The 107 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the country are, in fact, the last cultural jewel black people have. Black colleges overwhelmingly graduate the most black professionals and are known to be a safe haven for black thought and education.
The latest HBCU advocate to promote and support black colleges is FAMU alum Derrick L. McMahon Jr., the “HBCU Wiz” and owner of the account “Anti_Intellect” on Twitter and on other social media apps.
I had a chance to sit with Derrick L McMahon Jr., who also was named HBCU Buzz 2015 Top 30 Under 30, to talk about HBCU’s and race. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Robert: How has FAMU helped you to become the person you are today?
Derrick: Florida A&M University inspired me, empowered me, and educated me. To this day, I look back fondly on my time as a student. To be in an environment with an abundance of Black excellence is something that is truly priceless. I like to tell people that Florida A&M University is the kind of social and intellectual environment that tells you, in subtle and overt ways, that you can be anything you want. And it is true. If you want to be something, and you have the ambition and the discipline to achieve it, Florida A&M University will not stop in your way. It was at Florida A&M University that I honed and developed my intellectual and activist voice.
With the support of peers and professors, I was able to probe topics in a deeply critical and analytical way. This continues to sustain me in the work that I do as both a teacher and an advocate. There is nothing that I encounter that can deter me, because I know what I am capable of. I know the training I received, socially and academically, and it allows me to confront challenges with a sense of fearlessness.
Robert: What are you up to these days?
Derrick: When I am not causing waves on social media as one of the HBCU communities most polarizing advocates, I am teaching history. I also continue to do speaking engagements. I most recently had the pleasure supporting the Women’s Law Caucus at the Florida A&M University Law School at one of their events. I push myself to come up with innovative and creative ways of engaging, inspiring, and empowering the next generation of HBCU graduates. It has truly been a pleasure to see the cohorts of students I have recruited begin to matriculate at their respective colleges. Most recently one of my recruits shared with me that she had earned a 4.0 GPA for the spring semester.
I like to tell people that Florida A&M University is the kind of social and intellectual environment that tells you, in subtle and overt ways, that you can be anything you want. And it is true. If you want to be something, and you have the ambition and the discipline to achieve it, Florida A&M University will not stop in your way. It was at Florida A&M University that I honed and developed my intellectual and activist voice.
One of my proudest roles is the work I do to counsel and advise students who are interested in attending an HBCU, but whose school officials, family, and friends are unsupportive or discouraging. I encounter many students who have been fed a litany of lies about the HBCU experience. It is my job to serve as a critical intervention in the lives of those students. I provide them with personal accounts, statistics, reports, and other information that allows them to see how truly beautiful and powerful the HBCU experience is.
Robert: Talk about how important it is for us to support our HBCUs today.
Derrick: Black death is not only bodies gunned down, left to rot in the street. It is not simply Michael Brown or Tamir Rice or Bettie Jones—Black people whose lives were ended by the state officials sworn to keep them safe. Black death is also the death of Black institutions—our business, our organizations, our institutions.
When less than 10% of all Black people enrolled in college are at a Historically Black College or University, it becomes painfully clear that the health and survival of our institutions are at stake. We can no longer believe or hope that our institutions will survive and thrive into the future. A Black institution cannot survive, or thrive, without Black people. The seeds have been sewn, unfortunately, for Black children, and Black people, to see no value in Black institutions. The K-12 school system in America, since integration, has done nothing to ensure that Black students are instilled with a sense of self-esteem and self-worth that empowers them to put their own institutions first.
Instead, our children are fed a diet of assimilation, integration, and “diversity” that would have them believe that it is better to abandon your own, than to value and cherish your own. Black people are programmed, from birth, via our white supremacist society, to see more value in the “White thing” than the “Black thing.” It is imperative that we support our institutions, because if not us then who? A recent report found that Historically Black Colleges & Universities account for 96% of all tenured professors. There is literally no one else to stand in the gap.
Given the nature of my advocacy work, some people accuse me of being “racist.” Obviously, we know that Black people cannot be racist, because racism is prejudice plus power, and Black people do not have systemic or institutional power in this country.
Robert: What book are you currently reading?
Derrick: I am currently re-reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. As my followers on Twitter know, Toni Morrison is my all-time artist and intellectual and, of course, I love the fact that she is a graduate of a Historically Black College, having earned her bachelor’s degree at Howard University. While I have read all of her published works, Song of Solomon is one of her novels that I return to over and over again. The novel is an examination of race, class, and gender in the Black community. Given the nature of my advocacy work, some people accuse me of being “racist.” Obviously, we know that Black people cannot be racist, because racism is prejudice plus power, and Black people do not have systemic or institutional power in this country.
One of my favorite quotes from Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a quote from a character named Guitar. “What I’m doing ain’t about hating White people. It’s about loving us.” I think this quote perfectly encapsulates the nature of my HBCU advocacy, and my greater call for Black people to value and cherish their culture and institutions.
Robert: If every Black person from the ages of 18-30 in this country were reading this interview, what would you say to them?
Derrick: I would want them to know that the time has come for us, as a people, to stop focusing on the symptoms of racism and concentrate our efforts on the disease of racism. First and foremost, racism is an economic system. The whole point of slavery was to justify using enslaved Black people as a free source of labor. The racism came as a justification for the continued perpetuation and development of slavery. There is a belief, among many Black people, that we can assimilate or integrate ourselves into racism. This is simply not true. We can win all the Oscars we want. We can go to all the White colleges we want. We can live in all the White neighborhoods we want. But these things will not end racism, because racism is economic. To integrate the social sphere and not the economy is to come no closer to ending racism than we were fifty years ago. The median family wealth for a White family is about $110,000. The median wealth for a Black family is about $10,000. This alone shows that racism is not even close to ending. The gulf has actually grown wider. But there is hope. We must value our own. We must support our own. We must cherish and value our own. This is why I work so hard as an HBCU advocate. To the extent that we see value in our own, there is hope for us as a people. No other race can give us what we want or what we need. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Robert: Any other comments?
Derrick: HBCUs didn’t stop being relevant, Black people stopped being loyal to their institutions.
