HustleKnockin'

Advertising Age likes Guru, but not gurus, too.

Sorta. Actually Adage.com picked up my Guru piece. And with some quick editing, courtesy of Ken Wheaton, here it is:

Gurus Should Spend Less Time Talking, More Time Listening

Passing of Gang Starr Iconoclast Brings Supposed Experts of Marketing Matters Into Sharp Relief

It's been a little over two weeks since Keith Elam, one of the most accomplished artists of my generation, passed away.

As one-half of Gang Starr, Elam was truly a gifted emcee who pioneered an ill poetic street corner philosopher's eloquence not yet heard prior. Between his Gang Starr catalog and his groundbreaking Jazzmatazz work, he proved a source of seemingly unlimited rhymes. And his willingness to discuss everything from the writing process to manhood to parenthood to politics to crime made his lyrics truly universal.

April 19, 2010, saw the passing of perhaps the only non-east Indian who could rightfully call himself a guru with a straight face. Elam's death also got me thinking about all the other so-called gurus out here.

A while back I met a guy who'd penned the definitive book on Twitter. I know it was the definitive book on Twitter because he said so. And so had his publisher. The guy admitted to never having worked for Twitter. He hadn't even been using Twitter very long himself. But no matter. He had a book, a title, and full schedule of speaking gigs and media appearances to validate his gurudom.

Now, the easiest thing would be to insult folks like this. That'd be the one-off sure-shot that would garner plenty of RTs, comments, and e-daps. But instead, I want to try something different, beginning with a question:

What if all the gurus, particularly those of us in marketing, PR and social media, just said: "I don't know" -- out loud?

What if all the so-called trendspotting gurus stopped for a second and said, "Mr. & Mrs. Talk Show Host, to be perfectly honest, I just wrote this book to get a few speaking gigs and make some quick cash. But to answer your original question, 'I'm really not sure.'"?

What if we all told our clients we're not experts and added, "At this stage of the game, no one is an expert. The space is too new and too fluid. We're all students learning as we go. And fact is, what worked last year, or even last week, might not work tomorrow."

What would happen to all us gurus then? Would our billings get cut? Would we lose followers? Would we get less sex?

Seriously, what would honestly happen if we all took, say, six months, or 60 days, or even six days and just shut up -- and listened?

And by "listen" I mean, no more white-paper decks. No more self-aggrandizing tweets and blog postings. No more "Ain't I a genius?" podcasts. No more keynotes or panels.

In fact, no more anything that doesn't begin and end with listening.

Listening to people who are actually doing the things so many of us claim to have mastered. Listening to how regular people are actually living and moving and working and playing. Listening to people who spend way more time offline than on. Listening to people who buy more than they try to sell.

I once stayed in a house full of nuns in the middle of the West Side of Chicago. About twice a year, they'd take vows of silence while living in the middle of one of the loudest neighborhoods in one of the loudest cities in America; and all they did was listen. They still did their jobs -- taught classes, shopped, all that. But they didn't talk. They just listened. If they had something to say, they wrote it down.

I'm gonna try it myself and see how far I get. Something tells me there's a whole other world out there once I stop pretending I know everything.

Meanwhile, I encourage you to check out Guru's Gang Starr and Jazzmatazz catalog. It's good listening.

R.I.P., Mr. Elam.

And to all the other gurus out there: Shhhhh. Two ears, one mouth -- move accordingly.

Dear Gatekeepers, pt. 2

1. Change of Heart

If you believe in your heart that everything is okay as relates to race and business is, nothing you read from this point on will matter. No action or strategy outlined in this book will manifest without a change of mind and heart. So as you read on, look within your heart and challenge yourself to be an agent of change.

[For every dollar of white income per capita, African-
Americans had 55 cents in 1968 and only 57 cents in 2001.
At this rate, it will take blacks another 581 years to catch up.]

1a. Want to.

Winning in sports often comes down to who wants it more. Diversity is no different. The big reason most companies struggle with diversity is simple: They really don’t want it. What too many companies are doing is trying to avoid lawsuits, get good PR and benefit from the increased revenues minority consumers bring. But deep down inside, they don’t believe in diversity and usually don’t practice it in their personal lives, nevermind their professional ones. Consequently, their diversity initiatives sputter and their systemic flaws remain.

Equality doesn’t happen without “want to.” Diversity requires “want to” at every level, especially the top or it degenerates into the kind of nonsense that we’ll be discussing in numbers 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 12. In order to want diversity people have to truly believe in it, not for the sake of profit or PR, but for the sake of right and wrong. So the big question isn’t “how do we achieve diversity?” but “do you believe in it?”

Ah, do consider well this thing, you who do it.
—Germantown Mennonites, Feb. 18, 1688

2. Get uncomfortable.

Growth is uncomfortable. Progress is uncomfortable. Challenging racism and promoting diversity is uncomfortable, particularly for those who see no obvious benefit in changing the status quo. But we must move beyond convincing minorities that disenfranchisement is all in their heads or that “life is hard for everyone and you just need to suck it up.” If we truly want to move forward as businesses and a country, everyone must change. Not just minorities, but everyone. We need to have uncomfortable discussions at every level in every company. We need to have uncomfortable discussions in our homes. We need to make uncomfortable decisions and take uncomfortable risks. Nothing will change until we do.

Replacing direct language with “safe” words signals
a lack of clarity or a lack of commitment to the world of diversity.
Issues must be clearly defined and articulated before they can be changed.
—HR Focus magazine

3. “Don’t talk about it be about it” goes for you, too.

Any business can brag about how pro-diversity it is. Anyone can rip David Duke or George W. Bush’s status as a legacy baby or spit Chris Rock punchlines. God knows it makes us sound cool at the business conferences and around our friends. But talk is cheap.

We must decide once and for all whether we’re part of a continuing problem or part of the solution. Either we will recruit minorities or we won’t. Either we will partner with minority businesses or we won’t. Either we will respect minority consumers or we won’t. We’ll either work for change or we’ll work against change. There is no middle ground.

[In 2000, there were over 20.9 million businesses in America.
Only 1.2 million are owned by Hispanics while blacks
own only about 890,000 businesses.
This leaves nearly 18 million American businesses
owned mostly by whites.]

4. Spin Control is not Change.

Also known as the “Some of my best friends are black” approach. This is where companies use PR campaigns, token hires and relationships to “prove” their diversity. Throughout my career I was called on by numerous companies whose diversity initiatives consisted of doing Black History Month ads and hyping minority charity donations or suspect partnerships they’d haphazardly thrown together.

Real action goes deeper than MLK, Jr. PSAs and cutting checks to the NAACP. Real change is 24/7/365 at every level. So stop frontin’ and be about it.

[As of 2003, more than 890,000, or 81.3 percent of the nation’s
1.1 million self-identified chief executive officers are white males.]

5. No More Colorblindness.

Dogs are colorblind. Colorblind is what you put on your insurance form under “pre-existing conditions.” Colorblind is just a politically correct way of saying: “I have so little respect for your ethnicity that the only way I can see you as equal is to ignore it.” Ignoring melanin and heritage doesn’t make you enlightened it makes you a moron. People aren’t crayons—you don’t pick the colors you like and ignore the rest. Open your eyes and see everyone for everything that makes them human and valuable, including their ethnicity.

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race.
There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons
equally, we must treat them differently.
—Harry A. Blackmun, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Mic Check... Turn my vocals up.

Fresh software is so cool! Check this out… Every couple days, I’ll leave a message in the form of HUSTLEKNOCKIN’ VOKI.—my very own little talking avatar, that looks like me. Sorta. It’ll be a quote, some jewel of info, or something like that.

So when you see me on, just hit the button and I’ll talk. Got it?
Good.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://vhss-d.oddcast.com/voki_embed_functions.php"></script><script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">AC_Voki_Embed(200,267,"c936952a9c12d212e4798de9047e8983",158068, 1, "", 0);</script><BR><a href="http://www.voki.com/"><b>Get a Voki now!</b></a><BR><BR>

Equally Yoked, Pt. 1

Some advice from KNOCK THE HUSTLE:

Equally Yoked, Pt. 1

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." [II Corinthians 6:14]

This one was among the simplest yet hardest lessons The Hustle ever taught me. In business, you have to be equally yoked. You can’t work for a company whose practices or ideologies aren’t inline with yours. You can’t go into business with people if you don’t have the same goals and beliefs about how to achieve those goals. You just can’t ride with people if you’re not all on the same level. It’s just that simple.

I also learned that being Equally Yoked doesn’t mean being clones, suffering from codependency, or being mutual sycophants. It doesn’t mean rolling lockstep just to avoid friction or conflict, either. Equally Yoked means that you have enough common ground that your differences become assets and strengths, not liabilities or barriers. Equally Yoked means that you both recognize the same starting point and destination and realize that if you don’t get there together you won’t get there at all.

You see this a lot in bad relationships: A woman gets down with a man who’s totally not on her level but all she sees is what she might be able to turn him into or the one or two things she really likes about him. Next thing you know, after a few months (or years) of back ‘n’ forth he’s still not where she’s at, she can’t bring herself to go where he is, and now they want to kill each other.

VIBE

Partnerships, alliances, boss-employee or even brand-endorser relationships have to be built on more than just, “Hey, I think we can make a lot of money together,” or “We’ve both got mutually beneficial talents.”

There has to be a real connection, a vibe.

You don’t need to be friends; you don’t need to finish each other’s sentences; you just need to vibe. Vibing is when all involved share an almost unspoken bond that makes success feel predestined because everything feels connected. You feel like the soil has been already prepared, the seed has been planted, and all that’s left to do is sow it and grow.

When you’re vibing with the right woman, you can just relax with each other and let things unfold because you know that everything’s in place. When you’re vibing with a business partner, you just know that this thing, whatever it may be is going to work because you two are right for each other. When you’re vibing with the company you work for, you’re fully aware that you could probably make more money or get more perks somewhere else, but this place and time is the perfect fit.

But when you’re not vibing, when you’re not Equally Yoked, it’s like pulling teeth to get anything done. Every discussion feels like a debate, every little task seems like a big project, and every disagreement is thisclose to an argument. And even if it actually works, all involved know they don’t ever want to do it again. When there’s no vibe, the successes don’t feel as good and the failures hurt worse than they should.

PART II COMING IN A SEC...

Stand Up, New Sites ARE UP!

It’s been a minute, but I finally got new sites up!

Special thanks to Adam Aziz and the boys over at THE TAKEOVER GROUP in Canada for holding me down. You might know him for the HHNLIVE.com. (Check ‘em out!)

In the meantime, pay a visit to the revamped and revised KNOCK THE HUSTLEKNOCK THE HUSTLE book site at www.knockthehustle.com. Here, you'll find fresh excerpts, new reviews and more!

Also, please visit PRODIGALPEN PUBLISHING’s fresh new corporate site at: www.prodigalpen.com.

And to everyone that’s been waiting and asking, coming this fall will be second printing of KNOCK THE HUSTLE: How to save your Job and your life from Corporate America.

And coming December 2007 KNOCK THE HUSTLE 2: THE RESIGNATION, featuring new stories, new insights and more!

Both titles will be available at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon.com as well as Knockthehustle.com and bookstores nationwide.

Thanks again, for all your patience and support.

Sickos, hospitals, hustlers, and republicans...

KNOCK THE HUSTLE touched on a various topics, one of which happens to be just how jacked up America’s healthcare system is. I get into it a little more in KTH VOLUME 2. Here’s a taste:

-------------KNOCK THE HUSTLE: VOLUME 2 (Coming: Sept. 2007)----------

The “Just in Case” Hustle

There are two things you never want to be in America at the same time: Sick and Uninsured. Walking into an American hospital without insurance is like being openly gay at a Cub Scouts meeting—they won’t hurt you, but no matter how polite they are to you, they really wish you were somewhere else. Anywhere else.

I rolled into triage one night in 2005 begging for a doc and the first question they asked me was, “HMO or PPO?” Don’t believe me? Go see a doctor anywhere in America; I betcha won’t get past the desk without an insurance card or a valid credit card. Hate the French all you want but at least they have universal health insurance. So do the Canadians. In fact, America is the only developed country without universal healthcare.

Less than 30 days to launch

Less than 30 days to launch.

I’m kinda geeked right about now because I’m re-launching knockthehustle.com in prep for the second edition of KNOCK THE HUSTLE and the second printing of the original KNOCK THE HUSTLE.

I’m also re-launching ProdigalPen Pub, Inc., which means a fresh site, there as well.

Both are coming end in June courtesy of my guys at THE TAKEOVER GROUP(http://takeovergroup.com/). They do some really hot stuff. I’m hoping my sites will qualify. From the pdf’s I’ve seen so far, things are looking solid.

Let the count down begin!

Now back to the edit session so KTH will actually be worth coping!

Another Black media Outlet dies

Another Black media outlet bites the dust. Comments to follow…

Report: Black Family Channel Closing
April 24, 2007
Network Said to Be in Deal With Gospel Outlet

Black Family Channel, the network started eight years ago by lawyer Willie Gary, celebrities Marlon Jackson, Evander Holyfield and others, is shutting down operations on April 30, R. Thomas Umstead reported Tuesday in Multichannel News, citing unnamed sources.

"Despite its star power and its unique positioning — along with BET and TV One — as a national network targeting African-American audiences, the network was unable to secure significant cable and satellite distribution to remain in business, according to sources," Umstead reported.

Actor and producer Robert Townsend oversaw the programming as Black Family Channel's president for production.

False starts, falling down, getting back up...

I’m editing KNOCK THE HUSTLE: volume two as we speak. It feels stale. (Not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know.) But it feels stale. I think it’s feeling that way because I’ve been so close to it for so long. It’s that old Forrest for the Trees syndrome.

Plus, I think I kinda got hustled a little bit myself. The mission was to cut and run, not to slice and stand. I’ve spent a while admiring my work, so to speak as opposed to simply walking away.

Correction: Race In The WorkPlace

It's Not Racialicious that i was interviewed by but a cool blog by the name of:

However the founder of the blog is none other than Carmen Van Kerchove. You can subscribe to the interviews for free at iTunes. They're uploaded weekly--every monday in fact.

(Mine was Monday, March 12, 2007.)

You can also visit RACE IN THE WORKPLACE for regualr installments, too!

ADWEEK digs KTH 2007 style!

While I'm prepping the second and final run of KTH, it should be knwo that one of the major ad industry magsADWEEK is feeling KNOCK THE HUSTLE.

In this week's issue, Tom Messner, one of their columnists and pioneering industry exec heaps some high praise on yours truly. Happy reading.

Art & Commerce: Back In Business
April 02, 2007
By Tom Messner

The problem with socialism is socialism; the problem with capitalism is capitalists." So said Herr William Schlamm some 50 years ago.

I didn't overhear Willi getting off his mot, but I have read it enough times quoted by William F. Buckley Jr. in his column not only to remember it, but also to have the time for the reflection necessary to affirm its truth. (Which is about five or six seconds each time, I'd say.)

here's an interview feauturing moi...

RAWSISTAZ Author Interview Pt. 1
From: Rawsistaz.com

Name: Hadji Williams
Email Address: author@knockthehustle.com
Website: www.knockthehustle.com
Recent Book Title(s): KNOCK THE HUSTLE: How to save your Job and your Life from Corporate America (2006)

RAW: Tell us all about you, the author. And then tell us about the person behind the author.

See my bio on site. (kidding!) Seriously, uh… I’m for starters, I’m a Chicago boy, born and raised. Southside and West-sider. I’m 33. Came up in the hood, but I can’t say that my life was really that hard or anything like that. My folks stayed together. They’re both “blue-collar-get-up-and-pay-your-bills” type of people. Southern roots. Mom’s from Chicago Heights. Dad’s from Mississippi. Got some kin in Gary, Indiana, too.

Let’s see… what else can I say? I like long walks, bare-skin rugs… candlelight dinners, a man who’s not afraid to cry… oh, wait that’s something else that I was reading. Nevermind.

RAW: How long have you been writing and what has the experience been like for you?

Personally, I’ve been writing since I was a shorty, like maybe 5. I always kept a journal. When you’re a guy you say “journal”. When you’re a girl, you say, “diary”… that was one of the first “writer things” I learned. Anyway, I started writing poetry, mostly. Some short stories, too. Coming up mostly on hiphop, I wrote rhymes, so I was filling up little notebooks left ‘n’ right.

But writing professionally? Well, I got into advertising copywriting—writing commercials, prints ads, brochures, radios spots, building brands, etc. when I was about 19. I’d done an ad for the Chicago Tribune celebrating MLK, Jr. thru an ad agency I was interning for at the time. By the time I was 30, I’d really gotten my grind on in the advertising and marketing industry. I’d produced close to 1,500 radio commercials for various clients (Mercedes, Cingular Wireless, Dominick’s Wrigley’s, G.Heilman Brewing, etc.), maybe a couple hundred print ads, a bunch of TV spots, etc.

rawsistaz interview, part. 2

Part 2 from my interview with Rawsistaz...

RAWSISTAZ Author Interview Pt. 2
From: Rawsistaz.com

RAW: Why did you choose to write on these specific topics?

I didn’t choose it. God did. He told me to write KNOCK THE HUSTLE. He told me to tell the truth about what I know. I picked the words, but He told me to tell the truth about the corruption and hypocrisy and the flaws and the humanity and the good stuff and the bad stuff and the possibilities…

I got blackballed out my industry for this book. People that I’ve known for 10-15 years don’t speak to me anymore. Companies that I used to work for don’t return my phone calls. For years I was called a good write, a strong marketer, smart, a team-player, etc., etc… but over the last few months, I’ve been called “a hack”, a “reverse racist”, “bitter” and all sorts of other names…

I didn’t choose this. I had to do it.

People know so little about what really goes on in the business world beyond what gets filtered thru the big biz magazines… There so many daily stories worth telling and that need to be told that I wanted some truth to get out. I felt like I was really called on to write an account of how it really goes down, especially in the marketing industry… how brands are built, etc. I also wanted to offer some solutions.

RAW: Do you think you'll write in any other genres?

I like non-fiction, because truth is always stranger. And because I think in our souls, people crave truth. Even when we read fiction. The stories we love and remember most are ones where we feel like there’s some element of truth and possibility for reality in them. Escapism is cool, but I think deep down inside, we’d all much rather change our reality than run from it. So I think I’ll explore stories where people try to change their reality. I like a lot of the stuff that’s coming out of the Christian genre these days… it’s getting better I think for that very reason. Really good writers are trying to do more of that type of exploration. I wanna do that do. I’m not sure if that’ll make me a “Christian writer” or not. But if it does, I can think of worse names to be called.

RAW: Any advice you'd like to pass along to other writers? What about to readers?

Find truth. Write a lot. Read a lot. I don’t write as much as a should. Use a dictionary more than a speelcheck. (see what I mean?) get a pen and a pad… computers are cool and serve a purpose, but you’ll go soft if you sit in front of one for a whole manuscript or for a whole bunch of hours. Write your book on some notepads and in some journals and transcribe it, too. There’s just something about a pen and a pad, man. You can’t beat it. I remember around Y2K folks were buggin’ about loosing all their files and I sorta was too. But I had a buncha my really important writing stuff was still on notepads…. Lol!

Another thing: develop your own voice. It’s a hard one to do. I’m still working on refining my voice as a writer and just learning my craft. It’s a daily struggle.

Lastly: Own your art. I started ProdigalPen, inc. because I felt compelled to own what I create. The publishing industry is a hustle, especially for writers of color. You write a book then a publisher gives you an advance plus 8 or 9 cents on a dollar. We got a word for that: P-I-M-P.

Walter Moseley recently started his own imprint because for all the books he was selling, he wasn’t getting a fair cut, nor does the industry really understand how to market to diverse readers. (Black folk ain’t supposed to be writin’ detective stories, no way.) I think at some point in the future every writer is going to have to take proprietorship over their words in some kinda way.

As for readers: I don’t know… demand more from publishers, I guess. Publishers are stupid. They think readers will only read certain types of books, which is why only certain types of authors get deals and only certain books get published.

When it comes to authors of color, there’s no diversity of content from the publishing houses because they still think readers only want pulp thugs and sisters whining about trifling brothers and we-shall-overcomer’s… (I mean, why do you think MTV Books gave 50 Cent a book publishing deal in late ‘05?) Mainstream publishers are as biased and as shortsighted as record labels if not more when it comes to reaching multicultural readers. If you’re not perpetuating stereotypes as an author, they think you can’t sell no matter how good a writer you are because they only know how to market stereotypes. It’s a hustle.

So the best way to change this is for readers to demand more diversity of content from publishers and bookstore owners. Every black female writer isn’t writing a “my man left me” book. And black men will read something other than “how to get a record deal”.

This isn’t about morality, though. They listen to dollars and cents. You have to show them that you will buy good books of all kinds. If you buy garbage they’ll crank it out, because it ain’t “their” authors getting shortchanged in the end.

RAW: What's coming up next for you? (Upcoming books)

I’m doing a hard cover version of KNOCK THE HUSTLE, which will feature some additional chapters, plus a CD/DVD of interviews with HUSTLEKNOCKERS—business leaders and regular business folks who are really trying to break constructs and run things differently. That’ll drop in Spring 2007.

Summer 2007, I’ve got a volume of poetry coming. As yet untitled.
Winter 2007, I’ve got a book coming, The Day Hiphop Died. (working title)
Plus a couple other titles, tba.

RAW: What literary events will you be attending this year?

I’ll be hitting the poetry circuit again. The BOOK Fair in Washington DC in June. I’m not sure what else. I’ve got a little KNOCK THE HUSTLE Tour in the works that’s gonna take me to wherever will have me, pretty much.

RAW: Now, the Just for Fun part of our interview.

How to rob an artist

2 of my favorite people in hiphop just sat and chopped it up on some hustles and constructs being run in the music biz... Wendy Day, founder of The Hiphop Coalition and DaveyD, the man himself from the Yay.

Check it out. I just had to spread the word about this one as i chat with these folks on the regular.

powered by ODEO

Raise your kids, corporate folks!

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FOR MY SEEDS...
Be a father to your child...
—Edo G. & The Bulldogs

I’ve met plenty of working parents over the years—women, men, single, divorced, execs, secretaries and such, all in the same struggle. And by and large, they always tried to put their families first. But I knew (and still know) entirely too many who are out there stacking 80-hour work weeks trying to make partner, get the corner office, the bigger title, etc. all in the name of “for the kids.” To all of them (and all of you) I say:

QUIT USING YOUR KIDS AS AN EXCUSE FOR YOUR CAREER CHOICES.

Martin, Madison Ave...

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Nothing's more bizarre, more ironic than working in an industry that's spent over 100 years to keep itself as white as possible (92% White as of 2007) and only considers changing with the threat of lost revenues and endless lawsuits; yet loves to hawk Martin Luther King, Jr. the Civil Rights Movement, hiphop, soul music, and all things "urban" whenever it's cool or profitable or both.

Such is life.

GOING SOLO

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Here are a few more things to consider...

12 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL SOLO CAREER:

1. Don’t just look for a job, look for work.

If you’re just looking for a job, you might miss out on your chance to work. The chance to make your mark may come by working for someone else or it may come from recognizing a hole in the marketplace that no one else is filling. So be open to opportunities no matter what form they may come in.

My Seeds, PART TWO

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SARAH BERNSEN

During a 6-month stretch when I was punching out every night between 10 P.M. and 11P.M., I got to know “Sarah Bernsen.” She was this big-time executive VP, about a couple heart attacks away from running the agency. I guess she was around 45 or so. Every night we’d see each other in the elevators, or signing out in the lobby. She always looked exhausted, irritated, or both. She was usually carrying files home or laptops or something. She always struck me as a nice lady; no matter how many power suits she rocked, she came off like a suburban schoolteacher or a CPA, old-school Sally Jesse Raphael glasses and all.

The more we chatted, the more I learned. She was one half of your classic late-’80s power couple. Hubby was a big shooter for some Fortune 500 shop. She had 2 daughters and, between her work and their teenage lives, seldom spent more than a few hours a week with them.

Soak it in... We still got a ways to go kids.

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Miles to go before we sleep... miles to go... Espacially on Madison Ave.

ARE HBCU's still relavant?

Are Historicallly Black Colleges and Universities still relevant?

That question comes up every year it seems, particularly in recent years... It's usually brought up, at least in my presence, by folks who also ask questions like, "If Historically White Colleges are considered racist, why aren't these?" and "Can't we all just go to historically AMERICAN colleges and be done with all this crap?"

(you get the point.)

Eventhough I didn't attend one myself--I was this close to going to FAMU--but my folks thought I'd waster their loot and end up on a beach somewhere in Palm Springs or something. But that's another story. Anyway... I have friends who attended HBCUs.

They're good schools, some better funded than others. but overall, they're quality institutions. And of course they have a historical legacy that no other can claim. There's not a single ethnic group in America that's ever been systemically denied access to an education (college and k-12) simply because of their heritage by the entire government except Black Americans of African ancestry.

If it weren't for HBCUs which were, with few exceptions, exclusively privately-funded, some of the nations greatest minds would've never been sharpened. Many of our greates authors, politicos, businesspeople, scientists, ministers, etc. would've never received the intellectual enrichment necessary to achieve what they did.

Would MLK, Jr. have been the same without Morehouse? Would GW. Carver been the scientist he was without his HBCU?

I could go on, but i found a wonderful commentary from a young student who currently attends an HBCU. After you peep the DW clip, check her view on the issue.

STUDENTS STILL NEED BLACK COLLEGES
By: Katrelle Simmons
HCBUnetwork.com

We English education students are forced to take classes that teach us how to educate and handle students from diverse backgrounds.

We have to take a course in teaching to students whose native language is not English, 12 credits hours in a foreign language and produce lesson plans that incorporate teacher-friendly ways to communicate with speakers of other languages.

All of this in the name of embracing other cultures-a great notion that should be imposed on other majors.

But as multicultural education and exposure is becoming essential to a well-cultured individual's well-being, is there still a need for Historically Black Colleges and Universities?