What are the reasons people typically mention? (Assuming there are reasons, and that it's not straight racism). Poor quality? Uncomfortable for non-black people because of dominant political/racial/social ideologies?
They're supposed to be focused on underserved populations, which is important and good.
(I'm a white liberal, for the record) I would never go to a HBC because the colleges make race a central part of what they are, which is something I see as racist. There are plenty of colleges that are less racist than HBCs that focus on serving underserved populations, which is something I really am interested in.
I've had some experience with one HBC in particular and as a white person I felt very marginalized. I actually had somebody come up to me once and tell me "N***** only here, honkey." They're basically taking the atmosphere of a "white" college in the 50s, reversing it, and calling it acceptable.
Yes, somebody will say "well that's what blacks feel at other universities," but this is absolutely not true. Universities are bending over backwards to make everyone feel included, including creating Black Studies departments, providing extra support available to black students only, etc. With good reason! We need to talk about race, and how our society deals with race. (Like I said, I'm a liberal!) But if you ever told a black person the opposite of what I was told on the HBC, you would seriously be kicked out of school. So saying that being white at a HBC is equivalent to being black at a non-HBC is simply false.
So no, you couldn't pay me enough money to attend a HBC, but not because I'm racist. The other way around, actually
🙂
But if other people have different experiences, I'd love to hear them.