So..this has been an ongoing "debate" throughout the black community for many years. I put debate in quotes, because people have this idea that either HBCU's or PWI's are better for better than the other. In my case, I chose to go to the PWI (Emory) for my undergraduate experience. As a senior at CHS, I honestly had no desire to go to an HBCU, hence I never even applied to one. But I will say as my time drew to an end, I seriously considered what it would have been like to go to an HBCU.
As a first semester freshman, I wrote my first paper in college on this topic. The question/topic of my paper was "Are African American college students that attend Predominately White Institutions at an academic disadvantage due to race-related stressors?" (I really wish I can find this paper, I saved it on my old USB drive). So here I am 4 years later, with a bachelor's degree from Emory still fighting to answer this question. Right now in this moment, I will answer yes, students at Emory are at an academic disadvantage.
Throughout my time at Emory, I have always been interested in race dynamics and how people fit into their particular ethnic communities. The issue of "diversity" was always a hot topic, which would bring up such trigger words as "self-segregation". (That is a whole other blog post, I have a lot to say about that). So yes I was aware, of the great lengths that Emory went to discuss race, but it always seemed to fall short. For me, participating in TCP (Transforming Community Project) was what helped me have a pivotal turn on how I viewed Emory. TCP was a dinner based discussion on Race at Emory with certain readings/videos for the week in which participants discussed the history of race at Emory which was often charged. Although I felt that every single black student that stepped foot on Emory should participate in TCP, that was not the case. I think it was very important to know where we came from to adequately evaluate things now, in order to see where we are going. (I'm off on a tangent).
Anyways...I will say that attending an institution like Emory was beneficial to me, because I was able to learn about different cultures and what not..blah blah blah. Isnt that what college is about? So what makes this PWI so different and enhancing for me. I will say it is the RESOURCES and opportunities that were available to me. If you just searched a little, there were so many opportunities to get involved and everything was WELL FUNDED. The list of activities/programs going on every single day is overwhelming (ie. Emory Announcements, then again I believe Emory is an overprogrammed university).
I feel as though Blacks on campus have been accused of creating their own little HBCU's within the larger university ....let's point to self-segregation (I'll touch on it briefly). What I have to say to that is, although I may have done that my becoming a part of several black organizations, I did not by any means...create an HBCU in my classes. In no way, do I think I have ever had a comfortable amount of blacks in my class. And the two that I can think of, we planned to take the class together. So that really upsets me when people say that. I did not have an HBCU in Residence Life when I was an RA and definitely not as a Tour Guide (given there was 1 other black tour guide when I did it).
So back to my original question, are PWI's good for us...yes. Absolutely. I believe that us, should be "me". There was a lot of racial strife, but that is life... So I can finally say I'm happy I went to Emory and everything that I took from it. Until Next Time...
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