Applications to historically black colleges and universities nationwide are breaking record highs, in part, because of growing discontent of black students on predominantly white campuses.
At Middle Tennessee State University, one black graduate student is calling for action – the mass transfer of black students to area black colleges like Fisk University and Tennessee State University.
In a Daily Journal ‘Letter to the Editor,’ Joshua Crutchfield calls the tiring battle for MTSU to remove Confederate symbols from campus has reached a boiling point. His scathing review of black students affairs at the university has crafted a reality that the fight for equality is little more than begging for white acceptance, and that the days of asking are over.
Black students make of 20 percent of the undergraduate population at MTSU. One in five undergraduates at MTSU are black students. And I think they should all transfer to an HBCU.
What impact would it have if 20 percent of the undergraduate population transferred to TSU or Fisk or American Baptist College? Not only would it cripple the pockets of a racist institution, but it would build up black institutions. At an HBCU, students may experience a different set of challenges, but they don’t experience challenges that question their very humanity.
And that’s where I’m at. I’ll never tell another black person to attend MTSU and I’m highly suggesting that those who do to consider transferring. We don’t have to beg institutions to be included. And we don’t have to be where we’re not wanted.
This is awesome and the concerns for black students at MTSU are the same for black students all over the country at PWIs. Joshua is more than right for putting the call out there and black student should not only transfer but should not even apply to PWIs. Good move Mr. Crutchfield.