September 7, 2025 • 50 mins
It's back to school season, so homecoming is around the corner. In this episode we are throwing back to our episode about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with special guest Xavier Jernigan! In this episode, Titi and Zakiya talk with X about community, mentorship, Homecoming, and what makes the HBCU experience so special.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
School is back in session, and you know what that means.
Homecoming is right around the corner, and nobody does homecomings
like historically Black colleges and Universities or HBCUs. Zakiah went
to Hampton University, so she knows all about it. So
this week we're throwing back to a past episode where
(00:20):
we did the science of HBCUs. It was a special
episode because we had one of our favorites, Xavier Jernigan,
who is the Spotify DJ and a fam you alum,
What an.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
HBCU means to me is friendship.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So I met them in two thousand and three and
what is it twenty twenty one?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So lifelong a frenticships, That's what it means to me.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yes, And I think at HBCU was a nurture and
environment that puts US African Americans in a great spot,
especially when we go into our endeavors. Whatever your career
may be, it's that you up for success.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Do it.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
How you guys doing. I am Timothy McDonald. I am
a senior chemical engineering major from Baltimore, Maryland, and I
have the pleasure of serving as a forty fourth mister
Howard University, being on campus is the epitome of black excellence.
I would say, being surrounded by people not only of
black minds, but black minds who are willing to challenge you.
That's something that I hadn't faced in high school. I
went to a majority white high school, right, and I
(01:27):
just didn't have a lot of people that looked like me.
And once I came to Howard, I knew that it
was home. I knew that it was the place I
had to be for the next four years. And even
though we have been in a pandemic and it's been hard,
now that we're back and it feels like, you know,
just an outpour of good times vibes and just being
around black people. It's like a cookout, right, but all
day every day. So that's something I'm really enjoyed. So
(01:50):
our chant is something that you got to learn, which
is at you. You know, that's something you do maybe
a thousand times in the first week alone. So that
is something and it kind of transcends classes. Right. You
can have alumni from ninety six all the way back
to sixty six and they're gonna know hu, you know, right,
So it's that chance that we hold near and dear
(02:11):
to all heart, Thank.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You so much.
Speaker 7 (02:13):
No problem, No problem.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I'm t T and I'm Zakiyah and from Spotify.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This is Dope Labs.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that makes it
hardcore science, pop culture, and a healthy dose of friendship. Okay, Zekiah,
I have a question for you. Shoot. What do Spike, Lee,
Tony Morrison, w E. B.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Dubois, Thirdgood Marshall, Jerry, Rice, Felicia, and Debbie Allen all
have in common.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Fantasy dinner wishless.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, but also they all went to historically black colleges
and universities. So HBCUs yes, And that's right on time
because it's Black History Month and this week we're focusing
on HBCUs.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
We're covering everything from history to homecoming. We're delving right
into the HBCU experience. You know, HBCUs have been in
the news, they've been in the media. We've seen them
portray positively. We've seen students complaining about conditions at different HBCUs.
So remember in DC at Howard we saw some folks protesting, yeah,
about their housing conditions. Yes, and Howard is not alone.
(03:45):
A couple of other schools have seen some similar things.
Happening some similar feedback from their students. Then recently, just
earlier this month, do you remember when all the bomb
threats were called into the hbc My goodness, that was
so scared.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
So, you know, I feel like we're seeing positive things,
but also negative things and outside influences.
Speaker 7 (04:07):
Just so much going on.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
But I think there's still a lot to celebrate about
the HBCU experience.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And Zakiya, I am really excited about this because you
went to an HBCU.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yes, I am a graduate of Hampton University, and so
I can't wait to reminisce and talk about some of
my HBCU experience. Those are some formative years. I cannot wait.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Let's get into the recitation, all right, So what do
we know today?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
There are just over one hundred HBCUs in the United States,
and that equals about three percent of our colleges and universities,
both public and private. Many of our HBCUs are located
in the Southern States, and Alabama has the most HBCU
per state, with twelve total.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Another thing that we know is that HBCUs play a
huge part in education, and we are particularly focused on
STEM education and addressing inequalities in STEM education.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yes, as a matter of fact, about twenty seven percent
of black undergrads got their STEM degrees from HBCUs, and
if you look at black doctors in the US, fifty
percent of them are HBCU graduates.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Not to mention, in my field of engineering, forty six
percent of black women engineers graduated from HBCUs and thirty
percent of black doctorates in science and engineering are from HBCUs.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know, HBCUs have been underfunded for decades, and we're
starting to see some lawsuits in cases where states are
having to pay up. So just last year, the governor
of Maryland, Hogan, signed a settlement for five hundred and
seventy seven million dollars to go to Maryland's HBCUs. What
they found is that the whole statewide system of education
(05:59):
for Maryland was disproportionately sending funds to primarily white institutions
and underfunding the for HBCUs under their care. So over
the next ten years they will disperse those funds back
to those schools.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
The twenty five largest predominantly white institutions, their endowments are
greater than the endowments of all the HBCUs combined.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
So what do we want to know?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I know that there's a lot that I want to
know because I didn't go to HBCU unfortunately, so I've
got a lot of questions because I feel like it'll
help me know my friend even better.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well, we're going to focus on a couple things, friendship
and camaraderie, mentorship and stewardship. How attended a HBCU might
affect your identity, so the black experience and different perspectives
and campus life, and then we'll talk about how HBCUs
have been portrayed in the media. But one component of
that that we have to touch is homecoming, which is
(06:55):
a celebration of coming together and being back on campus.
We said three things, but I couldn't stop.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I am very excited to dive in, so let's jump
into the dissection.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Today.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
We are so excited to have our friend Xavier Journegan
on the show. He's gonna be talking to us all
about his HBCU experience as well as Zakiah, So we
got two experts today.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
I'm Xavier Journegan.
Speaker 8 (07:38):
Everybody calls me x I'm the host of The Get Up,
Spotify's daily morning show and I'm also an exec at Spotify,
and I'm a proud, proud Florida A and M University fam.
You rattler, I bleed Arnge and Green.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
Yes, I said it, Arnge in Green.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Choosing a college, if you decide to go to college,
is a really big deal. Choosing the right college, choosing
a place where you know you'll feel comfortable to further
your education is a really big deal. And as you
can hear, we have someone who is very proud of
their institution on the show.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
We asked X to tell us why he chose an
HBCU and where his beginnings of his love for HBCUs
kind of started.
Speaker 8 (08:22):
My hometown, Daytona is an HBCU city, so I grew
up around and my aunt and uncle worked there. My
cousin Zach was section leader at the drum line at Cooking.
My cousin Terry, his sister, went to cook Mean and
we always went to the homecoming parade. Zach will march
by me and my brother and show out in front
of us and wink at us, and then me and
my brother became drummers.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So it sounds like your hbc YOU experience started when
you were really, really young, very young. I've definitely heard
that with a lot of people that I know that
went to HBCUs, they were exposed to HBCU cultures young.
Speaker 7 (08:57):
Now. I do think that's a big part of it,
exposure to it.
Speaker 8 (09:00):
And I grew up on like school Days came out
when I was a little kid, and in a different
world was like, those are my formative years.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
X is making a really good point. Tt I feel
like over the past couple of years there has been
so much HBCU exposure in the media. Absolutely, if you
think back to Beyonce's Homecoming at Coachella, that performance, Yes, yes,
I've even recently seen Little nas X did something. It
wasn't HBCU centric, but it definitely gave me homecoming vibes.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, definitely drumline homecoming, you know, things like that.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So X talks about exposure in the media that kind
of drove his love for HBCUs as well, specifically School Days,
which was written, directed, and produced by Spike Lee who
graduated from Morehouse and all male HBCU and School Days
also gives a good view of, yes, the HVCU experience,
but in particular the Black Greek experience, and TT.
Speaker 7 (09:55):
You know a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yes, the Divine Nine.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
It's made up of nine fraternities and sororities, and I
am a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
So like going up to the campus, me and my
mom and my brother would go up there and just
hang out in my aunt Helen's office or my uncle
James's office and just being in that environment. And then
my mom went to Cookman and a big part of
my story, y'all, so my mom had me and my
brother young. My mom was about to enter her freshman
year at Bathune Cookman at eighteen.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
She was pregnant with my brother. I ain't come along
in the next summer.
Speaker 8 (10:30):
She still keeps going, but then it was too much,
so she didn't finish. But all throughout growing up, y'all,
she will always say to me and my brother, I'm
going to go back one day. And just a few
years ago, my mom finally went back to the Cookman
University and she was able to finish that degree, and
then she went on and got her master's because she's
(10:50):
a g That's the HBCU experience, Zakia.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Listening to X, it really brings back memories from stories
that you've told me about your upbringing and your experience
at Hampton because you grew up in Greensboro, so you
were near an HBCU.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yes, what ex is saying resonates so much with me
because I grew up in Greensboro, and that's where North
Carolina A and T is, and it's where Bennett College is,
which is a women's HBCU. It's a huge university town.
I was talking to somebody and I was saying, Hey,
I know you went to A and T, but would
it be strange for me to have an A and
T sweater? And They're like, you didn't go to A
(11:41):
and T, But I feel like A and T raised
b Yep. When I think about my trajectory, my path
to science, I always say it started with these Saturday
academies for math and science at North Carolina A and T. Yeah,
my mom was going back to school at A and
T while I was in middle school, and so Saturdays
I was going to these academies learning more or math
and science and doing like the SAT and psat training.
(12:03):
And then by the time I got to high school,
one of my first summer jobs was working on A
and T's campus. In the Ron McNair building, which was
named after Ron McNair, who was a black astronaut. And
my first exposure, TT was in your lane in engineering.
I was doing some civil engineering stuff with the Army
Research Lab in North Carolina, A and T. And that
was like my first hands on science internship that I
(12:23):
was doing. Yes, you know, TT, I feel like there's
been a lot of conversation about high school students and
just people in general when it comes time to deciding, Okay,
yes I am going to college. Do I want to
go to an HBCU or a predominantly white institution or
IVY League. You know, I feel like we've been seeing
a trend towards high profile students going to HBCUs. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Travis Hunter, he was the top college recruit for the
class of twenty twenty two for football, and he chose
to go to HBCU Jackson State University instead of Florida's
State University. He switched his commitment and now attending Jackson State.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
We talked to X about this a little bit too,
because that's not a new sentiment, you know, the concern
about what does it mean if you choose an HBCU
earlier in your career, and he's heard some different arguments
against it as well.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
There's like this argument out there, it's like, oh, don't
go to an HBCU because that's not the real world.
But when do you get another time to be around
your true peer group, not just age age and people
with a similar experience from you, like cultural experience for
a five year period in my life.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
And what that.
Speaker 8 (13:38):
Does is it removes, at least on that campus race.
There is no Black student union, is just the student
union because we're ninety percent black, and it's just this loving,
welcoming space. It's truly the definition of what a safe
space is. It gives you this confidence to know that
(13:59):
you can go out in the world after and truly
know who you are. When we're talking about HBCUs, we're
talking about schools that were the only schools that could
and would educate black folks when they didn't want us
at the other schools. For me to choose to go there,
it's just something really special to me. The college experience
(14:22):
was the black college experience, and that's the only experience
I wanted. So I only applied to Howard fam at
the time, and I got accepted to both. You know,
my brother was at Howard FAM had the five year NBA.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
I went to FAM.
Speaker 8 (14:34):
It was that simple and it was the best choice
of my life. Never regretted it. Loved every day I
was that even in bad days.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Was special. The bonds you form.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
They cared like FAM's model was excellence with caring, and
that's real.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
Like we're gonna push you to be great, we gonna care.
Speaker 8 (14:50):
About you, but we're gonna hold you accountable and if
you messing up, we're gonna tell you. So I had,
you know, a mom from home, doctor harp from my heart,
like she helped me down.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Man.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
It's just a special, special experience.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think we all can think back to, you know,
special people who guided us or kept us on the
right track as we were moving through our academic careers. Yes,
and I always love this story that you tell about
doctor White. I met a woman. Her name was doctor
Gladys Hope Franklin White. She came to my high school
(15:30):
and she was like, Hey, I want to talk to
people that want to go to college. She wasn't an
alumna of Hampton University. If I told her what I
wanted to do, she said, have you taken the SAT
I have these Saturday classes. I mean it was very
much a community and nurturing kind of thing.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I love that she said come to my church. The
admissions officer will be here. You can apply in person,
you can tell your story, talk to them.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
And I got a full ride that day to Hampton
when I went to meet with the admissions officer.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
And I had no clue. This woman was just helping me.
She helped all these other people. She had helped my
friend Randy the year before. And when I actually went
to visit Hampton, I was like, Oh, Gladys Hope Franklin
White Hall, this is her dorm. She earned that thought
a lot of people in that dome. This type of
(16:24):
community shows up in different places. So I was able
to do admissions at a local church. But this is
no different from some of the offers to interview applicants
to do or to other schools that we get as
a lums.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Right, Absolutely, absolutely, It's a story you hear in a
lot of different spaces.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
White folks do this all the time. Yes, the Good.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Old Boys Club exists, and what HBCU grads and HBCU
faculty and staff do. Is just that giving people opportunity
and chances that they might not be aware about or say, hey,
I know somebody that.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
You can talk to.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
They're giving you additional resource. Is that your white counterparts
are getting. We see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
It just feels so special to see these folks. You know,
have you ever met on any other traditional you know,
PWI campus. Have you ever met the person that the
dorm is named after? Have they ever come and recruited
you and your friends? No? And that type of love
and care that is central to the hbc you experience,
and I think we try to do it across the board.
I've tried to bring TT into the HBCU folk. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I have my Hampton sweatshirt that now I'm afraid to
wear because I wore it in the airport because I
was going to visit a Kia.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
It was for her birthday.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I was meeting up with her and all of her
friends from Hampton, qt F the arm everybody.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
So I put on my Hampton sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And I was in the airport and beautiful black woman
comes up to me and she says, I like your sweatshirt,
and I said thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
That wasn't the right answer. I was a fraud.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
She knew that I did not go to Hampton and
I was mortified. I started sweating. I was like, sweatshirt
got so heavy, it felt like.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
A million pounds. In that moment, I was just like,
someone helped me get this.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
Off bulletproof vest on all of a.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Sudden real And that's what it is, the HBCU experience.
People are holding you accountable. They're like, do you belong
in that Hampton shirt? Are you really a Hamptonia? And
there's so much nuance even from university to university, and
even when you get to a school, tt little groups
at that school. Absolutely, as we know, black people are
(18:38):
not a monolith, and there are lots of different types
of black folks. And you and ex told me about
your experiences on your HBCU campuses, and you're exposure to
different black upbringings and lifestyles.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
Most of my friends growing up came from single parent homes.
I thought that was the norm because that was all
my friends. I went to fam I was in the
minority when it came to that. So my roommate lands
he had both his parents in the house. My boy
Brian both parents, Alita both parents, Erica both parents, Comal
both parents. I got this other experience and I needed that, y'all.
(19:13):
I didn't know I needed it until I met a
whole bunch of people who had an opposite experience coming
from the black Community's a kid, what about you?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I can remember my first day coming on the campus
similar to you X. You know, I just thought, my
experience is my experience. This is black folks in the South.
Virginia is still the South to me, right, It's true,
my guy. When I got there, I was like, who
are all these people dressing different? I always tell t
(19:44):
T because T is from PG County, and so I
always tell her the Maryland and Baltimore people are just ninjas.
They have Yeah, it was New Balances, it was Nike,
ACG boots. There were all these little microcosms of blackness
that I didn't even know about. There were stratf cations
of class, socioeconomic status, exposure to different things, things that
(20:05):
were related to geography, language difference that you could just
pick up on and hear. Exposure to music culture just
so much, and I grew to appreciate black culture in
such a way that I hadn't experienced and hadn't appreciated before,
and so I was meeting people for the first time
from the Caribbean. One of my closest friends my first year,
(20:26):
she came in and she was already married. That wasn'theard
of to me.
Speaker 7 (20:30):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
One of my other exposures from Hampton is everybody I
knew up until then what I considered to be middle
class or doing well. When I got to Hampton, I
met folks whose parents were in entertainment or show business
or were lawyers. And my parent is about to be
a judge. This is how we do their campaign. Like
(20:52):
things that I was never exposed to. People whose parents
were doctors. I didn't know anybody who was a doctor
before that. Just meeting other people who look like you
and it opened the world of possibility for me.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
I totally agree.
Speaker 8 (21:07):
You see somebody that looked like they could be your
uncle or your dad.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
That's big to see.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
That at like seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty years old.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Right, So it contributes to the if you can see it,
you can be it mentality.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So I've heard a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Of things about life on campus at HBCUs, some things
like dress.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Codes, curfews and things like that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I really wanted to know more about that.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Hampton had a lot of rules our first year. We
couldn't have a car as a freshman. Yeah, it was
in by like nine or eleven or something like. You
need to be in the dorm and we didn't have
co ed dorms. We didn't either, and we had a
dorm mother or a father somebody who stayed in the dorm.
And our dorm mother, her name was mssus Charity and Titi.
You remember, on my birthday we recorded a video message
(21:55):
for my dorm mother, whom we all still keep in
touch with all these years later. And so there was
just this feeling of community and you got in trouble.
You would not appear as a Hampton University student on
the news. You would appear as a former Hampton University
student and they would call it outlive because you would
be stilled by five pm.
Speaker 7 (22:11):
That's real.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It was very strict, you know.
Speaker 8 (22:13):
One of the things that famed the dorms were separated,
so if you went to visit a girl, you couldn't
go past the lobby and when you stepped in the
building you had to give an ID sign in and
be approved, and all you could do was sit in
the lobby and it was doors that would lock on
either side of the lobby.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, ain't no sneaky links.
Speaker 7 (22:35):
No sneaky links is real. Nah, it ain't going down.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
And you see all these guys lined up on the
stairs like waiting for the girl they want to talk to.
I just remember hearing stories about people sneaking people into
the dorms. That's not happening with the girls doring, but
it was a way to do it in Sampson Hall.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
Where I stayed. Another story for another day.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Okay, so that's curfew. What about dress code?
Speaker 8 (23:03):
Talking about dress, going to the School of Business and
Industry SBI, there were certain dress that we had to
wear for certain events. We had to wear a certain
dress code on certain days. Blue suit for men, not
black blue or power gray. It was teaching us how
to be ready for the corporate world. And it'd be like, listen,
you're going to get judged on the way you look,
(23:25):
So do you want to get discriminated against because you
don't know the proper dress and the proper etiquette in
the business environment, Because you already got certain things to
deal with as black folks, we're going to go in
there and we're going to be dope.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Absolutely. I remember receiving something in the mail that said,
you need to have a black pant or skirt suit.
You need to have a white dress. That was for convocation.
There's a building on campus called Ogden Hall, and there's
a circle in front of it, and there's, first of all,
some superstition that you don't walk across the grass in
Ogden Circle or you won't graduate on time. But the
(23:59):
way they told us, this is how you dressed when
you come to Ogden Hall. This was like our auditorium.
So when people were describing a tire for events, it
would say you wear your Ogden's Best.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Two different things, right, I'm coming to my Ougden's Best. Yes,
we knew what we were supposed to have on. And
you just got used to dressing up. You got used
to being comfortable in those clothes. If it's your turn
to present in class, you're dressing up. You're not presenting
in your jeans. Not happening.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I presented them pajamas. What was wrong with me? You know,
why wouldn't you think these people are important people? Clearly
their professors why wouldn't you try and impress them?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
And you've seen this in person. TT Remember when we
went to a and T gave that to.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Everyone was so impressive. Folks came in their Ogden's best okay,
and they were ready. First of all, when folks would
stand up, everyone knew the exact spill to give.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
To introduce themselves.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So they would say their name, they would say what
year they were, they would say where they were from,
and then they would proceed with their question.
Speaker 7 (24:57):
That's right. We would talk that good afternoon. I'm Xavier Journigan.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
I am a fourth year NBA student from Daytona Beach, Florida.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Same thing we got taught that in SBI. I was
like week one. Oh you know what else? Two handshakes.
Speaker 8 (25:10):
We got taught how to do handshakes, look at each
other in the eye, and then do that with the introduction.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
As well.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
As a freshman, we had to go around with a notebook.
It was called a nothing book and you carried it
around your first semester and you had to have upper
classmen sign it. But you had to go up to
them and give the proper introduction. They'll correct you if
the handshake was wrong. Like no, you do it like this, Okay,
try it again, and once you got it right, then
they would sign your nothing book. And you had to
get three signatures the week for like the whole first semester,
(25:38):
so you had to go up to professors to upper.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
Classmen, wow, until you got it down.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
We didn't have a book like that. But there was
something very similar about this culture of each one teach
one right, the upper classes looking out, and everybody had
like big brothers and big sisters, like folks who moved
out for you and your crew told you what you
needed to be doing, like these are the classes you
should take, here's who you should talk to.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
That's right.
Speaker 8 (26:02):
There's a class where you learn all the presidents of
the school before if you had to learn that, we
had to learn our alma mater. We had to learn
the Negro national anthem. We sung the Negro national anthem before.
Every form and forum was like a big thing on
Tuesdays and Thursdays where a big executive from a company,
for example, Ken Chenault from AMX came down a bunch
(26:25):
of people.
Speaker 7 (26:25):
This was every week.
Speaker 8 (26:26):
They'd give a speech and a student would introduce them,
and then we had to ask questions for grades. So
I go into Corporate America, I had the confidence to
ask CEO's questions.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
So we would have mock dinners and we would have
receptions where different companies would come in that have relationships
with FAM and SBI.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
We're going to know how to move in these rooms,
and you're going to.
Speaker 8 (26:48):
Know how to dress and what proper fork to use
when you're at dinner.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
That was so special and so important.
Speaker 8 (26:55):
So when you had your interviews and did your internships,
you were really confident there.
Speaker 7 (27:00):
And I carry a lot of that with me today.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
And there's also just so much culture around being the
product of an HBCU, so like different songs you sing
and poems, to know just all kinds of stuff like that.
You also get that education too, and it's so valuable,
and I think we see more and more people appreciating
that as they learn that that's part of the HBCU experience.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll have much
more with x when we get back. And we're back,
(27:46):
let's jump into our deep dive with guest expert Xavier
Journegan on HBCUs. So, my next question is about HBCUs
in the media X. I know that you have mentioned
school days and how important that was to you, and
we also talked a little bit about a Different World,
which I was absolutely fascinated by growing up and watching that.
(28:07):
I binge watched a Different World again and it just
gets better and better with age, and it really highlights
another point that you and Zekey were making about the
nuance of blackness. Do you feel like all of the
different TV shows that are set at HBCUs are accurate
in their depiction of HBCU culture.
Speaker 7 (28:26):
I was so fortunate.
Speaker 8 (28:27):
One of my favorite interviews so far that I've done
on The Get Up is I got to sit down
with Evatt Lee Bowser Goat. She created Living Single, the
first Black woman to create a network sitcom. Friends took
that archetype. Sex and the City took that archetype. She
was a writer and a producer on a Different World.
(28:51):
I thought A Different World totally nailed it. I experienced
that as a little kid. Then I went to FAM
and then my appreciation for a Different World went on
another level because it was just like, Yo, they really
got that right.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
I heard that a Different World was based off of Hampton.
Is that true?
Speaker 8 (29:07):
I think it was an amalgamation of a few schools.
I think it was like, I know, it was Spelman's
campus that they shot, like the exterior scenes like when
they show a campus, but the fictitious school, Hellman, was
actually in Virginia and they would go to DC sometimes.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yes, when I think about it, I feel like every
show from our time really depicts it well. I feel
like I have a friend that fits every one of
those types of characters. And I think about shows like
Martin where people are wearing HBC es gear and stuff.
Like living single, it feels like that people are still friends.
You meet other people's friends from college. It's all this connectedness.
(29:43):
So at Hampton, we had two cafeterias.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
We did too. We did too.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
One was the big main cafeteria, and on the other
side of the kitchen for that cafeteria was a smaller
seating area that they called the little calf Okay, so
they're connected. They were connected, but they were only connected
by the kitchen. So they had different entrances and stuff. Okay,
And it's just so crazy to me that different HBCUs
they find the smallest things to claim and represent. It's
(30:08):
not just oh, I went to this school. It's not
just oh I was this kind of major. Oh I
was in this dorm. It's also like I'm team Little Calf.
I saw Justin Tinsley who graduated from Hampton and he's
a writer. He just did that great podcast with Nipsey Hustle, Yes,
the thirty for thirty. Yes, he was tweeting and he
said team Little Calf, and it just brought back so
(30:29):
many memories when I saw it, because me, I'm team
Big Calf.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Okay, then we're Team Big Calf. Was there difference in
the food.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
The vibes are totally different, Like one of them might
have had a waffle station on Sundays, or they opened
at different times, like the Big Calf opened at four pm.
I was opening up with the people. I'm like, let
me help you push these chairs in and get ready.
I wanted to right then. It was like clicks right.
There were always these older people who were like, now, baby,
you don't need to be eating this. You've been having
(30:58):
Corby's cash every day. That's not good for you. All
of this stuff it just felt so true to my
singular experience and now realizing it's true across all these
experiences and really what I'm trying to say is that
the portrayals of the HBCU experience that I see on
television feel realistic to me because they capture some of
this nuance even on a different world. The importance of
(31:19):
mister Gaines.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yes, he was so important a pillar in that community,
and that was very real. Mister Gaines was the cafeteria man.
He was one of the cooks for the cafeteria. I
think he was the head cook. And then some of
the students would work for him, and he gave really
great advice. He was very funny and he was critical.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And they began to realize that it's kind of true
across all these different experiences regards of which HBCU you
went to, it's like, hmm, they really nailed it.
Speaker 8 (31:48):
Yes, sk there's this universal experience which bonds all of
us that went to HBCUs. And you know, we'll say
HBCU pride, we'll shout that out, and we'll try to go.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
To each other's homecomings.
Speaker 8 (31:58):
I remember when Hour and Fam played in DC. We
took a trip up to DC, so I hung with
my brother and then one time he came down and
surprised me and hung with me and my friends at FAM,
which was like one of my all time favorite memories.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
And just hearing X talk about going to other people's
football games, that makes me think about homecoming and what
we all know. I don't care where you went to school.
You know that HBCU homecomings are different. Okay, they're built different.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Okay, let's talk about it because it is something special
to me.
Speaker 8 (32:45):
People care first and foremost, we care about homecoming. My
understanding that pwis people don't really care about homecoming is
just a regular game.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I have literally never gone back to homecoming.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
Right. We make plans.
Speaker 8 (32:57):
Yeah, you're in advance, like you're going to homecom You're
going home when the football schedule is released that day,
we're booking rooms. It's like that serious and man, just
to be there on campus again with the outfits, all
the FAM gear, because any FAM event you're going to
have a sea of orange green. Ain't nobody got school
pride like FAM, I'm telling y'all. And you go and
(33:18):
you actually go see your professors, you email them before
you go down. Like doctor Harper, who I mentioned earlier,
she retired. I went and saw doctor Harper and we
both were like tearing up sitting there.
Speaker 7 (33:29):
Talking like it's that special? How is it there? Zakia?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
I think back to five and six year olds Akida
marching in the homecoming parade at A and T with
my little thing's troop. Okay, I think about tailgating on
Sullivan Street and hanging out at my aunt's house down
the street from the stadium. Hampton felt a little different
for me right when I was there. I didn't care
about the football team. I wasn't particularly in love with
(33:54):
the homecoming experience at Hampton, which maybe like taboo to say,
because I was always going back to North Carolina for
the homecoming experience at A and T right, which is
known now is the greatest homecoming on earth.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
That's the biggest marketing again because it's it's it's it's
a farce.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Stop it, stop it, Aggie's. And So I went to
the predominantly black high school in Greensboro, which is down
the street from A and T, which they used to
call a little tea where the marching band culture was
(34:35):
really big. So the homecoming for high school would often
be that Friday, and then it's A and T Homecoming Saturday, right,
So people would show up at my high school homecoming.
The old heads would come back and they're trying to
out cheer in out march the current high school students.
And so for me, it's always been going back seeing
my friends and family in Greensboro. I would bring my
(34:58):
college friends with me from Hampton to come down and
experience this. We would hang out all night on Friday.
We would be coming into the house late, but at
seventh my mom was coming and knocking on that door,
like everybody ready to go to the parade. So y'are
getting up to go early morning, early morning to the parade,
and you're out there all day, tailgating, walking around. Who
(35:20):
knows where you park your car, You're probably blocked in.
You're going to be there all day. People are riding
up and down High Point Road all these places near
the campus, and you're just running into people tailgating and
the smells, the sounds generators going. People were selling those
mixed CDs. You can hear the game in the background.
I never really went to the game, but I would
always hear cheering. I mean, it's a roar because there
are so many people and older folks coming back and
(35:40):
asking you what you're doing with your life? How can
they help you. What do you want to do next?
It is such a communal affair. Everybody there is rooting
for everybody else.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
I totally agree.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
They used to have huge concerts Saturday night.
Speaker 7 (35:55):
Of course. Of course, I remember my.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
First homecoming concert I went to. It was Rough Riders.
DMX was there, jay Z was there. It was the
hard knock Life tour coming through and hearing those things
on the radio leading up to it. It is just excitement.
It is celebration in this truest sense.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
So y'all have given us a little bit of background
on the sites, but let's get into the sound of Homecoming.
Tell me about the bands.
Speaker 8 (36:26):
Yeah, so you got the guys with the flags, so
the flag core. They go hard, they throw them flags
down and get to pop in Florida style because we
grew up on booty Shake in the state.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
To hear mentioned the base.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
But bass culture and car culture is everything, especially Daytona
like home and NASCAR birthplace of auto racing. The drum majors,
I think it's seven of them, and it was the
first female drum major a couple of years ago, so
that was a big deal. And she showed out. Now
the band on the field. You know, they got this
(37:00):
fast march that fam you is known for, and it's
like a billion of them on the field. They're the
march and one hundred, But that's a misnomer. It's literally
like four hundred of them guys out on the field.
Speaker 7 (37:10):
But they're gonna play the contemporary music.
Speaker 8 (37:12):
I was watching a game on ESPN and they played
Leave the Door Open, Bruno Mars and Silk Sign.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
I saw this right, you saw that.
Speaker 8 (37:27):
Oh at the end of their performance, they somehow in
a formation formed.
Speaker 7 (37:33):
A stick figure with the basketball.
Speaker 8 (37:36):
Dunking it in a hoop. They did this on the field,
and you knew exactly what they were doing. It was
the illest thing I've ever seen in my life with
a marching band.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Do you remember Battle of the Bands? Of course, used
to go to Battle of the Bands and the bands
show up. I don't even feel like DRUMLND really captured it.
It didn't quite get it.
Speaker 7 (38:00):
Yeah it was. They tried intense, y'all.
Speaker 8 (38:05):
But they'll also play classics because they're not trying to
forget the people who came back parents. They want to
play music from your time too. So everybody's singing along,
everybody's standing. So at PWY homecomings or football games, halftime,
that's when you go use the bathroom, go eat, get
that third.
Speaker 7 (38:23):
So this is the truth.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
First quarter, super Pack, everybody's in the stands because it's
the beginning of the game. Then by halfway through the
first quarter, the only people who's staying are the people
who really care about the game. Everybody else is going
below the stands to walk around on the stadium seeing
people showing off your outfit. It's a day outfit, and
then you're gonna change clothes for to go out later on.
But by halftime, you have your butt in your seat
(38:48):
and everybody standing. We call it corner to corner, like
every corner of the stadium field, and it's beautiful because
it's just a sea of black people all on one
accord and the band's playing we got a chant and
it's fan Dam you Fam you fam goddang you all right,
all right, all right, everybody's just singing the songs they'll
(39:08):
hype and then so if the band kills it right,
they break it down. They just basically throw their instruments
down and just start popping and dancing like then they
pick up the instruments, they go off the field. But
the last people off the field with the marching one
hundred are the tuba players, and they form a line
like a snake coming.
Speaker 7 (39:26):
Off the field.
Speaker 8 (39:27):
Literally all the two was jumping the air and d
on the split at the end like Domino's. But the
last tuba gets to show out and spin around and
everybody's like he and it's the dopest thing. So when
the tuba player goes up in the air and goes
down into the split, the whole crowd goes oooo. Everybody
says that in unison. And this is one thing too
that I gotta tell you all about the one hundred.
(39:48):
When they march off the field at the end of
their performance, they always play good times.
Speaker 7 (40:09):
So that's what they march off the field on. It's like,
everybody gets it.
Speaker 8 (40:12):
It's just the most special thing you've ever seen in
your life, and it's nothing like it.
Speaker 7 (40:17):
I just love it.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
If you are not sad about missing homecoming after hearing
X describe that you have no heart, you've never known
your soul, never have fun of your life.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
That's right, dude, never ever ever. Oh my gosh, I
love everything about it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
So thinking about all of this stuff all of this
is part of the experience, and it makes me reflect
on what it means to be a product of an HBCU.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yes, there's just a certain Jennesse Qua about people who
have graduated from an HBCU. There's a certain confidence, a
level of intelligence, just a swag about them that's just different.
And so I want you guys to kind of just
talk about some of the great people from your institutions
or just from HBCUs in general that have been really
(41:15):
impactful on your lives and just what that means to
both of you to be the product of an HBCU.
Speaker 8 (41:21):
Yeah, it's like a lineage that you're just so proud of, right, Zee, Right, Yeah.
Of course, if they go to FAM, I'm super hype
about that. But if they went to an HBCU and
they making noise, I go crazy.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yes, clap it up for me. It really feels like
the people who are in my class and the class
above me. I am still in awe of my peers. Okay, yes,
and TT knows some of my friends, and I'm like,
(41:53):
all are killing the game. Doctors, lawyer, everybody's doing something.
Because now we're at the stage where you're starting to
see people pivot and you're like, yo, I didn't know
you could do that. My friend and her husband both
went to Hampton and Kia, who went to grad school
with us. When they've built this huge real estate vacation
rental home empire, I'm like, girl, when did you learn
(42:14):
this interior design? Kea has a PhD in the sciences.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Yes, anesthesiology, she said, no, sucception pain, and now she's
telling real estate you're taking these places.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I'm like, you're about to be competab with Airbnb. When
I got to Atlanta, I asked one of my really
close friends from high school. I said, who do I
need to know in Atlanta and who should I be helping?
He's like, this is my homeboy from more House. He's
running for city council. Here's somebody else, Board of education.
Like you feel so proud of these folks. I feel
so excited to say I know them. They went to
a HBCU And we should spend our dollars here right
(42:48):
giving back to folks who are trying to make these
things happen. How do you support the people who are
out here trying to do it and people are saying
dope labs, So you got no dope labs, just off
the strength that I went to a HBCU.
Speaker 7 (43:00):
Same with the get Up.
Speaker 8 (43:00):
We got a really big audience and the show's doing
really great. But the fact that I get to be
the current day representation of somebody who went to an
HBCU and it's.
Speaker 7 (43:11):
Just proud of that.
Speaker 8 (43:12):
And I bring those stories into the Showyne Wayne, thank
you and you were on the show. T t U
been on the show. But like for us to be
able to represent that. I talk about my boy, Brian Price.
I brag on him all the time. He's this dope
marketing media exec in Lance, my college roommate from South Chicago.
He built the parachute on the Mars Rover. He did
(43:36):
the parachute.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
Call him right now. I have questions.
Speaker 8 (43:51):
I now have people who are like, yo, my kid
wants to go to FAM. Literally today I got a
text and she texted me and was like, my seven
ten year old niece listen to The Get Up for
the first time yesterday and loved it. She's looking at
HBCUs fam use on her list. Can you come meet
with us and talk to her about FAM.
Speaker 7 (44:11):
I was like, We're doing it next week. That's important.
Speaker 8 (44:15):
My friend's daughter. She's in her first semester at FAM.
They stopped through Brooklyn on the way. I brought her
to FAM Hoodies like top of the line exclusive joints here.
Let me get you right, and when I go down there,
I'm taking you out to dinner. And I got kids
that ask me, can.
Speaker 7 (44:31):
You give me some FAM gear? Yes? I will. I'm
telling you all. It touches me. It like makes me
tear up every time.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
That's real. It just makes me think back my first
year of grad school. I'm the grad school counselor for
the summer program for students who are interested in science.
So we're at Duke and I have a young man
who went to Western Salem State. He is like, huh,
deer in the headlights? What do I do? This? And
that him and another young woman from Wiston Salem State,
and to see them both become professors now in the SI.
(45:00):
He's a professor at Vanderbilt. She's a professor at Bowne State.
Our family reunion used to have this saying, let the
circle be unbroken, right, we just feeding into each other
and let it expand. Right, t T get on in
this circle. You're in here, you got your hands. You
in here, you and.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Thank you, thank you very much. I'm gonna do my
best to represent well.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Yeah, it's looking out for the next generation, showing them
it's good to be proud. We're just like you wear Nike.
We're this like onebody wearing those yell sweatshirts.
Speaker 7 (45:27):
Okay, and you can be a part of this.
Speaker 8 (45:29):
We're gonna pull you in, We're gonna tell you about it,
and we're gonna make a way for you to be
able to do that. Is one of my greatest joys
in my life right now.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I really love this conversation. I love hearing about both
of your experiences. I should have went to Hampton. Thank
you both so much for sharing all of this. It's
been heartwarming just to be able to sit back and
just listen to you guys.
Speaker 7 (45:52):
Talk about this my honor.
Speaker 8 (45:54):
Y'all know I've been a Day one Dope Labs fan listener.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Yes you have.
Speaker 7 (45:59):
And I'm proud of what y'all really.
Speaker 8 (46:01):
I'm proud of how y'all represent for black women and
for your varied experiences. Because one thing I do talk
about is I don't like if somebody that went to
an HBCU tries to invalidate the experience of somebody that
went to a PWI. All of these experiences are valid.
So I'm glad that you have two dope women on
(46:23):
this show that represent both sides and the commonality because
there's merit and value and all of it.
Speaker 7 (46:30):
That's the beauty of our people.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
All right, tt, it's time for one thing. I'm so excited.
What's your one thing? Z Well, we've kind of already
talked about my one thing in the episode, and if
you follow me on social media, I've shared it too.
My one thing is Corine DeMarco. This is a brand
that produces is HBCU apparel, and I love their sweaters.
That's where I got the sweater that t T talks
(47:05):
about wearing and pretending that she was a Hampton alum.
I am a big fan of this brand, So please
go support this small brand that's putting out great HBCU gear.
That's Corinda Marco c O R I N D E
M A r c O dot com. My one thing
is Corinda Marco perfect.
Speaker 6 (47:26):
Ha ha.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
That's it for Lab fifty one. What'd you think? Did
you learn something new about HBCUs call us at two
O two five sixty seven seven zero two eight and
tell us what you thought or if you have an
idea for a lab we should do this semester. Tell
us that too. We really love hearing from you. That's
two O two five six seven seven zero two eight.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
And don't forget there's so much more for you to
dig into on our website. There'll be a cheat cheat
there for today's lab and additional links and resources in
the show notes. Plus, you can sign up for our newsletter,
so check it out at Dope labspodcast dot com. Special
thanks to today's guest expert, Xavier Journ Again.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
You can find Xavier every weekday at seven am on
Spotify's morning show The get Up.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Reading our credits today is an HBCU grad, one of
Zakia's longtime besties and one of my new friends, Atlanta House.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
Yes, certified clown and a certified goo.
Speaker 7 (48:31):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
I'm Atlanta House and I'm a proud graduate of Hampton
University an HBCU. I'm also a goon and a clown,
as TT and Zakia shared, but also a scholar too.
You can find Dope Labs on Twitter and Instagram at
Dope Labs podcast tt Is on Twitter at Doctor Underscore
t Show, and you can find Zakiya at z s Etzo.
(48:56):
Dope Labs is a Spotify original production from Mega Own
Me Group. Producers are Jenny Rattle at Mass and Lydia
Smith of Wave Runner Studios. Editing and sound design by
Rob Smurgiak, Mixing by Hannes Brown. Original music composed and
produced by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Suguiera from Spotify Creative
(49:18):
producer Candice Manriquez, Wrenn and Karenne Gillier. Special thanks to
Shirley Ramos, Yasmine Afifi, Keimu, Elolia, Till krat Key and
Brian Marquis. Executive producers from Mega Owned Media Group are
t T. Shoda and Zakiah Watley. And I'm sending all
(49:39):
of this to you from my teenage sons really stinky
closet because it's the only quiet place in this whole house.
Pray for moms. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 7 (49:51):
I love you both.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Bye.
School is back in session, and you know what that means.
Homecoming is right around the corner, and nobody does homecomings
like historically Black colleges and Universities or HBCUs. Zakiah went
to Hampton University, so she knows all about it. So
this week we're throwing back to a past episode where
(00:20):
we did the science of HBCUs. It was a special
episode because we had one of our favorites, Xavier Jernigan,
who is the Spotify DJ and a fam you alum,
What an.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
HBCU means to me is friendship.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So I met them in two thousand and three and
what is it twenty twenty one?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
So lifelong a frenticships, That's what it means to me.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yes, And I think at HBCU was a nurture and
environment that puts US African Americans in a great spot,
especially when we go into our endeavors. Whatever your career
may be, it's that you up for success.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Do it.
Speaker 6 (01:05):
How you guys doing. I am Timothy McDonald. I am
a senior chemical engineering major from Baltimore, Maryland, and I
have the pleasure of serving as a forty fourth mister
Howard University, being on campus is the epitome of black excellence.
I would say, being surrounded by people not only of
black minds, but black minds who are willing to challenge you.
That's something that I hadn't faced in high school. I
went to a majority white high school, right, and I
(01:27):
just didn't have a lot of people that looked like me.
And once I came to Howard, I knew that it
was home. I knew that it was the place I
had to be for the next four years. And even
though we have been in a pandemic and it's been hard,
now that we're back and it feels like, you know,
just an outpour of good times vibes and just being
around black people. It's like a cookout, right, but all
day every day. So that's something I'm really enjoyed. So
(01:50):
our chant is something that you got to learn, which
is at you. You know, that's something you do maybe
a thousand times in the first week alone. So that
is something and it kind of transcends classes. Right. You
can have alumni from ninety six all the way back
to sixty six and they're gonna know hu, you know, right,
So it's that chance that we hold near and dear
(02:11):
to all heart, Thank.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You so much.
Speaker 7 (02:13):
No problem, No problem.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I'm t T and I'm Zakiyah and from Spotify.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This is Dope Labs.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that makes it
hardcore science, pop culture, and a healthy dose of friendship. Okay, Zekiah,
I have a question for you. Shoot. What do Spike, Lee,
Tony Morrison, w E. B.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Dubois, Thirdgood Marshall, Jerry, Rice, Felicia, and Debbie Allen all
have in common.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Fantasy dinner wishless.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, but also they all went to historically black colleges
and universities. So HBCUs yes, And that's right on time
because it's Black History Month and this week we're focusing
on HBCUs.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
We're covering everything from history to homecoming. We're delving right
into the HBCU experience. You know, HBCUs have been in
the news, they've been in the media. We've seen them
portray positively. We've seen students complaining about conditions at different HBCUs.
So remember in DC at Howard we saw some folks protesting, yeah,
about their housing conditions. Yes, and Howard is not alone.
(03:45):
A couple of other schools have seen some similar things.
Happening some similar feedback from their students. Then recently, just
earlier this month, do you remember when all the bomb
threats were called into the hbc My goodness, that was
so scared.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
So, you know, I feel like we're seeing positive things,
but also negative things and outside influences.
Speaker 7 (04:07):
Just so much going on.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
But I think there's still a lot to celebrate about
the HBCU experience.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And Zakiya, I am really excited about this because you
went to an HBCU.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yes, I am a graduate of Hampton University, and so
I can't wait to reminisce and talk about some of
my HBCU experience. Those are some formative years. I cannot wait.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Let's get into the recitation, all right, So what do
we know today?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
There are just over one hundred HBCUs in the United States,
and that equals about three percent of our colleges and universities,
both public and private. Many of our HBCUs are located
in the Southern States, and Alabama has the most HBCU
per state, with twelve total.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Another thing that we know is that HBCUs play a
huge part in education, and we are particularly focused on
STEM education and addressing inequalities in STEM education.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yes, as a matter of fact, about twenty seven percent
of black undergrads got their STEM degrees from HBCUs, and
if you look at black doctors in the US, fifty
percent of them are HBCU graduates.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Not to mention, in my field of engineering, forty six
percent of black women engineers graduated from HBCUs and thirty
percent of black doctorates in science and engineering are from HBCUs.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know, HBCUs have been underfunded for decades, and we're
starting to see some lawsuits in cases where states are
having to pay up. So just last year, the governor
of Maryland, Hogan, signed a settlement for five hundred and
seventy seven million dollars to go to Maryland's HBCUs. What
they found is that the whole statewide system of education
(05:59):
for Maryland was disproportionately sending funds to primarily white institutions
and underfunding the for HBCUs under their care. So over
the next ten years they will disperse those funds back
to those schools.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
The twenty five largest predominantly white institutions, their endowments are
greater than the endowments of all the HBCUs combined.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
So what do we want to know?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I know that there's a lot that I want to
know because I didn't go to HBCU unfortunately, so I've
got a lot of questions because I feel like it'll
help me know my friend even better.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Well, we're going to focus on a couple things, friendship
and camaraderie, mentorship and stewardship. How attended a HBCU might
affect your identity, so the black experience and different perspectives
and campus life, and then we'll talk about how HBCUs
have been portrayed in the media. But one component of
that that we have to touch is homecoming, which is
(06:55):
a celebration of coming together and being back on campus.
We said three things, but I couldn't stop.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
I am very excited to dive in, so let's jump
into the dissection.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Today.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
We are so excited to have our friend Xavier Journegan
on the show. He's gonna be talking to us all
about his HBCU experience as well as Zakiah, So we
got two experts today.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
I'm Xavier Journegan.
Speaker 8 (07:38):
Everybody calls me x I'm the host of The Get Up,
Spotify's daily morning show and I'm also an exec at Spotify,
and I'm a proud, proud Florida A and M University fam.
You rattler, I bleed Arnge and Green.
Speaker 7 (07:55):
Yes, I said it, Arnge in Green.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Choosing a college, if you decide to go to college,
is a really big deal. Choosing the right college, choosing
a place where you know you'll feel comfortable to further
your education is a really big deal. And as you
can hear, we have someone who is very proud of
their institution on the show.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
We asked X to tell us why he chose an
HBCU and where his beginnings of his love for HBCUs
kind of started.
Speaker 8 (08:22):
My hometown, Daytona is an HBCU city, so I grew
up around and my aunt and uncle worked there. My
cousin Zach was section leader at the drum line at Cooking.
My cousin Terry, his sister, went to cook Mean and
we always went to the homecoming parade. Zach will march
by me and my brother and show out in front
of us and wink at us, and then me and
my brother became drummers.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So it sounds like your hbc YOU experience started when
you were really, really young, very young. I've definitely heard
that with a lot of people that I know that
went to HBCUs, they were exposed to HBCU cultures young.
Speaker 7 (08:57):
Now. I do think that's a big part of it,
exposure to it.
Speaker 8 (09:00):
And I grew up on like school Days came out
when I was a little kid, and in a different
world was like, those are my formative years.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
X is making a really good point. Tt I feel
like over the past couple of years there has been
so much HBCU exposure in the media. Absolutely, if you
think back to Beyonce's Homecoming at Coachella, that performance, Yes, yes,
I've even recently seen Little nas X did something. It
wasn't HBCU centric, but it definitely gave me homecoming vibes.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, definitely drumline homecoming, you know, things like that.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So X talks about exposure in the media that kind
of drove his love for HBCUs as well, specifically School Days,
which was written, directed, and produced by Spike Lee who
graduated from Morehouse and all male HBCU and School Days
also gives a good view of, yes, the HVCU experience,
but in particular the Black Greek experience, and TT.
Speaker 7 (09:55):
You know a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yes, the Divine Nine.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
It's made up of nine fraternities and sororities, and I
am a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
So like going up to the campus, me and my
mom and my brother would go up there and just
hang out in my aunt Helen's office or my uncle
James's office and just being in that environment. And then
my mom went to Cookman and a big part of
my story, y'all, so my mom had me and my
brother young. My mom was about to enter her freshman
year at Bathune Cookman at eighteen.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
She was pregnant with my brother. I ain't come along
in the next summer.
Speaker 8 (10:30):
She still keeps going, but then it was too much,
so she didn't finish. But all throughout growing up, y'all,
she will always say to me and my brother, I'm
going to go back one day. And just a few
years ago, my mom finally went back to the Cookman
University and she was able to finish that degree, and
then she went on and got her master's because she's
(10:50):
a g That's the HBCU experience, Zakia.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Listening to X, it really brings back memories from stories
that you've told me about your upbringing and your experience
at Hampton because you grew up in Greensboro, so you
were near an HBCU.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yes, what ex is saying resonates so much with me
because I grew up in Greensboro, and that's where North
Carolina A and T is, and it's where Bennett College is,
which is a women's HBCU. It's a huge university town.
I was talking to somebody and I was saying, Hey,
I know you went to A and T, but would
it be strange for me to have an A and
T sweater? And They're like, you didn't go to A
(11:41):
and T, But I feel like A and T raised
b Yep. When I think about my trajectory, my path
to science, I always say it started with these Saturday
academies for math and science at North Carolina A and T. Yeah,
my mom was going back to school at A and
T while I was in middle school, and so Saturdays
I was going to these academies learning more or math
and science and doing like the SAT and psat training.
(12:03):
And then by the time I got to high school,
one of my first summer jobs was working on A
and T's campus. In the Ron McNair building, which was
named after Ron McNair, who was a black astronaut. And
my first exposure, TT was in your lane in engineering.
I was doing some civil engineering stuff with the Army
Research Lab in North Carolina, A and T. And that
was like my first hands on science internship that I
(12:23):
was doing. Yes, you know, TT, I feel like there's
been a lot of conversation about high school students and
just people in general when it comes time to deciding, Okay,
yes I am going to college. Do I want to
go to an HBCU or a predominantly white institution or
IVY League. You know, I feel like we've been seeing
a trend towards high profile students going to HBCUs. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Travis Hunter, he was the top college recruit for the
class of twenty twenty two for football, and he chose
to go to HBCU Jackson State University instead of Florida's
State University. He switched his commitment and now attending Jackson State.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
We talked to X about this a little bit too,
because that's not a new sentiment, you know, the concern
about what does it mean if you choose an HBCU
earlier in your career, and he's heard some different arguments
against it as well.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
There's like this argument out there, it's like, oh, don't
go to an HBCU because that's not the real world.
But when do you get another time to be around
your true peer group, not just age age and people
with a similar experience from you, like cultural experience for
a five year period in my life.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
And what that.
Speaker 8 (13:38):
Does is it removes, at least on that campus race.
There is no Black student union, is just the student
union because we're ninety percent black, and it's just this loving,
welcoming space. It's truly the definition of what a safe
space is. It gives you this confidence to know that
(13:59):
you can go out in the world after and truly
know who you are. When we're talking about HBCUs, we're
talking about schools that were the only schools that could
and would educate black folks when they didn't want us
at the other schools. For me to choose to go there,
it's just something really special to me. The college experience
(14:22):
was the black college experience, and that's the only experience
I wanted. So I only applied to Howard fam at
the time, and I got accepted to both. You know,
my brother was at Howard FAM had the five year NBA.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
I went to FAM.
Speaker 8 (14:34):
It was that simple and it was the best choice
of my life. Never regretted it. Loved every day I
was that even in bad days.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
Was special. The bonds you form.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
They cared like FAM's model was excellence with caring, and
that's real.
Speaker 7 (14:47):
Like we're gonna push you to be great, we gonna care.
Speaker 8 (14:50):
About you, but we're gonna hold you accountable and if
you messing up, we're gonna tell you. So I had,
you know, a mom from home, doctor harp from my heart,
like she helped me down.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Man.
Speaker 7 (15:00):
It's just a special, special experience.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think we all can think back to, you know,
special people who guided us or kept us on the
right track as we were moving through our academic careers. Yes,
and I always love this story that you tell about
doctor White. I met a woman. Her name was doctor
Gladys Hope Franklin White. She came to my high school
(15:30):
and she was like, Hey, I want to talk to
people that want to go to college. She wasn't an
alumna of Hampton University. If I told her what I
wanted to do, she said, have you taken the SAT
I have these Saturday classes. I mean it was very
much a community and nurturing kind of thing.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I love that she said come to my church. The
admissions officer will be here. You can apply in person,
you can tell your story, talk to them.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
And I got a full ride that day to Hampton
when I went to meet with the admissions officer.
Speaker 7 (15:55):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
And I had no clue. This woman was just helping me.
She helped all these other people. She had helped my
friend Randy the year before. And when I actually went
to visit Hampton, I was like, Oh, Gladys Hope Franklin
White Hall, this is her dorm. She earned that thought
a lot of people in that dome. This type of
(16:24):
community shows up in different places. So I was able
to do admissions at a local church. But this is
no different from some of the offers to interview applicants
to do or to other schools that we get as
a lums.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Right, Absolutely, absolutely, It's a story you hear in a
lot of different spaces.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
White folks do this all the time. Yes, the Good.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Old Boys Club exists, and what HBCU grads and HBCU
faculty and staff do. Is just that giving people opportunity
and chances that they might not be aware about or say, hey,
I know somebody that.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
You can talk to.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
They're giving you additional resource. Is that your white counterparts
are getting. We see it all the time.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
It just feels so special to see these folks. You know,
have you ever met on any other traditional you know,
PWI campus. Have you ever met the person that the
dorm is named after? Have they ever come and recruited
you and your friends? No? And that type of love
and care that is central to the hbc you experience,
and I think we try to do it across the board.
I've tried to bring TT into the HBCU folk. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I have my Hampton sweatshirt that now I'm afraid to
wear because I wore it in the airport because I
was going to visit a Kia.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
It was for her birthday.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I was meeting up with her and all of her
friends from Hampton, qt F the arm everybody.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
So I put on my Hampton sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And I was in the airport and beautiful black woman
comes up to me and she says, I like your sweatshirt,
and I said thank you.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
That wasn't the right answer. I was a fraud.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
She knew that I did not go to Hampton and
I was mortified. I started sweating. I was like, sweatshirt
got so heavy, it felt like.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
A million pounds. In that moment, I was just like,
someone helped me get this.
Speaker 7 (18:14):
Off bulletproof vest on all of a.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Sudden real And that's what it is, the HBCU experience.
People are holding you accountable. They're like, do you belong
in that Hampton shirt? Are you really a Hamptonia? And
there's so much nuance even from university to university, and
even when you get to a school, tt little groups
at that school. Absolutely, as we know, black people are
(18:38):
not a monolith, and there are lots of different types
of black folks. And you and ex told me about
your experiences on your HBCU campuses, and you're exposure to
different black upbringings and lifestyles.
Speaker 8 (18:49):
Most of my friends growing up came from single parent homes.
I thought that was the norm because that was all
my friends. I went to fam I was in the
minority when it came to that. So my roommate lands
he had both his parents in the house. My boy
Brian both parents, Alita both parents, Erica both parents, Comal
both parents. I got this other experience and I needed that, y'all.
(19:13):
I didn't know I needed it until I met a
whole bunch of people who had an opposite experience coming
from the black Community's a kid, what about you?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I can remember my first day coming on the campus
similar to you X. You know, I just thought, my
experience is my experience. This is black folks in the South.
Virginia is still the South to me, right, It's true,
my guy. When I got there, I was like, who
are all these people dressing different? I always tell t
(19:44):
T because T is from PG County, and so I
always tell her the Maryland and Baltimore people are just ninjas.
They have Yeah, it was New Balances, it was Nike,
ACG boots. There were all these little microcosms of blackness
that I didn't even know about. There were stratf cations
of class, socioeconomic status, exposure to different things, things that
(20:05):
were related to geography, language difference that you could just
pick up on and hear. Exposure to music culture just
so much, and I grew to appreciate black culture in
such a way that I hadn't experienced and hadn't appreciated before,
and so I was meeting people for the first time
from the Caribbean. One of my closest friends my first year,
(20:26):
she came in and she was already married. That wasn'theard
of to me.
Speaker 7 (20:30):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
One of my other exposures from Hampton is everybody I
knew up until then what I considered to be middle
class or doing well. When I got to Hampton, I
met folks whose parents were in entertainment or show business
or were lawyers. And my parent is about to be
a judge. This is how we do their campaign. Like
(20:52):
things that I was never exposed to. People whose parents
were doctors. I didn't know anybody who was a doctor
before that. Just meeting other people who look like you
and it opened the world of possibility for me.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
I totally agree.
Speaker 8 (21:07):
You see somebody that looked like they could be your
uncle or your dad.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
That's big to see.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
That at like seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty years old.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Right, So it contributes to the if you can see it,
you can be it mentality.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So I've heard a lot.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Of things about life on campus at HBCUs, some things
like dress.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Codes, curfews and things like that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I really wanted to know more about that.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Hampton had a lot of rules our first year. We
couldn't have a car as a freshman. Yeah, it was
in by like nine or eleven or something like. You
need to be in the dorm and we didn't have
co ed dorms. We didn't either, and we had a
dorm mother or a father somebody who stayed in the dorm.
And our dorm mother, her name was mssus Charity and Titi.
You remember, on my birthday we recorded a video message
(21:55):
for my dorm mother, whom we all still keep in
touch with all these years later. And so there was
just this feeling of community and you got in trouble.
You would not appear as a Hampton University student on
the news. You would appear as a former Hampton University
student and they would call it outlive because you would
be stilled by five pm.
Speaker 7 (22:11):
That's real.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
It was very strict, you know.
Speaker 8 (22:13):
One of the things that famed the dorms were separated,
so if you went to visit a girl, you couldn't
go past the lobby and when you stepped in the
building you had to give an ID sign in and
be approved, and all you could do was sit in
the lobby and it was doors that would lock on
either side of the lobby.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, ain't no sneaky links.
Speaker 7 (22:35):
No sneaky links is real. Nah, it ain't going down.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
And you see all these guys lined up on the
stairs like waiting for the girl they want to talk to.
I just remember hearing stories about people sneaking people into
the dorms. That's not happening with the girls doring, but
it was a way to do it in Sampson Hall.
Speaker 7 (22:52):
Where I stayed. Another story for another day.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Okay, so that's curfew. What about dress code?
Speaker 8 (23:03):
Talking about dress, going to the School of Business and
Industry SBI, there were certain dress that we had to
wear for certain events. We had to wear a certain
dress code on certain days. Blue suit for men, not
black blue or power gray. It was teaching us how
to be ready for the corporate world. And it'd be like, listen,
you're going to get judged on the way you look,
(23:25):
So do you want to get discriminated against because you
don't know the proper dress and the proper etiquette in
the business environment, Because you already got certain things to
deal with as black folks, we're going to go in
there and we're going to be dope.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Absolutely. I remember receiving something in the mail that said,
you need to have a black pant or skirt suit.
You need to have a white dress. That was for convocation.
There's a building on campus called Ogden Hall, and there's
a circle in front of it, and there's, first of all,
some superstition that you don't walk across the grass in
Ogden Circle or you won't graduate on time. But the
(23:59):
way they told us, this is how you dressed when
you come to Ogden Hall. This was like our auditorium.
So when people were describing a tire for events, it
would say you wear your Ogden's Best.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Two different things, right, I'm coming to my Ougden's Best. Yes,
we knew what we were supposed to have on. And
you just got used to dressing up. You got used
to being comfortable in those clothes. If it's your turn
to present in class, you're dressing up. You're not presenting
in your jeans. Not happening.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I presented them pajamas. What was wrong with me? You know,
why wouldn't you think these people are important people? Clearly
their professors why wouldn't you try and impress them?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
And you've seen this in person. TT Remember when we
went to a and T gave that to.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Everyone was so impressive. Folks came in their Ogden's best okay,
and they were ready. First of all, when folks would
stand up, everyone knew the exact spill to give.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
To introduce themselves.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So they would say their name, they would say what
year they were, they would say where they were from,
and then they would proceed with their question.
Speaker 7 (24:57):
That's right. We would talk that good afternoon. I'm Xavier Journigan.
Speaker 8 (25:01):
I am a fourth year NBA student from Daytona Beach, Florida.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
Same thing we got taught that in SBI. I was
like week one. Oh you know what else? Two handshakes.
Speaker 8 (25:10):
We got taught how to do handshakes, look at each
other in the eye, and then do that with the introduction.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
As well.
Speaker 8 (25:15):
As a freshman, we had to go around with a notebook.
It was called a nothing book and you carried it
around your first semester and you had to have upper
classmen sign it. But you had to go up to
them and give the proper introduction. They'll correct you if
the handshake was wrong. Like no, you do it like this, Okay,
try it again, and once you got it right, then
they would sign your nothing book. And you had to
get three signatures the week for like the whole first semester,
(25:38):
so you had to go up to professors to upper.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
Classmen, wow, until you got it down.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
We didn't have a book like that. But there was
something very similar about this culture of each one teach
one right, the upper classes looking out, and everybody had
like big brothers and big sisters, like folks who moved
out for you and your crew told you what you
needed to be doing, like these are the classes you
should take, here's who you should talk to.
Speaker 7 (26:02):
That's right.
Speaker 8 (26:02):
There's a class where you learn all the presidents of
the school before if you had to learn that, we
had to learn our alma mater. We had to learn
the Negro national anthem. We sung the Negro national anthem before.
Every form and forum was like a big thing on
Tuesdays and Thursdays where a big executive from a company,
for example, Ken Chenault from AMX came down a bunch
(26:25):
of people.
Speaker 7 (26:25):
This was every week.
Speaker 8 (26:26):
They'd give a speech and a student would introduce them,
and then we had to ask questions for grades. So
I go into Corporate America, I had the confidence to
ask CEO's questions.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
So we would have mock dinners and we would have
receptions where different companies would come in that have relationships
with FAM and SBI.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
We're going to know how to move in these rooms,
and you're going to.
Speaker 8 (26:48):
Know how to dress and what proper fork to use
when you're at dinner.
Speaker 7 (26:53):
That was so special and so important.
Speaker 8 (26:55):
So when you had your interviews and did your internships,
you were really confident there.
Speaker 7 (27:00):
And I carry a lot of that with me today.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
And there's also just so much culture around being the
product of an HBCU, so like different songs you sing
and poems, to know just all kinds of stuff like that.
You also get that education too, and it's so valuable,
and I think we see more and more people appreciating
that as they learn that that's part of the HBCU experience.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll have much
more with x when we get back. And we're back,
(27:46):
let's jump into our deep dive with guest expert Xavier
Journegan on HBCUs. So, my next question is about HBCUs
in the media X. I know that you have mentioned
school days and how important that was to you, and
we also talked a little bit about a Different World,
which I was absolutely fascinated by growing up and watching that.
(28:07):
I binge watched a Different World again and it just
gets better and better with age, and it really highlights
another point that you and Zekey were making about the
nuance of blackness. Do you feel like all of the
different TV shows that are set at HBCUs are accurate
in their depiction of HBCU culture.
Speaker 7 (28:26):
I was so fortunate.
Speaker 8 (28:27):
One of my favorite interviews so far that I've done
on The Get Up is I got to sit down
with Evatt Lee Bowser Goat. She created Living Single, the
first Black woman to create a network sitcom. Friends took
that archetype. Sex and the City took that archetype. She
was a writer and a producer on a Different World.
(28:51):
I thought A Different World totally nailed it. I experienced
that as a little kid. Then I went to FAM
and then my appreciation for a Different World went on
another level because it was just like, Yo, they really
got that right.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
I heard that a Different World was based off of Hampton.
Is that true?
Speaker 8 (29:07):
I think it was an amalgamation of a few schools.
I think it was like, I know, it was Spelman's
campus that they shot, like the exterior scenes like when
they show a campus, but the fictitious school, Hellman, was
actually in Virginia and they would go to DC sometimes.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yes, when I think about it, I feel like every
show from our time really depicts it well. I feel
like I have a friend that fits every one of
those types of characters. And I think about shows like
Martin where people are wearing HBC es gear and stuff.
Like living single, it feels like that people are still friends.
You meet other people's friends from college. It's all this connectedness.
(29:43):
So at Hampton, we had two cafeterias.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
We did too. We did too.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
One was the big main cafeteria, and on the other
side of the kitchen for that cafeteria was a smaller
seating area that they called the little calf Okay, so
they're connected. They were connected, but they were only connected
by the kitchen. So they had different entrances and stuff. Okay,
And it's just so crazy to me that different HBCUs
they find the smallest things to claim and represent. It's
(30:08):
not just oh, I went to this school. It's not
just oh I was this kind of major. Oh I
was in this dorm. It's also like I'm team Little Calf.
I saw Justin Tinsley who graduated from Hampton and he's
a writer. He just did that great podcast with Nipsey Hustle, Yes,
the thirty for thirty. Yes, he was tweeting and he
said team Little Calf, and it just brought back so
(30:29):
many memories when I saw it, because me, I'm team
Big Calf.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Okay, then we're Team Big Calf. Was there difference in
the food.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
The vibes are totally different, Like one of them might
have had a waffle station on Sundays, or they opened
at different times, like the Big Calf opened at four pm.
I was opening up with the people. I'm like, let
me help you push these chairs in and get ready.
I wanted to right then. It was like clicks right.
There were always these older people who were like, now, baby,
you don't need to be eating this. You've been having
(30:58):
Corby's cash every day. That's not good for you. All
of this stuff it just felt so true to my
singular experience and now realizing it's true across all these
experiences and really what I'm trying to say is that
the portrayals of the HBCU experience that I see on
television feel realistic to me because they capture some of
this nuance even on a different world. The importance of
(31:19):
mister Gaines.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Yes, he was so important a pillar in that community,
and that was very real. Mister Gaines was the cafeteria man.
He was one of the cooks for the cafeteria. I
think he was the head cook. And then some of
the students would work for him, and he gave really
great advice. He was very funny and he was critical.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And they began to realize that it's kind of true
across all these different experiences regards of which HBCU you
went to, it's like, hmm, they really nailed it.
Speaker 8 (31:48):
Yes, sk there's this universal experience which bonds all of
us that went to HBCUs. And you know, we'll say
HBCU pride, we'll shout that out, and we'll try to go.
Speaker 7 (31:57):
To each other's homecomings.
Speaker 8 (31:58):
I remember when Hour and Fam played in DC. We
took a trip up to DC, so I hung with
my brother and then one time he came down and
surprised me and hung with me and my friends at FAM,
which was like one of my all time favorite memories.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
And just hearing X talk about going to other people's
football games, that makes me think about homecoming and what
we all know. I don't care where you went to school.
You know that HBCU homecomings are different. Okay, they're built different.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Okay, let's talk about it because it is something special
to me.
Speaker 8 (32:45):
People care first and foremost, we care about homecoming. My
understanding that pwis people don't really care about homecoming is
just a regular game.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
I have literally never gone back to homecoming.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
Right. We make plans.
Speaker 8 (32:57):
Yeah, you're in advance, like you're going to homecom You're
going home when the football schedule is released that day,
we're booking rooms. It's like that serious and man, just
to be there on campus again with the outfits, all
the FAM gear, because any FAM event you're going to
have a sea of orange green. Ain't nobody got school
pride like FAM, I'm telling y'all. And you go and
(33:18):
you actually go see your professors, you email them before
you go down. Like doctor Harper, who I mentioned earlier,
she retired. I went and saw doctor Harper and we
both were like tearing up sitting there.
Speaker 7 (33:29):
Talking like it's that special? How is it there? Zakia?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
I think back to five and six year olds Akida
marching in the homecoming parade at A and T with
my little thing's troop. Okay, I think about tailgating on
Sullivan Street and hanging out at my aunt's house down
the street from the stadium. Hampton felt a little different
for me right when I was there. I didn't care
about the football team. I wasn't particularly in love with
(33:54):
the homecoming experience at Hampton, which maybe like taboo to say,
because I was always going back to North Carolina for
the homecoming experience at A and T right, which is
known now is the greatest homecoming on earth.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
That's the biggest marketing again because it's it's it's it's
a farce.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Stop it, stop it, Aggie's. And So I went to
the predominantly black high school in Greensboro, which is down
the street from A and T, which they used to
call a little tea where the marching band culture was
(34:35):
really big. So the homecoming for high school would often
be that Friday, and then it's A and T Homecoming Saturday, right,
So people would show up at my high school homecoming.
The old heads would come back and they're trying to
out cheer in out march the current high school students.
And so for me, it's always been going back seeing
my friends and family in Greensboro. I would bring my
(34:58):
college friends with me from Hampton to come down and
experience this. We would hang out all night on Friday.
We would be coming into the house late, but at
seventh my mom was coming and knocking on that door,
like everybody ready to go to the parade. So y'are
getting up to go early morning, early morning to the parade,
and you're out there all day, tailgating, walking around. Who
(35:20):
knows where you park your car, You're probably blocked in.
You're going to be there all day. People are riding
up and down High Point Road all these places near
the campus, and you're just running into people tailgating and
the smells, the sounds generators going. People were selling those
mixed CDs. You can hear the game in the background.
I never really went to the game, but I would
always hear cheering. I mean, it's a roar because there
are so many people and older folks coming back and
(35:40):
asking you what you're doing with your life? How can
they help you. What do you want to do next?
It is such a communal affair. Everybody there is rooting
for everybody else.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
I totally agree.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
They used to have huge concerts Saturday night.
Speaker 7 (35:55):
Of course. Of course, I remember my.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
First homecoming concert I went to. It was Rough Riders.
DMX was there, jay Z was there. It was the
hard knock Life tour coming through and hearing those things
on the radio leading up to it. It is just excitement.
It is celebration in this truest sense.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
So y'all have given us a little bit of background
on the sites, but let's get into the sound of Homecoming.
Tell me about the bands.
Speaker 8 (36:26):
Yeah, so you got the guys with the flags, so
the flag core. They go hard, they throw them flags
down and get to pop in Florida style because we
grew up on booty Shake in the state.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
To hear mentioned the base.
Speaker 8 (36:39):
But bass culture and car culture is everything, especially Daytona
like home and NASCAR birthplace of auto racing. The drum majors,
I think it's seven of them, and it was the
first female drum major a couple of years ago, so
that was a big deal. And she showed out. Now
the band on the field. You know, they got this
(37:00):
fast march that fam you is known for, and it's
like a billion of them on the field. They're the
march and one hundred, But that's a misnomer. It's literally
like four hundred of them guys out on the field.
Speaker 7 (37:10):
But they're gonna play the contemporary music.
Speaker 8 (37:12):
I was watching a game on ESPN and they played
Leave the Door Open, Bruno Mars and Silk Sign.
Speaker 7 (37:26):
I saw this right, you saw that.
Speaker 8 (37:27):
Oh at the end of their performance, they somehow in
a formation formed.
Speaker 7 (37:33):
A stick figure with the basketball.
Speaker 8 (37:36):
Dunking it in a hoop. They did this on the field,
and you knew exactly what they were doing. It was
the illest thing I've ever seen in my life with
a marching band.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Do you remember Battle of the Bands? Of course, used
to go to Battle of the Bands and the bands
show up. I don't even feel like DRUMLND really captured it.
It didn't quite get it.
Speaker 7 (38:00):
Yeah it was. They tried intense, y'all.
Speaker 8 (38:05):
But they'll also play classics because they're not trying to
forget the people who came back parents. They want to
play music from your time too. So everybody's singing along,
everybody's standing. So at PWY homecomings or football games, halftime,
that's when you go use the bathroom, go eat, get
that third.
Speaker 7 (38:23):
So this is the truth.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
First quarter, super Pack, everybody's in the stands because it's
the beginning of the game. Then by halfway through the
first quarter, the only people who's staying are the people
who really care about the game. Everybody else is going
below the stands to walk around on the stadium seeing
people showing off your outfit. It's a day outfit, and
then you're gonna change clothes for to go out later on.
But by halftime, you have your butt in your seat
(38:48):
and everybody standing. We call it corner to corner, like
every corner of the stadium field, and it's beautiful because
it's just a sea of black people all on one
accord and the band's playing we got a chant and
it's fan Dam you Fam you fam goddang you all right,
all right, all right, everybody's just singing the songs they'll
(39:08):
hype and then so if the band kills it right,
they break it down. They just basically throw their instruments
down and just start popping and dancing like then they
pick up the instruments, they go off the field. But
the last people off the field with the marching one
hundred are the tuba players, and they form a line
like a snake coming.
Speaker 7 (39:26):
Off the field.
Speaker 8 (39:27):
Literally all the two was jumping the air and d
on the split at the end like Domino's. But the
last tuba gets to show out and spin around and
everybody's like he and it's the dopest thing. So when
the tuba player goes up in the air and goes
down into the split, the whole crowd goes oooo. Everybody
says that in unison. And this is one thing too
that I gotta tell you all about the one hundred.
(39:48):
When they march off the field at the end of
their performance, they always play good times.
Speaker 7 (40:09):
So that's what they march off the field on. It's like,
everybody gets it.
Speaker 8 (40:12):
It's just the most special thing you've ever seen in
your life, and it's nothing like it.
Speaker 7 (40:17):
I just love it.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
If you are not sad about missing homecoming after hearing
X describe that you have no heart, you've never known
your soul, never have fun of your life.
Speaker 7 (40:30):
That's right, dude, never ever ever. Oh my gosh, I
love everything about it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
So thinking about all of this stuff all of this
is part of the experience, and it makes me reflect
on what it means to be a product of an HBCU.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yes, there's just a certain Jennesse Qua about people who
have graduated from an HBCU. There's a certain confidence, a
level of intelligence, just a swag about them that's just different.
And so I want you guys to kind of just
talk about some of the great people from your institutions
or just from HBCUs in general that have been really
(41:15):
impactful on your lives and just what that means to
both of you to be the product of an HBCU.
Speaker 8 (41:21):
Yeah, it's like a lineage that you're just so proud of, right, Zee, Right, Yeah.
Of course, if they go to FAM, I'm super hype
about that. But if they went to an HBCU and
they making noise, I go crazy.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yes, clap it up for me. It really feels like
the people who are in my class and the class
above me. I am still in awe of my peers. Okay, yes,
and TT knows some of my friends, and I'm like,
(41:53):
all are killing the game. Doctors, lawyer, everybody's doing something.
Because now we're at the stage where you're starting to
see people pivot and you're like, yo, I didn't know
you could do that. My friend and her husband both
went to Hampton and Kia, who went to grad school
with us. When they've built this huge real estate vacation
rental home empire, I'm like, girl, when did you learn
(42:14):
this interior design? Kea has a PhD in the sciences.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Yes, anesthesiology, she said, no, sucception pain, and now she's
telling real estate you're taking these places.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I'm like, you're about to be competab with Airbnb. When
I got to Atlanta, I asked one of my really
close friends from high school. I said, who do I
need to know in Atlanta and who should I be helping?
He's like, this is my homeboy from more House. He's
running for city council. Here's somebody else, Board of education.
Like you feel so proud of these folks. I feel
so excited to say I know them. They went to
a HBCU And we should spend our dollars here right
(42:48):
giving back to folks who are trying to make these
things happen. How do you support the people who are
out here trying to do it and people are saying
dope labs, So you got no dope labs, just off
the strength that I went to a HBCU.
Speaker 7 (43:00):
Same with the get Up.
Speaker 8 (43:00):
We got a really big audience and the show's doing
really great. But the fact that I get to be
the current day representation of somebody who went to an
HBCU and it's.
Speaker 7 (43:11):
Just proud of that.
Speaker 8 (43:12):
And I bring those stories into the Showyne Wayne, thank
you and you were on the show. T t U
been on the show. But like for us to be
able to represent that. I talk about my boy, Brian Price.
I brag on him all the time. He's this dope
marketing media exec in Lance, my college roommate from South Chicago.
He built the parachute on the Mars Rover. He did
(43:36):
the parachute.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
Call him right now. I have questions.
Speaker 8 (43:51):
I now have people who are like, yo, my kid
wants to go to FAM. Literally today I got a
text and she texted me and was like, my seven
ten year old niece listen to The Get Up for
the first time yesterday and loved it. She's looking at
HBCUs fam use on her list. Can you come meet
with us and talk to her about FAM.
Speaker 7 (44:11):
I was like, We're doing it next week. That's important.
Speaker 8 (44:15):
My friend's daughter. She's in her first semester at FAM.
They stopped through Brooklyn on the way. I brought her
to FAM Hoodies like top of the line exclusive joints here.
Let me get you right, and when I go down there,
I'm taking you out to dinner. And I got kids
that ask me, can.
Speaker 7 (44:31):
You give me some FAM gear? Yes? I will. I'm
telling you all. It touches me. It like makes me
tear up every time.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
That's real. It just makes me think back my first
year of grad school. I'm the grad school counselor for
the summer program for students who are interested in science.
So we're at Duke and I have a young man
who went to Western Salem State. He is like, huh,
deer in the headlights? What do I do? This? And
that him and another young woman from Wiston Salem State,
and to see them both become professors now in the SI.
(45:00):
He's a professor at Vanderbilt. She's a professor at Bowne State.
Our family reunion used to have this saying, let the
circle be unbroken, right, we just feeding into each other
and let it expand. Right, t T get on in
this circle. You're in here, you got your hands. You
in here, you and.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Thank you, thank you very much. I'm gonna do my
best to represent well.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Yeah, it's looking out for the next generation, showing them
it's good to be proud. We're just like you wear Nike.
We're this like onebody wearing those yell sweatshirts.
Speaker 7 (45:27):
Okay, and you can be a part of this.
Speaker 8 (45:29):
We're gonna pull you in, We're gonna tell you about it,
and we're gonna make a way for you to be
able to do that. Is one of my greatest joys
in my life right now.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I really love this conversation. I love hearing about both
of your experiences. I should have went to Hampton. Thank
you both so much for sharing all of this. It's
been heartwarming just to be able to sit back and
just listen to you guys.
Speaker 7 (45:52):
Talk about this my honor.
Speaker 8 (45:54):
Y'all know I've been a Day one Dope Labs fan listener.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Yes you have.
Speaker 7 (45:59):
And I'm proud of what y'all really.
Speaker 8 (46:01):
I'm proud of how y'all represent for black women and
for your varied experiences. Because one thing I do talk
about is I don't like if somebody that went to
an HBCU tries to invalidate the experience of somebody that
went to a PWI. All of these experiences are valid.
So I'm glad that you have two dope women on
(46:23):
this show that represent both sides and the commonality because
there's merit and value and all of it.
Speaker 7 (46:30):
That's the beauty of our people.
Speaker 3 (46:43):
All right, tt, it's time for one thing. I'm so excited.
What's your one thing? Z Well, we've kind of already
talked about my one thing in the episode, and if
you follow me on social media, I've shared it too.
My one thing is Corine DeMarco. This is a brand
that produces is HBCU apparel, and I love their sweaters.
That's where I got the sweater that t T talks
(47:05):
about wearing and pretending that she was a Hampton alum.
I am a big fan of this brand, So please
go support this small brand that's putting out great HBCU gear.
That's Corinda Marco c O R I N D E
M A r c O dot com. My one thing
is Corinda Marco perfect.
Speaker 6 (47:26):
Ha ha.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
That's it for Lab fifty one. What'd you think? Did
you learn something new about HBCUs call us at two
O two five sixty seven seven zero two eight and
tell us what you thought or if you have an
idea for a lab we should do this semester. Tell
us that too. We really love hearing from you. That's
two O two five six seven seven zero two eight.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
And don't forget there's so much more for you to
dig into on our website. There'll be a cheat cheat
there for today's lab and additional links and resources in
the show notes. Plus, you can sign up for our newsletter,
so check it out at Dope labspodcast dot com. Special
thanks to today's guest expert, Xavier Journ Again.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
You can find Xavier every weekday at seven am on
Spotify's morning show The get Up.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Reading our credits today is an HBCU grad, one of
Zakia's longtime besties and one of my new friends, Atlanta House.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
Yes, certified clown and a certified goo.
Speaker 7 (48:31):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (48:32):
I'm Atlanta House and I'm a proud graduate of Hampton
University an HBCU. I'm also a goon and a clown,
as TT and Zakia shared, but also a scholar too.
You can find Dope Labs on Twitter and Instagram at
Dope Labs podcast tt Is on Twitter at Doctor Underscore
t Show, and you can find Zakiya at z s Etzo.
(48:56):
Dope Labs is a Spotify original production from Mega Own
Me Group. Producers are Jenny Rattle at Mass and Lydia
Smith of Wave Runner Studios. Editing and sound design by
Rob Smurgiak, Mixing by Hannes Brown. Original music composed and
produced by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Suguiera from Spotify Creative
(49:18):
producer Candice Manriquez, Wrenn and Karenne Gillier. Special thanks to
Shirley Ramos, Yasmine Afifi, Keimu, Elolia, Till krat Key and
Brian Marquis. Executive producers from Mega Owned Media Group are
t T. Shoda and Zakiah Watley. And I'm sending all
(49:39):
of this to you from my teenage sons really stinky
closet because it's the only quiet place in this whole house.
Pray for moms. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 7 (49:51):
I love you both.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Bye.
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