HBCU (Historically Black College and University) Matters: Racing Research Identity and Institutional Pedigree in Higher Education

• In Event: The Role of HBCUs in Constructing Knowledge: Race, Relevance, and Research

Abstract

The 21st century has begun as a paradox for historically Black colleges and universities—it is the best of times and the worst of times. Institutional enrollments at many Black colleges are attaining record highs, while fiscal revenues

and federal support as a percentage of their institutional operational budgets are approaching record lows. This paradigmatic and phenomenological reality is not occurring in a vacuum. The present institutional realities for historically Black colleges and universities are part of a larger social conflux of invisibility and hypervisibility for black-skinned Americans.
Research in the United States confirms that historically black universities have been the primary educators of blacks in American and around the world (Akbar, 1989; Allen, 1991; Brown, 1999; Brown, 1998; Brown, 2002a; Brown, 2002b; Brown, 2003; Brown, 2004; Brown & Bartee, 2009a; Brown & Bartee, 2009b; Dancy & Brown, 2008; Fleming, 1984; Garibaldi, 1984; Hytche, 1989; Thomas, 1981). The black institution has historically created pools of qualified individuals who have traditionally been underutilized in academia and corporate America. While it is true that these schools are of great value, they have not convinced some in society of their importance. There have been many questions raised regarding the strengths of the historically black university.
The reputation of historically Black colleges or any group of institutions is therefore a complicated cross-section of culture and public opinion. Reputation is a ubiquitous and amorphous amalgamation of facts and fiction, ambition and reality, ignorance, and relationships, as well as social distance or proximal placement. It can be argued that reputation is an intangible instrument of defined constructs employed to promote or delimit power, prestige, or public perception. Slovic (2000) suggested that public perception exists somewhere between truth and belief. He further argued that public perception is shaped by three primary forces; (a) popular opinion, (b) public media, and (c) individual or institutional reputation.
All entities in the American landscape experience, visibility, invisibility, and hypervisibility. Being seen, visible -- in society, relationships, politics -- reflects being accepted/acceptable. Conversely, being or feeling invisible reflects unacceptability.
HBCUs are however often watched – rendering them hypervisible and threatened. In Blackness Visible, Charles Mills (1998), suggests that the notion “that race should be irrelevant is certainly and attractive ideal, but when [race] has not been irrelevant, it is absurd to proceed as if it had been” (p. 41). The reality is that despite increasing discourses on and about class and forms of capital (i.e., cultural, social, economic, human), there is nothing more permanent to social interactions than race.
Within higher education, there are similar configurations for historically black colleges and universities. The continued defunding of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) reflects a sordid commitment to the elimination of Black enterprise (Brown, 2000; Brown, 2004; Brown & Lane, 2003). It also undergirds the relationship of trauma between Blackness and the educational system; a relationship HBCUs play a protective role against. In many ways, HBCUs are the contemporary

manifestation of Underground Railroad safe houses1. While not beyond a critique of settler colonial strivings, they have also protected and supported Black students along their journey to educational and economic freedom amidst a dangerous environment (Brown, Carter, & Dancy, 2014). Defunding exposes the State’s commitment to Black vulnerability.
Inasmuch as the delivery of educational services is a function that occurs in the social/public space, education is bedeviled by the realities of race -- race bias, race privilege, race effects, and racism. Hence cultural/racial difference, both as a hallmark of human society and as an aspect of educational curricula continue to excite debate and conceptual confusion. This conscious acknowledgment of race in society fodders dialectic between power and race and hegemony that contours the definition, purpose, content, and pedagogy of institutions, not to mention colleges and universities. Race is a core pillar in the stratification of higher education in societies with populations experiencing differential histories based on skin color.

Author

• M. Christopher Brown, Thurgood Marshall College Fund