Scold-in-Chief? The Love-Hate Relationship Between HBCUs and President Obama

The Root ^ | May 18 2016 | LAWRENCE ROSS

[nickcarraway]

His Lasting Legacy: Does the Hawaii-born, Ivy League-educated president “get” the Southern vibe and culture of HBCUs?

It’s complicated.

That could be the official theme of President Barack Obama’s rapport with the African-American community in general, but even more so regarding his administration’s eight-year relationship with HBCUs, which we examine in this edition of The Root’s monthly series His Lasting Legacy. The expectations that came with the election of America’s first black president—combined with the practical, if not sobering, realities of governance, as well as some clear missteps—give Obama a decidedly mixed grade when it comes to many influential members of the HBCU community.

“Look, I named my son Barack, and he was born when he was elected, so I’m obviously a supporter of the president,” Walter Kimbrough laughed.

Kimbrough, president of Dillard University in New Orleans, previously served as president of Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. Kimbrough regularly advocates for HBCUs as the most crucial incubators of black college graduates, and sees HBCUs as centers of innovation.

“But I didn’t have great expectations,” Kimbrough continued. “I wasn’t going to set myself up like that. People wanted an activist like Martin Luther King Jr., and I was thinking that he was still going to have to work with white folks like Mitch McConnell who wanted to get rid of him from day one.”

Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO and president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and one of Obama’s harshest critics, echoed Kimbrough’s outlook on his initial expectations for the Obama administration and HBCUs.

[Glad2bnuts]

What is HBCU?

[nickcarraway]

Historically Black College and Universities.

[Elsiejay]

I expected it to be “Hawaii born” something.

[MUDDOG]

So phony when he puts on an ebonics accent.

[IronJack]

Maybe ""HBCU means something to someone, but it sure doesn't mean anything to me. If a writer is going to use obscure abbreviations, protocol calls for him to explain what the letters stand for with the first use.

For cripes's sake, learn some basic journalism, journalists.

[jtal]

Can you imagine being saddled with “barack” for a name your entire life? I expect a flood of name change filings in about 2027 or so.

[faithhopecharity]

any writer who begins with the apparent lie that BHO (or whatever his real name may be) was “born in Hawaii”

does NOT get my readership for the rest of his propaganda

unless it also says he has proof BHO was born in Hawaii and not in Kenya like his grandma and aunt both state

[BwanaNdege]

Segregated by Race Institutions of ‘Higher’ Learning?

[BwanaNdege]

“The Root: Black News, Opinion, Politics and Culture
www.theroot.com/
Daily online news site that provides commentary on today’s news from a variety of African America perspectives.”

[nickcarraway]

Do you have proof where he was born?

[faithhopecharity]

No, and neither does anyone else
and that’s precisely the problem

we do know his book and publisher say he was born in Kenya
we do know his grandmother and aunt say they were present at his birth in Kenya
we do know he’s hidden his real birth certificate, releasing only a doctored pixel page instead
we do know he’s hidden his immigration file (so leaving aside his lack of qualification for the office, we don’t even know he is an USA citizen or whether he entered America legally or not)
we do know he uses a stolen SSA number
we do know he has hidden his school records (which would, if applicable, indicate admission as a foreign student)
we do know he has hidden any Selective Service records (if he ever registered, that is)
.....
we know or have reason to believe or question all of the above.
we certainly do NOT know where he was born or what his real citizenship may be
...and there’s nothing new in anything above that has not been discussed at great length here on FR so I am not proceeding with again now. Just in answer to your question, no...none of us knows or can prove anything significant about him (he’s used maybe 4 different names, per reports, too....so I will call him by the one he wishes to be known by now...as courtesy...but have we had any other occupant of our WH like this?)

anyway, No. is the answer.

[faithhopecharity]

incidentally before I bow out of this topic thread,

wouldn’t it have been nice if our mass MEDIA had bothered to investigate and inform us, the American voters, who BHO was/is.. and all the rest about him?

.....that’s a big part of what JOURNALISM is supposed to include