(ThyBlackMan.com) Recently, controversial writer for The Atlantic and former ESPN on-air persona Jemele Hill wrote an article for The Atlantic called “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges” in which she explained legitimate concrete reasons as to why black athletes should consider taking their talents to HBCUs to bring in more revenue for their athletic programs as opposed to PWIs. And of course, ignorant and hypocritical white folks along with their black assimilationists called her a “reverse racist” and “pro-segregationist” for speaking truth as to why black athletes should take their talents to HBCUs instead of PWIs
Let’s be honest, the relationship between black athletes and PWIs is solely based on exploitation from the athletic and academic standpoint. PWIs are also notorious for giving black athletes false promises of “quality education” while playing either football or basketball for those universities. Case in point: At The University Of North Carolina (where basketball is the primary sport), there were about 3,100 athletes (mostly black) that were deliberately put into fake classes by white administrators and coaches for the sole purpose of keeping them eligible to play and former UNC basketball player Rashad McCants also stated in an interview he did several years ago that he was told by administrators not to even go to class to learn anything throughout much of his tenure there. 
PWIs aka Predominant White Institutions like The University Of Alabama in Tuscaloosa made a record of $177 million for their athletic department throughout the 2018-2019 season and most of that money came from the stolen and exploited unpaid labor of black athletes went into the pockets of mostly white administrators, athletic department people, and coaches like Nick Saban who already makes $11 million a year off the exploitation of these black athletes while most of the black athletes that play for him every year come from colonial imposed conditions of gentrification, police violence, poverty, imposed illegal drug economy, poisoned food/water, food deserts, and economic despair. While Alabama State University (an HBCU located in Montgomery, Alabama) only generated about $13 million for their athletic department during the 2018-2019 season. While PWIs like The University Of Alabama in Tuscaloosa continue to get richer and richer off of the massive exploitation of these athletes, HBCUs continue to suffer heavily and there definitely needs to be a change.
I truly understand why many black athletes today choose PWIs like The University Of Alabama in Tuscaloosa over HBCUs like Alabama State University because they’ll get more exposure on nationally televised networks like CBS and ESPN, they’ll wanna get a higher draft pick whenever their name gets called in “The Draft”, and they’ll get more lucrative endorsement deals from big companies like Sprite and Gatorade.
These coaches at PWIs like The University Of Alabama in Tuscaloosa don’t care too much for the wellbeing let alone the future of black athletes except for only to chew these brothers up for a few years by exploiting their labor to make money and then spitting them out by sending them right back to the hood with absolutely no education with a lower grade reading level because they spent so much time trying to make it into either The NBA or NFL. Like a rapper once said back in the day, “They’ll find a new brother next year.”
The NCAA is one of the most notorious and egregiously corrupt organizations in America today because for decades they have been allowed to get away with committing all sorts of academic and other sorts of violations against mostly black athletes. Under The NCAA’s current rules, athletes aren’t allowed to take money from outside sources like family, friends, and even agents like former University Of Southern California running back Reggie Bush when his family took almost $300,000 from a sports agent that also bought them a home during Reggie’s time at USC. The NCAA later turned around and viciously punished Reggie and his family by taking his Heisman Trophy as well as vacating wins from 2003-2005 for in my view being rightfully being compensated for their son’s work on the football field as he made over $100 million for that school during his tenure there.
The NCAA extracts over a billion dollars a year from the black community because most of that money comes from the annual March Madness tournament while The College Football Playoff makes over half a billion dollars mostly from the exploitation off of the labor of black athletes.
Then there’s racial disparities between black athletes and black students at PWIs. In The Power 5 athletic conferences, about 55% of black athletes are on football team rosters while 56% of black athletes are on the basketball team rosters while black students make up less than 10% of the student population at PWIs. If you pay close attention to one particular college football or college basketball game, you’ll see that about 85 to 90 percent of the starters on the PWI teams are black men and most of the coaches are white men which is similar to the old black slaves on the plantation with white male slave master overseers making money off of exploiting them. That’s a huge racial issue in college sports that needs to be addressed.
I’ve also read articles in which black athletes and black students talk about how they were also treated better at HBCUs than PWIs when they say things like “being surrounded by people that look like then and understand what they going through makes them feel right at home.”
The Conclusion – With the rising level of consciousness going on in our community right now, I say it’s time for black athletes to actually consider taking their amazing athletic talents to a college that truly cares about their culture, wellbeing, and future like an HBCU would.
Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)
