 I just at the dark welcome back to unfiltered and uncensored talk with young alumni from historically black colleges and universities Big show again. We got oars the Morganite fat brother Eric uno on Instagram We got a lot to talk about especially cuz because of my loaf and we missed several of the past weeks, so Let's get straight into it. Um the debates. So we are one down on the presidential and vice presidential side The takeaway for me no HBCU's mentioned any of the one of them The Trump administration had things to mention did not Harris Biden Administration or would be administration had things that they could have mentioned for plans did not all of them circulate around African-American outreach and Promotional effort, I kind of got to think about how we all feel about the debates But let's contextualize how you feel about the debates in the bigger frame of Do you think it was a missed opportunity that HBCU's weren't mentioned in it? Let's go. Let me see who's likely the most say the rose ratchet thing first. Oh, let's go with you So I missed both of I Have I have grad school on Wednesday, so I didn't I didn't get to see much But I mean I saw most of the commentary and stuff I mean quite frankly what I expected from Trump. We got from Trump what I expected from Hence we got from Pence I think that in general the messaging from Kamala and from Joe Biden It's been pretty weak, but I think that their goal is to get those disillusioned white voters who You know like oh Trump is bad. We're better. So I think that's more of their focus I think HBCU's in general don't get enough of the attention, but I don't see how they can with again the comment the commentator the moderator is going all over the place the The rhetoric on all over the place I mean at this point, there's no undecided voters if you are stuck between Trump and Biden, I don't I don't want you a part of my coalition anyway So I'd actually like HBCU to be out of it. Let's push when someone's elected I think in general we can be a Misappropriated bargaining piece. So I'm not too mad that we weren't mentioned Only laughing what you what you think about it? Yeah, it was it was miss what I thought though was when I'm when Senator Harris said that She wouldn't take a vaccine. I thought about To HBCU presidents taking the vaccine and I was like that Oh That was a that was a That was a big thing to talk to have the the would-be vice president say I'm not gonna take it And I hadn't even thought about that perspective About the two of our presidents who have signed up for the trial But even with that that could have been something that should have been brought up specifically because Trump just what a couple weeks ago said I'm gonna ship all these tests to HBCUs So these are it legitimately across the south in the Mid-Atlantic These are the hubs for testing black folks at least for the virus according to the number of tests We have on campus Then you have a story to come out which we'll get into later about HBCUs are doing exceptionally well at preventing COVID outbreaks on campus So that that that brings me to the conclusion that that's something that should have come up This is what we're doing well and and if you're gonna criticize the response You're gonna say here's more of what you could do with HBCU particularly because African-Americans are disproportionately impacted Fat, what'd you think about it? Where do I start? First of all, I'm kind of with Ours on this one and this is just to keep it a buck like Don't I mean cuz he does a real thing about it, right? If we're really gonna discuss like what this looks like Trump and Well, Trump could have used it against Biden who part of the administration that we can argue Led to some things happening that Significantly decreased enrollment at HBCUs under President Obama's you know administration We could we could have a conversation and they could use that but what it says on me is that Today, I saw an advertisement where Trump just used all black people and I was like, we don't have we don't have the time No other income to be this willfully ignorant So when people be it just being used for when it's beneficial and not Like in the long run, right? All these things that you know talking points They really don't matter because when it comes to a debate if you're really trying to say here and say something that you did better than another Than another party or something that you will do could see to do or do better than a candidate Then why are you not bringing up this thing for this particular population which? For many Democrats, you know, especially those who are more neo-liberal Black people have been largely part of a base of who they're guaranteed voters who want to be So when you take that into account just kind of sitting here like just all awash like at some point It just comes back to like how we were watching it are going to just sit there and accept what's being told to them and And I think it's going to be so based upon what they feel is true Or they're going to actually like do some some work in some research because At this point like I said like it was it ain't no undecided people and if you are undecided like Why like oh, I'm bad my bad unless you're like Roland Martin and the black You just talk about How the Biden hairs can only doesn't say anything Somebody catch me up. Can somebody ask me the question Where they saying like oh, okay, so Roland is making the point of You we need to move to direct directly address what black men are looking for he so he believes Because I've watched some of the commentary He believes one he's a political genius and that he knows exactly how to message every part of the population And that he would sweep every election from the president down to the school board in every city in every County in every part of the country but This is funny, but But the wild the wild part is he's like leaving the message directly to black men and I would be honest with you Like as a black man the things that black men like about Trump are not things that I stand with like I'm embarrassed as a black man to say that you are attracted to his misogyny You are attracted to his racism You are attracted to what you consider this bully pulpit because you want to feel like in your life You can be that misogynist that racist and that powerful and that's not a good thing So it's like let me say oh, we're not gonna vote for the rest of two evils I mean you're talking about someone who's pandering his his whole goal to get black men is to say I'm not a pump I'm going to strong arm people and that really would be one of what we want to reflect Like is that the image that we want to put on? Do we want to work on a number on a on an even on a sizable portion of black men though? Yes, I mean educated none educated all that Look at that and be like yeah, I'm gonna trust on that Let's let's remember that in many cases we as black men and Are attracted to things that show off our masculinity. I mean we have very fragile egos I mean we deal with it in our relationships even with women I know some on all black men date women But even our relations in general even even men who date other men who deal with women can still be misogynist They can still be just as nasty to women as Pedosexual men can be so I think that in general we have to be honest and say Trump is pandering to our flaws and The worst of what we are and that's gonna get him probably 12% of black men 15% of black men because and some of these people are gonna be church-going Southern Christian northern, you know economically focused because They they're pandering to the worst of the worst of what we are in my opinion in terms of like how we deal with society How we deal because again people don't want to like be like Trump because they want to be Like him like personally they want to feel that power They want to feel like they have to many of other people. So it's like It's kind of the whole thing that's about in terms of some feminist there. He says like, you know Black men want to be the white man of black people We want to be in control and that's what Trump puts out to so I think it's a terrible thing But again people like Roland are kind of like say message to them talk to them but nothing I don't believe anything that Kamala or Joe Biden can say that can have that But that can have that effect Because it's just going to Again gonna pandit to the worst of what we are and what the worst of who we are and that's just the the guys on is true There if you had to say that there was a there was a percentage of brothers That that are feeling like ours is described and I can obviously there's a lot of people that could get think anything But do you think it's a big enough portion like white women voting for Trump that can change an election? You think it's a big enough percentage of us that can shift this thing that way Stockholm syndrome proximity to whiteness It sounds bad, but like They like like or just spoke to it my in its There is a percentage of it. There is a percentage of the people that world who are on embarrassment to their credentials. I'm sorry boys walkers And to You know, I mean we can sit here and harp on The criminal justice system between the system whether Kamala was a DA or a prosecutor or not, right? She did her job. Well, she's a prosecutor. The unfortunate thing is that in certain any places that means that you're gonna be prosecuting a lot of black men There are a lot of black men who are literally holding on to that one thing That that one thing right there's no conversation regarding self-discipline There's no conversate and this is not even the responsibility politics conversation. It's a thought process of there are a lot of us who look like us who Choose to engage in things that put us into a system that's meant to already work against us, right? So we don't have that conversation. It's just like oh that's a black woman You should have been like one more to like not do this with us and it's like, okay Well, there's two sides to this conversation, but yeah, there's a significant amount of black men who are literally gonna sit here and like That one thing On her record, which doesn't look good. It doesn't look good in the general sense But when we talk about it a whole like a whole whole list of you or somebody from the standpoint If you're holding on to that one thing Man stop like shut up like you don't even need to talk to you right now I'm not even need to be engaged with this. You really just a want to vote for a black woman. Let's stop it You're making that active decision It has nothing to do with that one thing about her because there was none of this energy for Eric Holder and he In his exact same position Do you think that this puts black men who I guess are on board with this kind of thing and like talk to us because we're not convinced Are we in like the Tory Lane's? realm now like Just We're missing our OBS like are we are we in the Tory Lane's orbit at this point? I mean some are That's what it's back. Some in fact are stories there And and all the people that were you know, oh his album bangs um But I think yeah, but I think you're fine you're trying to find an excuse like like Eric was saying and Is it really that you that that's a problem for you then what have you done because if you're only voting in the presidential elections? You're not doing anything. So So it's it's it's clear that like people are trying to nitpick because they're not bringing the same energy for every candidate. So I'm I'm surprised to hear that that that there's that The majority I believe there's a there's a sizable enough portion of brothers who are gonna say if you don't talk directly to me Then I can take my vote and swing this thing in a different way like And as we saw from the left like so we know it don't take many people It doesn't take a lot but I said it because I was one people are starting to roll the Martin because Like I said, I used to look up to the guy. I had to like and call him out on some mess about HPC It was two years ago and we already had that so right but It's a illusory inferiority complex of black men It's the belief that we are the most persecuted or most black people Which when you really peel back the metrics and the statistics, we know that's not true from a quantitative and qualitative standpoint right So we have this belief that we are we have the worst black experience of black people And everything has to be pandered or or aim towards us and that's not the truth so This is why people say things like black men are the black men of black people This is why people say that a lot of black men don't want Black freedom they want black male liberation. This is these these types of things where people are like willing to see and say that Oh, well, yeah, now Trump speaks to me And While we're on that topic there are black women that buy into that who are also now supporting Trump but very very very very few There was an eight point eight eight point gap in 2016 The effect was looking up Trump got eight percent of black men of black people who voted 92 percent of black men voted for Trump I mean, sorry voted for Hillary 98 percent sorry 98 percent voted for Um Voted for it voted for Hillary so six point gap, but again eight percent of black people overall voted for Donald Trump so Not to say that people can't have their own political beliefs Where your politics lie usually lands where your pocketbook? You know where your Bible sits in your house all that kind of thing. I get it I totally get it But it is it is difficult if if you are in part of a conversation of The clash of politics and and race in this country like it's it's fun. I don't know that Those things your money or your religion or your other stuff Trump's that at this point Maybe some other time Not now and so I'm surprised to hear I'm very surprised to hear that that's something that we should be concerned about To donate to the Builder Fund Let's move on to the next subject and we touched on this just a minute ago Corona progress and HBCU so so much of the time that we spent talking about this Leading up to the start of the semester was how long is it's gonna last how early we gonna go home Are these students gonna be standing outside spreading this around and now we're at home coming time and You don't for those campuses that are still open to the public You you don't see a bunch of outbreaks now There's been an increasing amount of coverage Increasing amount of coverage about this we've seen presidents on National tv talking about here's how our our testing and our contact tracing works Our students are are a one in terms of protecting each other wearing masks. We take it seriously You look at charts particularly in north carolina where they're saying here's where all of our state institutions are Your lower tier in terms of infection rates are HBCUs collected at the bottom My sense is that I'm not sure that we're better than other institutions and I don't mean that as a dig Like black folks just are lucking out I just think that we don't We are benefiting from a couple of things going on people don't People people I think and correct me if I'm wrong. I think Black folks take the coronavirus seriously even when we're standing around in a crowd I have yet to see a video of of students in the lobby Packed on each other. It's always outside. That doesn't make it better as we know from the rose garden But I'm saying I haven't seen people in a video in a dorm room 30 deep playing mad I haven't seen You know a bunch of party videos where it's like it's sweat box, you know what I mean like not to say that it doesn't happen I'm just saying I think if we're gonna ascribe some of the HBCs We've gotten better at hiding the stuff that we're not supposed to be doing And to that point I think we've gotten better at maybe Disguising the numbers a little bit not lying Because we've heard of a couple of institutions that just they haven't made the news, but there are some places where there are outbreaks Florida memorial is one of them that has been publicized By the people who have been infected So we we know that there's there's some outbreaks going on. They just haven't risen to the level of public coverage So I would ask you guys are we really good at preventing coronavirus spread? Or are we really good about not letting the media get ahold of it? Yeah So I'm just going to start by saying this um I'm not going to be I don't want to be a person to speak on greek life in general But there seems to be a trend that many of these Historically white institutions where many of the covet cases that could track them can't and that are Is get tied back to frat houses Which we don't have maybe Which is a thing, right? I mean people are still having you know, you know room parties are with me I know they are right But maybe and this is just one conversation Maybe the things that you all stereotype and say about the black schools and their fraternity life Or their sorority life is really what you all do on historically white campuses, but that's an aside, right? We can go on and on about that I don't I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. I think that we might Be taking it more serious. I think educated was taking it more serious I don't think I think a lot of college students really don't want to be in the house So they're doing whatever they can to make sure that they don't have to go back home I think that matters. I think Two students who are able to get a little bit more of a taste of freedom even in the in the covid environment Uh freedom inside, you know big mama house and the same thing is freedom in your own On campus where there's some restrictions because you know, you got to take hybrid or all online classes or whatever it may be So I think the truth is somewhere in the middle put them or no Yo, yeah I don't have enough words that y'all wild Part of that culture, you know, let me throw it to you because you went to school in florida part of that culture is that The Floridians at least on the subject of covid 19 have have bought into and this is not just black folks Is everybody ain't no Every floor ain't no man I'm not I'm not doing it. You know what I mean? Like I'm outside. Don't say anything to me but Now you're you're dealing with an institution and I would say I don't I don't think I've heard anything from floor memorial To respond to what the the athletes and the coaches are saying That they're saying a lot of us are getting sick and they're not responding I'm not sure that florida memorial has sent out any kind of press release or the president has made a comment Correct me if our mom would y'all have seen it But would you would you say that? part of how much of Did she freeze one? Oh, I say did they hear um Didn't they didn't they say that the uh the coaches Did you fire it? That was as far as it went Oh I mean, you know the last The last thing I saw and I could be wrong. We got to you know throw it to Our peoples that run the company that always got on the shirt. Um That the ad that's where I read it was a foreign football player Yeah Apparently they like he fought they suspended the coach because the coach didn't want them to play but the ad was like You go and play this season They were the only hbcu to play This year. Yep When it was playing After after 60 years of not having a football team right It was it was a mess. It's it's still a mess I was happy to have a football team back and then here we are But I could I could understand that that you know, some people are getting fatigued A lot of institutions are finding you can't police this You just don't have the public safety or the public health resources to make this possible You can't make every student and every faculty member test every day or any time you want to Because at some point there's a personal liberties issue here Where you can't mandate people to take a test anytime For the places that we heard and we won't mention them here But all of us are aware that there are some places where there have been outbreaks Is that good that they that they had that this information hasn't gotten out or Should it come out and what cost do you think that that would that would create for hbcu's negatively? So I would just say this I know of a couple of places personally where people personally have caught the disease um, most of them are involved with athletics And I think we all know how I feel about athletics And I'm I'm pretty disappointed. I'm disappointed that The leadership in the meaq the swack the s i c and the sky double a Has created this environment where we're not having a season But they're still doing workouts team still having practices. They're still doing organized team activities For all sport isn't just football Um, and this is where a lot of the transmission is happening on campus because again A lot of these companies that have minimal um Minimal people on campus in terms of living in torrential nature. It's a very one-off type of situation and most hbcu's So from my perspective, it's a excuse another situation where athletics Um, and the need for these schools to continuously try to throw money and throw attention into athletics Um, it's kind of having a backdrop but to answer your question I don't think that they should um publicize it necessarily But I do think that there needs to be a complete shutdown Of all athletic opportunities But the problem is that we've seen from what I consider the lack of leadership from the swack in the meaq specifically And they're pushed to have a spring season coaches are in a position of do we Practice now. Do we not to be workout now? Do we not and almost every school? um has probably had some outbreaks be a public or not public from In the locker room and the weight room on the field or you know practice facility because of that But again We're talking about oh bayou classic in and tree fort this year. Like that was the that was the biggest Sports story of the week before, you know for memorials outbreak So how are they gonna do it? We talked about this before because we were we were under the impression over the course of the summer That everything that they would do particularly on the subject of sports was to slow walk this thing To give people the impression. Oh, we might come back next month. Oh, we might come back in, you know We might come back in september But the problem is you you can't prepare like here's the problem with football specifically, right? You can't prepare like that. You have to it takes they say It takes at least let's say 60 days To prepare for a football season in most cases you want about 120 days. We're about four months So if they're telling them, oh, we're gonna be playing and starting in february When they gonna start lifting they've already been lifting so and that's my issue that I don't think in my opinion Once those kids got on campus and most of them got on campus at the same time They would have normally in late july early august They've been operating in the same exact way and nothing has changed for athletics And this is where the issues at lsu have been even at the big white schools have been the same issues And I'll just say I'll leave with this. There's no way that alabama had 90 kids on the field This weekend 30,000 people in the stands and they have not one case You know, you know in florida They're going back to a hundred percent capacity for miami games this week 100 with 90 kids on the roster 20 30 coaches athletic training staffs other staff In a hundred thousand people in the orange bowl and we we just Okay, eric last two minutes to you do you think that the The the the bcs schools are putting pressure on the hbc used to compete Not this fall But perhaps in this spring like there's increased pressure like y'all better get on the field No matter what this virus is I hope the hell not uh Look, we just had a conversation earlier this week about why if you're talking to me the ncda to begin with anyway, right? We just we just had that conversation, especially, you know Nothing break that story on here because people highly paid attention, but the nai pretty pretty much said. Oh, yeah Uh, will people prove that if like students get paid for their likenesses while they're doing, you know athletics, right? Right. So like what that's not like we've already had that conversation. I'm my biggest question is this There is absolutely no athletic director of any hbcu with the exception of maybe Three that could sit here and tell me they're making a profit off the football season this year By having a season There's not a hbc that tell you that a year ago when there was actually a season So you got to sit here and ask yourself a question That's like what what about your egos over as an institutional ego, right? Or is it just the fact that oh, yeah You're hoping that you can get people to come to campus for homecoming. Is that what it is? Like at some point You've got a you got a like what's wrong with our business model because y'all like making money off this Like let's let's stop. Let's talk to mess. We just like I wish I could have seen this conversation We say it's about like at best basketball football or probably overall the fourth and fifth best sports that take place at hbc campuses As far as the quality of athlete Bowling right Bowling track softball may even be soft about that Right depending on where you at the school like at family I definitely would say that you get a better quality of Baseball player that you do a football player on an average year Like I'll go I'll go that far, right So if you want to include the band with it keep knocking down if you want to keep include the cheers with it Keep knocking down like like if you want to continue like include those as sports Reasons as people at the reason people to actually go to school there Like there's absolutely a very small percentage Of people who attend hbc youths because of the basketball or football team that don't actually play in athletics But what is the return on the investment in trying to build up these schools? But to hope that you get into a money game that could be maybe your third best payday at a school Or at a given year because your hbcu president doesn't want to bring in enough money Like let's have that conversation You make a perfect segue into the next topic hbc endowment. So seeing in money runs a story today about or is ready um about The prospect of hbcu is becoming more aggressive and involved in Denture capital funding now This is something we see often with a lot of white institutions Arizona state is a big one harvard is a big one There are a couple pwy's that have really made a big name and We will put hundreds of millions of dollars into venture capital. We will have a stake of ownership in tech companies In green in green industry In international development real estate We'll have holdings and a whole bunch of stuff because we have that much money in our endowment to do it Or we have a fundraising mechanism Where rich people will give us money specifically to do that in the name of the institution, right? So this is an article that says hbcu's need to get in on that action I'm reading it. I can understand it and it reads like There's a black venture capital is somewhere in silicon valley on the periphery that says Since we need you to talk about hbcu's because we're not getting a lot of money Uh from the black community otherwise Um, let's try to get some of these black colleges involved And it missed a lot of the nuance of saying Hbcu's ain't got no endowment money like that where they can take Even a couple hundred grand and put it into a tech startup company Wait four years for something that might fail When they got they got kids and students that they have to put through school with that endowment money So I would ask y'all if y'all have seen the article Or if you haven't what do you think about the prospect as the cat is joining me in the background What do you think about the prospect of hbcu's using endowment funds? Or foundation funds to be a part of the venture capital space in silicon valley and beyond Eric saying no always go ahead. You were you were jumping at the bit on this one. I mean I mean, I would say this right as somebody who Works in a finance capacity I think would be a horrendous One because it's called venture capital because they did a venture it is not a guaranteed Return and what the article also talked about is that These schools are not spending large percentages of their endowment on vc. We're talking about Usually less than 1% for schools like harvard our entire hbcu endowment is like 1% of harvard's endowment so You know and also I talked about earlier, I mean they say on average hbcu graduates graduate with about 30 more in debt So how are we fulfilling our mission? if we're using monies that clearly were comfortable with throwing the dice on and we're not investing it back into students I think is in general we have to rethink how our endowment is going to be managed and how we look at Utilizing those resources to to make improvements to the university Um, I think in most cases our universities aren't areas that have had cheap real estate for years And we haven't used the endowments in terms of real estate. We've been in areas that have boomed Obviously the the prices in dc and in bolton more and Even in winston-salem and durham We can go through the list of cities where if any of those schools in those places have bought up more land What it would be worth now look what john tophans is doing in bolton more what gw did in dc um, so I just think that It sounds good in theory But what we also have to keep in mind and realize that we don't have that much money I mean the entire southern university system But best averages say 50 million for the entire system. We're talking about four campuses or three and a half campuses So we don't have that much money. Um, and when we do get money it has immediate need So We don't have that type of we don't have that type of money and also not times back into athletics, but We don't have Consistent revenue streams besides tuition. We don't make money on anything else except tuition and fees We don't have a lot of research money coming in. We don't have We don't have no auxiliary money coming in. Um, I mean, I know for many schools Because I've talked with william hbcu money about this they lose money on even some of their academic operations. So when we're talking about Investing in venture capital in silicon valley like go watch the show silicon valley on hbo and you tell me if that's gonna be A worthwhile investment because that's really how it happens in many cases You you hear a piece of what they're trying to do and you hope it hits because for every google there's hundreds Of companies that are certain just certain changes that fail and we don't we can't be as loose with our money But also again, if we if we could spend a hundred thousand dollars Then I'd say do it, but we don't even have another dollar. I mean We literally have schools who have put off major infrastructure projects I mean at morgan holmes hall has been flooding for 20 years So they better not spend a dime on vc So let me let me say real quick. So one thing I will give hbc's credit in terms of strategic Economic development. There are a lot of schools that have done a good job Of trying to get into the real estate factor hampton. Obviously has done a great job Buying up commercial area around the campus All corn has done a good job buying residential space miles college in fairfield, alabama There are places where they're trying to get into real estate As a revenue stream whether that's for students and faculty Written out space to live whether that's for storefronts to come in and bring jobs and commerce there and there's revenue there But i'ma just say this and i'ma throw it's a una And i hope this doesn't step on any toes. I don't see How hbc use could jump at the could jump chop at the bit To support silicon valley startups When you have alumni making products And doing goods and services And we can't even get we can't even break through to get our alma mater to give us a contract I can't tell you how many how many people got a clothing line. That's decent That the students actually buy And the bookstore won't pick it up, right? I can't tell you how many how many hbc alumni own a car dealership And we don't lease cars from them for the motor pool We don't even solicit those car dealerships to be in the damn homecoming parade so But you but but you tell them is startup city Like like we should we should jump all in that like shouldn't we talk should we talk about the culture? Because we we can't even buy our own stuff. We can't even buy our alumni stuff Are you saying let's go let's go put millions into a startup Listen orders hit it. I mean Yeah, no, but orders hit it like we don't have we we don't mess around play with the church's money and lose it We don't have that but like you said Jared like we need to be looking at organizations that are actually From alumni and doing stuff for the institutions like hbc yupalante um In order to build our base to build um The the student body to diversify but still maintaining the mission I think it's a misstep. It's definitely a misstep you you have architects But you don't look at look to them to assist in building you have all of these resources But nobody's looking at them It doesn't make sense and when you but you're going to go beyond your walls And pay for something else that might not work out That's that's the reason I get you get your teeth knocked because That's not that's not my game plan Fred, do you think that it's just the notion of it's Silicon Valley and we should be players? And let me be fair. I'm not saying a bunch of hbc's are running to do this I'm because we're just reacting to this story as in seeing in money, right? But do you could you see a bunch of schools saying let's try to make a way to get this done? And to be honest, is it the white man's ice cold or is that that would do this? Seeking opportunity to whiteness will kill our schools It's really that simple right In the state of Alabama if any of the hbc who wants to invest in something Why not figure out how to invest in the people who graduated from their schools who are now working in Huntsville Which is one of the largest one of the fastest growing cities in the entire state of Alabama in the STEM field at that, right? Why is it not a more defined Investment it's something that I personally want to research and want to do for my life on experiential learning Built into the curriculum so that whether somebody finishes a bachelor's degree They're connected with someone who already graduated from the school had a job They were actually pursuing a bachelor's degree going towards and by the time they graduated They already had two three years experience doing the work that they want to do So now they actually want to get back to the school because you literally led them to it up at this point Are hbc use a better offer best in the forex than they are in Silicon Valley They got a slight like what like it means Like like and it's ruled it's very ruled But I had to be slightly offensive because at this point if y'all keep thinking Like let's be quite clear if you're not how Spellhouse may be Hampton you don't need to be in this conversation Not because they're better schools But because y'all are not national brands and y'all can't compete when you're not a national brand I Could sit here and talk about how literally speaking a month ago I sat here and spoke on spoke on the phone with two of my best friends That both Winston and I said hey yo There's a 17 acre plot of land for sale Literally down the street when we sent them state going for 200 thousand dollars The fact that I saw that anybody at Winston saw that and that was already off the market is an embarrassment to order this point You want to talk about buying up land expanding your campus doing more with what you have As my girlfriend said like to quote easter races all the time network sideways You won't even network with who you already have access to y'all talk about silicon valley stop it But it also speaks to the point of how do we how do we re-envision the hbc foundation right because for so many years And not even just the foundation the affiliate organizations UNCF third of marshal college fund We looked at those as scholarship provision tools. So they will help us fundraise They will help us market We'll get more money in or more donations in and we'll be able to pass that along to support Students coming in that'll be our primary source of revenue if we can give you every That's the problem. We're not innovative in our revenue operations Like they're friends that I used to have a before but like they're a tons of schools like Clemson for instance, right Clemson on average makes over a million dollars a year from current students buying into athletics Like when we talk about We talk about even even You lead the nation fcf attendance every single year 30,000 people every single year And I think by my friend, but Literally They could be making let's say on average if you make five dollars a person per game at 30,000 dollars 30,000 people a game You're looking at half of half a million easy And that you could do that by selling pens You could be selling, you know, vista print t-shirts and business cards like but again, we have no Innovative revenue operations. I mean actually like to hire me. I would love to do that. I work in revenue analysis I would love I would love to do that plugs but but I mean HBCU's could literally Work out a deal with with vista print get an insurance company Like I go to pay for it get a bunch of cheap t-shirts printed and go ahead and sell them at games For ten dollars a piece you take 50 percent of that revenue five dollars a person you sell 10,000 t-shirts a game Come on now. You're looking at. Oh, no, you're looking at Wait a minute one last time you seem to be with a HBCU game. That's not home. No, no, no I'll call on Is that the schools that need the money most are the ones with the highest attendance I'll call me is that money death and state needs that money. Mississippi Valley state definitely need that money No They're not making so we look at a certain stat in in my business where you look at The amount of spend per customer and our goal is to make that customer spend as much as possible Whenever they're within our premises right now HBC would only get in the ticket fee and that's and that's if they get that So could we definitely get in the parking because who knows who knows where that money goes So Actually Now i'm adding to your point you brought a great point because honestly speaking we're the larger conversation It impacts return on investment right because what are you really what's the school doing to actually make sure the school grows Because we spend a lot of money We don't necessarily we definitely ain't making a lot of money. We we we get like maybe a hundred thousand dollars over over zero every single year right Watch this so based upon the plan. He just said if you're working with this apprentice to get a shirt designed You have majors on your campus who may be graphic design majors They might work in marketing How many of them would would jump at the opportunity to actually create a shirt that now this Now the school sells at their factual games That people will now pay for That will not only build up the career of one of your students who will need that opportunity While they're still in undergrad while also making money for the actual school by getting 10,000 people to pay five dollars per shirt Right We don't we don't want to think that way We want to do the things that we've always done so we always got and And even on top of that none of this even happens But we're still sitting here saying oh, yeah, we're going to spend this much money We're going to spend this much money On athletics in this much money on research and then our students sit here and complain as to why we don't get feeling for our dollars Well, and we're going to round out the conversation because that that's something that could take a whole a whole hours worth of topic But then we're going to round out with with with students interestingly enough So Travis Scott got on what twitter the other night And said he was going to pay a semester's worth of tuition Uh for five hbcu students and it was kind of it was funny because it was kind of an afterthought because he said I'm going to pay five students tuition and in the next week was at an hbcu So I think the pr team was like you were supposed to say that first bro And like in any in any file he followed it up So I look at it in two ways one I vaguely know who Travis Scott is. I only know him by by by my sons I I mean, I know we got a meal at mcdonald's. I mean, you know But but the second thing is is this part of As we saw with chris paul and we've seen with other other celebrities That are that are buying into hbcu culture Financially chris paul gives hbcu's free marketing. That's a money. That's a money move Um big time playoff stage. That's a money move. We got free marketing out of that Travis Scott is saying i'm going to pay five kids tuition to hbcu's I would ask you do you think that we're at the point where we've always wanted to be which is to be mainstream for a lot of high platform high visible african americans or do you think like Okay, we're now getting to the point where black folks that are with a platform are starting to co-opt hbcu's Because I think that this in particular with travis scott Five students for a semester Like if you would frame that i'm going to pay off the the bills of five seniors at hbcu's Who need gap funding to graduate or have some tickets or some library books or something Okay, but when you randomly say i'm gonna pay five students hbc Okay, now are we jumping the shark here? It's almost like you woke up and said i'm gonna pay five students hbcu and i and i'm and i'm wondering like Is that alignment or is that co-opting at this point? Because I don't really know who travis scott is so I'm i'm gonna ask somebody who knows who he is who's a fan. Is anybody a fan of travis scott I would like to be I just i might be too old Uh, but what are you thinking about? And others that are doing this You want to go ahead on it? No, I asked what him's saying Right, I think I think what he's doing is we're putting it over like I mean, I mean his fan base I mean, I might know like, you know, they be playing the stuff, but I couldn't tell you His fan base like 99 white. So that's the first thing like And black people do bang with him But he's not I mean he's not, you know He's not fat pat in houston, you know I mean he He's kind of like the weekend and in between he got, you know black fans white fans Let him sing let him sing I mean I'll say this I think I think it's a good thing he did. I mean that's nice But I think that we expect too much of celebrities and you know their intelligence And of what they can bring or can't bring to the table Um, be it ones who we liken a door or what we name of people who we don't know who they exist like like travis scott but I think that um in general To expect them to be educated on the best way to facilitate Um hbcu engagement I think is wrong. Um, I think in general There needs to be more of a conversation of how we steer These people to places that can can deal with things in a correct way And you can feel you want to feel about tmcf and ucf, but I'm sure that you know The money will be more equally distributed Um Then then if you would just do and again, this is the middle of the semester the bills have already been I mean What We're going home with Thanksgiving, bro. Yeah, but the drop they've been past the drop they've been past you already You know like so I just think I think in general it's a weird thing, but I think in general I don't like The idea of like oh, I'm gonna go take I'm gonna go pay your bill. That's cool But What are we doing to make these bills kind of go away? He could have he could he literally could have went to tv at tsu and endowed a scholarship And he could have had to travel scott mcdonald's scholarship I thought he's mcdonald's deal, but again His management is majority, you know, men of a different shade more the palm of my hand not the back of my hand And and um So I don't think anyone his corner will be like, you know what Because friends are like james harden has an endowed scholarship. It's he issued right, right So clearly there are people who have done a little bit more to figure out Okay, let me go over to tsu and drop some money You know, but I just don't think that he has that level of Well, that's to the point. I think that there's it doesn't appear And I don't want to make it seem like I'm crapping on dude's gift Like god bless him for helping out some students But I think that what we've gone to appreciate over this summer The summer of george floyd the summer of brianna taylor the summer of ramon arbury The summer of the elect the 2020 election is that we want to be more strategic as a people And one of the things that that I've taken a lot of joy and a lot of pride in Is that some of these gifts that have come to hbc's Are designed in such a way that it won't just be i'ma pay your bills or i'ma help out 250 hbc students. That's just going to be money that's going to keep making money Over the long term. So some of these gifts that are going to endowments That's going to help you boost your endowment earnings. That's that's that's money making money for you That's what we really need it when you talk about james hardening down a scholarship That's not just i'm paying your your tuition off for a little bit I'm gonna give you a hundred grand so you can make returns off that hundred grand every single year And you can take those returns and give it to some of the students for scholarships You can build a build in something like that It helps you to boost your your endowment profile It helps you induce your profile because you had a celebrity athlete in the city Give you some money their strategy behind that mccure maker and mikey williams the two brothers coming out of high school Who are talking on twitter about i'm considering an hbcu and not only are they saying that They're saying that because it that means black talent needs to stay at black institutions. That's strategic They're talking about finance because they know their brand and they're saying if i take my brand to a black college The black college will make money that's strategy Travis scott saying i'm gonna pay five people tuition for a semester, bro. It takes we we never two An academic year two semesters like what? This this man's Mother went to gremlin and his father went to a prayer view And because of that i can't give this down or nothing more than that's nice That's that's really all i can do it's like okay. That's nice like come on dude Like i'm i'm supposed to be overly excited because you covered a semester some of these people And i think it's a great thing that you did that and that's nice and everything but dude you literally just you spent maybe what 50 like oh like five percent of the upper mcdonalds for making that black ass Travis got burning They got a quarter pot of what cheese with with bacon Barbecue sauce or fries like oh that i'm so i'm so impressed As a slight anecdote mcdonalds and poppies y'all are not weak because last fall poppies did amigos plan McDonald's did a Travis scott plan and then sold merch with it and now they're doing a bad buddy plan I see who you're marketing to y'all not low, but that's it decide right I'm not like i'm a Travis Scott fan. I went to see the astral world concert I've seen that dammit like twice last year It's the last two years or something like that like i'm a fan But i'm not even like kudos for this like for what like that's nice dude i'm sorry like These people on the hbc campuses are hungry. Don't pass a meal or something I Are of a certain age where we don't really know who this dude is So how how should we how should we react to his gift and is it something that you think alumni should say Hey, you know, well, I don't know who this dude is, but maybe we should we should capitalize on this maybe we should Appeal to other celebrities or appeal to local folks who are Are heavy or well known to do the same thing like I honestly part of us catching me up with this I'm sure I don't know who this guy is And you don't know who he is Like folks like us who we're starting to get to that alumni. I don't know who anybody is Like what should we do with this information? I want you what what alumni should do with that information is something that's very very small that i've done in the past I would go back to my school's homecoming And I would get permission to go into my freshman dorm I would go to the room that I was in and I was and I would talk to the people that were staying in that room Asked them how this semester was going because they were typically freshmen and I would pass them a hundred dollars each It's small But now they haven't actually came from literally when they came from It made it to a certain place, right? Like Travis Scott's doing what he did is great, but Didn't what? There's no going back to your point. Are you passing on a hundred dollars when you go back to hampton? Oh, um, I go to n1 vc and I do give money back to whoever's staying in that room last year There wasn't anybody in there. I went across the hall. Um, so I I mean, I'm gonna keep it a stack my little systems right there. She watched um shout out to have them but um it What do you do with that? Like it's not it It's a hustle backwards, right? So like you okay son said that he gonna give money cool But then like you said because I even see I even see the um the tweet You had to then it's he had to come back behind it and say oh to hbcu's like some wasn't really like he he wasn't hard pressed He wasn't pressed to give his hbcu's what he was trying to do was Be out there. Okay Right, but so we and what's how is that any different from what we've seen Where somebody's like because I don't think it was hbcu's but didn't niki do something I mean somebody's always like, oh, let me give some guap. All right, cool But then what because like eric said there's two semesters In a whole academic year like heads is still gonna be hungry. You know what I'm saying like and and with my My hundred that I give to a freshman in n1 vc hall shout out cuties. Um what's that supposed to do like It's for the moment and I do give my information and I do tell them like hey hit me up if you need something And I've gotten hit once and we we carried on the conversation but Is there truly a conversation being had is this long term like is this truly civic engagement? or photo op That that that is what I think that we had to to do a better job of now hbcu's I will say to be very fair They do a really good job of building those relationships locally So there are some businesses. There are some lawmakers where hbcu's are in constant connection with some folks And there's a sizable amount of money that comes through obviously we love to have more million dollar gifts We love to have more hundred million dollar gifts We hope that black folks don't got to get shot in the streets for people to keep giving us money We hope that this is something long-standing But it is to say like at some point Do you have to call it out almost like we talked about with the coronavirus? All gifts aren't necessarily great gifts I think we accept all gifts, but I think that we take some responsibility in saying Not necessarily give me some more money, but let's talk about a partnership here Let's not just do something for twitter or the grant like let's talk about an institutional Partnership with people who want to align their brand with supporting black america with supporting Education with supporting workforce development because if we if we fall into too many of these relationships Where it's just like i'm a useful tool for your brand They're we're off in a heartbeat As popular as hbcu's are today Tomorrow k through 12 could be just as popular and our philanthropic pipelines are gone Tomorrow it could be i'ma start a charter school Tomorrow i'ma give to you basketball tomorrow i'ma give money to africa like opera So we we have to to focus on how do we partner With a lot of these these high level business people celebrities athletes whatever to say let's let's have a relationship That benefits you and your brand as much as it benefits our school our community our students So we'll leave it there. Thank you so much for tuning in to digest at the dark We really appreciate it again visit us hbcu digest that sub stack dot com tune in on serious xm 142 hbc radio the pride of our university That is at the dark. We'll see you the next time. Peace