Microsoft where Bill Gates initial investor and partner was classmate Paul Allen whose current net worth is $13.5 billion primarily in part to his Microsoft holdings. Dell Computers founded by Michael Dell in his University of Texas dorm room also has his primary investors from UT.

We have also seen the philanthropic power of this wealth to impact communities at work as well. Mark Zuckerberg recently donated $100 million donation to Newark, NJ school system. T. Boone Pickens four years in 2006 ago set a record with a $165 million donation to Oklahoma State University which, as has been reported, “surpasses the $100 million Las Vegas casino owner Ralph Engelstad gave the University of North Dakota in 1998.” The two donations by Pickens and Engelstad together are equal to over 25% of all HBCU endowments combined and over 50% of HBCU research budgets. T. Boone Pickens donation alone could put 412 African American students a year through undergraduate DEBT FREE or 110 African American doctors through medical school DEBT FREE at HBCU medical schools Charles Drew Medical School in California or Meharry Medical School in Tennessee. Graduating debt free could allow these doctors to be more likely to choose working in hospitals in African American communities as opposed to chasing a high paying job they need to pay down the massive student loan debt they occur. How would that be for improved medical care to our community?

The power to influence political policy is evident at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Their current areas of focus are Arab media & politics, conflict resolution, drug policy, energy, health economics, homeland security, international economics, religion & culture, science & technology policy, space policy, tax & expenditure policy, the Americas Project (Latin America policy), the Transnational China Project (Chinese culture & policy), urban studies (African American policy), and the U.S.-Mexico Project (border policy). They have also recently sponsored an organization for the Iraq Study Group. Even our beloved Barack Obama’s cabinet is infected with Ivy Leaguers as noted in the article “Barack Obama taps into the Ivy League revolution with his cabinet” which notes that 22 of the 36 cabinet members are from Ivy League universities. Universities that still hold less than a 10% African American population. While Obama has a diverse cabinet the probability of this happening if he himself were not African American is highly unlikely (see previous 43 cabinets). It goes on to say “Even in Obama’s Washington, money and surnames matter.” The reality is people in power tap into those whom they know and who are qualified (or not) more than they tap those who they don’t know and are qualified. The old adage “Its who you know not what you know” speaks to a large part of the social networking importance of colleges and universities.

The question is then how do we improve our HBCUs to become the vehicles that can serve our SEP interest? First realize that these institutions are more than just a place to get a degree. As you can see their depth is possibly the greatest vehicle of development our community has at its disposal and that their existence is for the very thing we seek and that is to help uplift our community today and for generations. Secondly realize every mind and body has a value. This IS capitalism people. EVERYTHING has a value. For American college and universities each warm body generates an average of $33,000 in tuition revenue per year. HBCUs only get $6 billion of the $54 billion in African America’s annual tuition revenue pie meaning $48 billion is leaving our community to predominantly European American colleges & universities in tuition revenue alone. This forces our 95 HBCUs to operate on an average of $63 million per HBCU to have very little in the way of improving facilities, recruiting talented faculty, and expanding their research budgets, which could influence the SEP of our communities. To put that $63 million in perspective Ohio State University’s ATHLETIC department operates on $107 million per year (primarily funded by African American muscle). The fact that only a roughly 10-12% of African American students who can attend college choose to go to HBCUs limits these institutions from improving themselves as they are always strapped for operation revenue meanwhile being asked to compete from the perspective of: Howard v. Harvard, Charles Drew Medical v. UCLA Medical, or even Prairie View A&M vs. Texas A&M in the areas of SEP development and leaves us at the mercy of someone else’s institution solving our problems who has no real interest in doing so.

We must redirect our charity giving. A blog on African American giving I read recently said of our $11 billion we give annually to charities, $7 billion goes into churches. By making a concerted effort to redirect $2 billion of this would vastly improve the state of our HBCUs and should not dampen our religious institutions. Because while I’m all for saving our souls it is high time we invest in improving the fate of the bodies which house our souls and the institutions that were created to serve them and our communities. Too many of us faithfully pay our tithes and give little thought to our secular institutions like HBCUs. Their fate I dare say will be our own and without our own institutional power to combat institutional power of other communities we will be forever at the mercy of others awaiting them to bless us with their leftovers. It is time to once again do for self as all others do and as we use to do. Operate like a nation or become a destroyed people.

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