A THREAD: If you want to highlight underrepresented HBCUs, do not begin the tweet with shading the 3 that are frequently mentioned or even rant that there are only a particular 3 that are ever mentioned.

It literally perpetuates the very practice you complain about.

There is a REASON that a particular few are always in the spotlight. There are many moving parts and many people to blame:

1. Administration: A lot of HBCUs fail their students administratively. There are MANY predatory recruitment practices that, when combined with HBCUs' often lazy "diversity and inclusion" (informal) policies, set students up to fail and/or graduate miserably.

2. You MUST consider the kinds* of students HBCU's recruit/attract.... we often praise these top HBCU's for producing students who's successes are inevitable. Those "top" HBCU's have great programs AND students who are multi-generation college middle/upper-middle class students

3. HBCU's are still pushing the "He aint heavy, he's my brother" philosophy (which is great) and so when these students get into their respective fields, they go out of their way to provide opportunities to students from their Alma Matters. We are literally groomed to do this

4. THEN, in these very spaces, we talk up our HBCU's-- or we do not.

Hi, hello! Idk HOW many times I've heard students talk CASH SHIT about their HBCU in front of and behind closed doors. Just shit. Depending on your institution, you are also groomed to do this.

5. So then, we we get into the real world. There are spaces that are filled with students who, for example, destined for greatness due to their socio-economic situations and that talk their schools UP TO HEAVEN.

And there are also students who come form and do the opposite.

6. ON TOP OF ALL OF THIS.

There are people, Black people even, who literally don't know a single thing about their state HBCU's. Who barely even know anything about the "top 3"

They have literally not a single clue about HBCU history, HBCU culture, shit-- even names!!

7. I say all of this, in SHORT, to say that its so fucking complicated. HBCU's, HBCU discussions, HBCU impact, HBCU vitality, etc.

So, let's JUST lift up the names of our Historically Black Colleges. Not AS we complain about who gets the shine, or the money.

8. Let us begin celebrating Morehouse, Spelman, and Howard for what they SURELY produce AND, I live in a BOTH/AND world baby, researching, uplifting, advocating for, highlighting others. Not in relation to the "top 3," but in the name of love.

A List:
http://hbcuradionet.whur.com/hbcu-list/ 

9. ALSO: Let's NOT speak of them in relation to PWI's, either. LETS SPEAK OF OUR HBCU's with love, honor, and integrity. Respect for the individual greatness, legacies, and impacts that are HEAVY and POWERFUL enough to spoken of without being compared to anything else.

10: A CHARGE:

Choose one HBCU from this list, or two, do a lil research and start a thread that speaks of its legacy, impact, or just even a lil fun fact about something that happened there. Shit, choose an underrepresented one

using #SchoolDaze or #HBCUstorytime

Choose!!!

And let me be clear. VERY CLEAR lol this thread is not to erase. This tweet was in response to the complaint that only Spelhouse & Howard are considered on a national level. The point was to encourage takes that consider many moving parts, that its complex.