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Did Black-ish diss HBCU’s in its latest episode?

By Michael Bibbins

BLACK-ISH - "Black Math" - When Junior is accepted to Howard and Stanford, Dre tries to convince him to attend his alma mater. Meanwhile, Jack develops a comedy style and Ruby decides she's going to manage his career, forcing Diane to compete for her attention, on "black-ish," TUESDAY, APRIL 3 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Byron Cohen)ANTHONY ANDERSON, MARCUS SCRIBNER
BLACK-ISH - "Black Math" - When Junior is accepted to Howard and Stanford, Dre tries to convince him to attend his alma mater. Meanwhile, Jack develops a comedy style and Ruby decides she's going to manage his career, forcing Diane to compete for her attention, on "black-ish," TUESDAY, APRIL 3 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Byron Cohen)ANTHONY ANDERSON, MARCUS SCRIBNER /
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In last night’s episode of Black-ish, Junior eventually chooses to attend Howard University. However, the episode spends the majority of its run-time pointing out reasons why he shouldn’t.

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Black-ish is a show that is not afraid to tackle the difficult subjects. In its fourth season alone the show has addressed slavery, postpartum depression, and “the talk.” Part of the show’s success stems from the ability of the writing team to take black issues and make them relatable to non-black viewers. The other side of that is making the black viewers feel that their subjects, stories, and heritage are respected.

On the latest episode the subject was college choice. The Johnson family’s second oldest child, Junior (Marcus Scribner) was accepted into both Howard University (a Historically Black University, or HBCU) and Stanford (a predominantly white college.) With Dre (Anthony Anderson) being a Howard alum he wants his son to go to his alma mater. His wife Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross), however, thinks that Stanford is the obvious choice. Junior agrees, going as far as to smack the Howard acceptance letter out of his father’s hand. He and Bow completely dismiss the Howard acceptance.

The obvious choice

When arguing the point to Dre that Stanford is the clear choice, Bow says that they agreed to get their kids into the best schools possible. Dre’s rebuttal is that white people decided that Stanford was better and that it doesn’t make it true. Here we have a classic Black-ish moment where two sides of an argument are presented. Dre’s take and the mainstream take.

Later, this comes up again when Dre discusses his issue with his coworkers. During the conversation his boss realizes that he went to Howard University and not Harvard. He goes as far as to say he wouldn’t have hired him if he realized he went to “a college for blacks.” The show is a comedy, and if you’re familiar with the character he says things like this all of the time so this didn’t sting me as much as it could have. However, if you’re watching Black-ish for the first time and hear that line it’s going to shock you. For the second time Dre has had his school disrespected and hasn’t had much to say in its defense.

BLACK-ISH – “Black Math” – When Junior is accepted to Howard and Stanford, Dre tries to convince him to attend his alma mater. Meanwhile, Jack develops a comedy style and Ruby decides she’s going to manage his career, forcing Diane to compete for her attention, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, APRIL 3 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Byron Cohen)MARCUS SCRIBNER, ANTHONY ANDERSON
BLACK-ISH – “Black Math” – When Junior is accepted to Howard and Stanford, Dre tries to convince him to attend his alma mater. Meanwhile, Jack develops a comedy style and Ruby decides she’s going to manage his career, forcing Diane to compete for her attention, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, APRIL 3 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Byron Cohen)MARCUS SCRIBNER, ANTHONY ANDERSON /

The HBCU experience

Dre ends up taking Junior to Howard to experience the campus. The trip ends up going poorly (surprise.) The weather is bad, there’s a protest on campus, the students don’t respond to his spirit call, and there aren’t any good events to attend. After this tour, Dre is almost ready to give up on his dream to get his son to go to Howard. That’s when Bow drives it home.

She says that Dre is forgetting the bad things about going to a HBCU. She specifically says that he had a hard time reintegrating into society. Bow goes on to point out that he had to catch up on white culture when he got out of college. She asks if he wants Junior to be unable to relate to his coworkers when he graduates too. Again, Dre accepts this at face value with no real rebuttal. At this point he has completely accepted that his son shouldn’t go to an HBCU.

This particular point is the point that caused the most division among viewers. The average viewer understands that mainstream society thinks less of HBCU’s. Seeing this portrayed during the episode should not have shocked many people. The idea that a student from a HBCU will be unable to relate to anyone who isn’t black after graduating, is not a common concept. This is the point that most took issue with.

The “save”

When Dre goes to tell Junior that he can go to Stanford, Junior says that he doesn’t want to.  What he saw when he went to Howard was a diversity among black people. He appreciated seeing black students on both sides of a protest and seeing black people from various backgrounds sharing one space. Having lived his entire life in the suburbs and going to private school, he wants this experience. He says that he felt proud and excited to be black while on the campus. This moment is designed to erase all of the negativity that preceded it. While it may not do so, the effort is there.

BLACK-ISH – “Black Math” – When Junior is accepted to Howard and Stanford, Dre tries to convince him to attend his alma mater. Meanwhile, Jack develops a comedy style and Ruby decides she’s going to manage his career, forcing Diane to compete for her attention, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, APRIL 3 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Byron Cohen)MARCUS SCRIBNER
BLACK-ISH – “Black Math” – When Junior is accepted to Howard and Stanford, Dre tries to convince him to attend his alma mater. Meanwhile, Jack develops a comedy style and Ruby decides she’s going to manage his career, forcing Diane to compete for her attention, on “black-ish,” TUESDAY, APRIL 3 (9:00-9:30 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Byron Cohen)MARCUS SCRIBNER /

So far so good.

That’s when Dre mentions the trouble he had reintegrating. He tells his son he doesn’t want him to have that issue. Junior’s response is that he is well versed in white culture and perhaps will be the student that introduces other Howard students to white culture as well.

That’s where it got awkward again.

People were upset at the idea of HBCU students not being able to integrate into corporate America after four years of predominantly black surroundings. Having Junior profess himself as someone who will bring the message to the people did not help the cause here.

Next: Black-ish recap: Black Math

My take

Most people fell on the side of accepting the save attempt, if not fully appreciating it. I believe the goal of the episode was to shed a positive light on the HBCU experience and this episode did not do that. The problem here is that the episode is completely negative toward HBCU’s (aside from Dre) until the final minute or two. The show took a trip to the Howard campus and spent more time on Dre’s negative moments than it did on Junior’s positive recollection of those same moments. We are supposed to be excited that Junior has chosen to go to Howard. However, the final product comes out as awkward as the character himself.

Which side did you land on? Did Black-ish do a disservice to HBCU’s or did they shine a positive light?

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