Though the relationship between black colleges and Republican presidents has been mutually beneficial by some measures, hold the high-fives. These narrow successes don’t obviate the need for the wide array of policies that are needed to reduce racial disparities in almost every facet of American society. After all, with enduring racial wealth and income gaps, black college students are at a distinct disadvantage from the moment the acceptance letter arrives to the moment the last student loan payment is made. More student debt at higher interest rates to be paid down with unequal income from jobs that are not as forthcoming for black college graduates as they are for others is no cause for celebration. And whatever goodwill and progress is generated from political partnerships with GOP presidents gets quickly shrouded by Republican policies on voting rights, cuts and reforms to social safety-net programs, and law-and-order approaches to criminal justice—all of which have disproportionate detrimental impacts on black communities.
Even as a political strategy alone, the results of outreach to black colleges are somewhat dubious. Black support for the Republican Party has effectively remained constant, hovering around the 10 percent mark for decades. Republican presidential candidates aren’t attracting any more of the black vote today than Nixon did almost 40 years ago—in fact, they’re attracting less.
But if the goal is to make symbolic outreach to black Americans in a way that doesn’t anger the Republicans’ anxious white base, then the presidents of black colleges represent a solid option. Support for these institutions implies that black Americans can go to their own schools and not rely on a white universities’ affirmative-action admission policies, which the majority of Republicans oppose. Black college presidents have historically been stereotyped as accommodationist, authoritarian and representative of black exceptionalism. So even if Republican presidential support for HBCUs emanates from a genuine place of compassion, the political expediency of the outreach to an acceptable entity makes it practical.
None of this negates the fact that black colleges and universities are a national treasure and vital to the well-being of black America. These institutions serve a very specific student population, most of whom have lived experiences wanting for full and equal access to justice and opportunity. And yet, as Johnny Taylor Jr. of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund wrote last year, “It does not seem to matter that a large group of historically underfunded and poorly treated schools, representing just 3 percent of America’s colleges, produces a whopping 50 percent of black lawyers, 40 percent of black engineers and the majority of black public school teachers.” And a recent Gallup poll shows that HBCU graduates are “more likely than black graduates of other institutions to be thriving—strong, consistent and progressing—in a number of areas of their lives, particularly in their financial and purpose well-being.”
Meanwhile, the presidents of black colleges and universities will continue do what they believe is best for their institutions. For many of them, that means taking meetings with Republican White Houses whenever they can get them. And the beat goes on.
