Speaker 1: School is back in session, and you know what that means.
Speaker 1: Homecoming is right around the corner, and nobody does homecomings
Speaker 1: like historically Black colleges and Universities or HBCUs. Zakiah went
Speaker 1: to Hampton University, so she knows all about it. So
Speaker 1: this week we're throwing back to a past episode where
Speaker 1: we did the science of HBCUs. It was a special
Speaker 1: episode because we had one of our favorites, Xavier Jernigan,
Speaker 1: who is the Spotify DJ and a fam you alum,
Speaker 1: What an.
Speaker 2: HBCU means to me is friendship.
Speaker 1: So I met them in two thousand and three and
Speaker 1: what is it twenty twenty one?
Speaker 3: So lifelong a frenticships, That's what it means to me.
Speaker 4: Yes, And I think at HBCU was a nurture and
Speaker 4: environment that puts US African Americans in a great spot,
Speaker 4: especially when we go into our endeavors. Whatever your career
Speaker 4: may be, it's that you up for success.
Speaker 5: Do it.
Speaker 6: How you guys doing. I am Timothy McDonald. I am
Speaker 6: a senior chemical engineering major from Baltimore, Maryland, and I
Speaker 6: have the pleasure of serving as a forty fourth mister
Speaker 6: Howard University, being on campus is the epitome of black excellence.
Speaker 6: I would say, being surrounded by people not only of
Speaker 6: black minds, but black minds who are willing to challenge you.
Speaker 6: That's something that I hadn't faced in high school. I
Speaker 6: went to a majority white high school, right, and I
Speaker 6: just didn't have a lot of people that looked like me.
Speaker 6: And once I came to Howard, I knew that it
Speaker 6: was home. I knew that it was the place I
Speaker 6: had to be for the next four years. And even
Speaker 6: though we have been in a pandemic and it's been hard,
Speaker 6: now that we're back and it feels like, you know,
Speaker 6: just an outpour of good times vibes and just being
Speaker 6: around black people. It's like a cookout, right, but all
Speaker 6: day every day. So that's something I'm really enjoyed. So
Speaker 6: our chant is something that you got to learn, which
Speaker 6: is at you. You know, that's something you do maybe
Speaker 6: a thousand times in the first week alone. So that
Speaker 6: is something and it kind of transcends classes. Right. You
Speaker 6: can have alumni from ninety six all the way back
Speaker 6: to sixty six and they're gonna know hu, you know, right,
Speaker 6: So it's that chance that we hold near and dear
Speaker 6: to all heart, Thank.
Speaker 3: You so much.
Speaker 7: No problem, No problem.
Speaker 3: I'm t T and I'm Zakiyah and from Spotify.
Speaker 2: This is Dope Labs.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that makes it
Speaker 3: hardcore science, pop culture, and a healthy dose of friendship. Okay, Zekiah,
Speaker 3: I have a question for you. Shoot. What do Spike, Lee,
Speaker 3: Tony Morrison, w E. B.
Speaker 1: Dubois, Thirdgood Marshall, Jerry, Rice, Felicia, and Debbie Allen all
Speaker 1: have in common.
Speaker 3: Fantasy dinner wishless.
Speaker 1: Yes, but also they all went to historically black colleges
Speaker 1: and universities. So HBCUs yes, And that's right on time
Speaker 1: because it's Black History Month and this week we're focusing
Speaker 1: on HBCUs.
Speaker 3: We're covering everything from history to homecoming. We're delving right
Speaker 3: into the HBCU experience. You know, HBCUs have been in
Speaker 3: the news, they've been in the media. We've seen them
Speaker 3: portray positively. We've seen students complaining about conditions at different HBCUs.
Speaker 3: So remember in DC at Howard we saw some folks protesting, yeah,
Speaker 3: about their housing conditions. Yes, and Howard is not alone.
Speaker 3: A couple of other schools have seen some similar things.
Speaker 3: Happening some similar feedback from their students. Then recently, just
Speaker 3: earlier this month, do you remember when all the bomb
Speaker 3: threats were called into the hbc My goodness, that was
Speaker 3: so scared.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, you know, I feel like we're seeing positive things,
Speaker 3: but also negative things and outside influences.
Speaker 7: Just so much going on.
Speaker 3: But I think there's still a lot to celebrate about
Speaker 3: the HBCU experience.
Speaker 1: And Zakiya, I am really excited about this because you
Speaker 1: went to an HBCU.
Speaker 3: Yes, I am a graduate of Hampton University, and so
Speaker 3: I can't wait to reminisce and talk about some of
Speaker 3: my HBCU experience. Those are some formative years. I cannot wait.
Speaker 1: Let's get into the recitation, all right, So what do
Speaker 1: we know today?
Speaker 3: There are just over one hundred HBCUs in the United States,
Speaker 3: and that equals about three percent of our colleges and universities,
Speaker 3: both public and private. Many of our HBCUs are located
Speaker 3: in the Southern States, and Alabama has the most HBCU
Speaker 3: per state, with twelve total.
Speaker 1: Another thing that we know is that HBCUs play a
Speaker 1: huge part in education, and we are particularly focused on
Speaker 1: STEM education and addressing inequalities in STEM education.
Speaker 3: Yes, as a matter of fact, about twenty seven percent
Speaker 3: of black undergrads got their STEM degrees from HBCUs, and
Speaker 3: if you look at black doctors in the US, fifty
Speaker 3: percent of them are HBCU graduates.
Speaker 1: Not to mention, in my field of engineering, forty six
Speaker 1: percent of black women engineers graduated from HBCUs and thirty
Speaker 1: percent of black doctorates in science and engineering are from HBCUs.
Speaker 3: You know, HBCUs have been underfunded for decades, and we're
Speaker 3: starting to see some lawsuits in cases where states are
Speaker 3: having to pay up. So just last year, the governor
Speaker 3: of Maryland, Hogan, signed a settlement for five hundred and
Speaker 3: seventy seven million dollars to go to Maryland's HBCUs. What
Speaker 3: they found is that the whole statewide system of education
Speaker 3: for Maryland was disproportionately sending funds to primarily white institutions
Speaker 3: and underfunding the for HBCUs under their care. So over
Speaker 3: the next ten years they will disperse those funds back
Speaker 3: to those schools.
Speaker 1: The twenty five largest predominantly white institutions, their endowments are
Speaker 1: greater than the endowments of all the HBCUs combined.
Speaker 3: So what do we want to know?
Speaker 1: I know that there's a lot that I want to
Speaker 1: know because I didn't go to HBCU unfortunately, so I've
Speaker 1: got a lot of questions because I feel like it'll
Speaker 1: help me know my friend even better.
Speaker 3: Well, we're going to focus on a couple things, friendship
Speaker 3: and camaraderie, mentorship and stewardship. How attended a HBCU might
Speaker 3: affect your identity, so the black experience and different perspectives
Speaker 3: and campus life, and then we'll talk about how HBCUs
Speaker 3: have been portrayed in the media. But one component of
Speaker 3: that that we have to touch is homecoming, which is
Speaker 3: a celebration of coming together and being back on campus.
Speaker 3: We said three things, but I couldn't stop.
Speaker 1: I am very excited to dive in, so let's jump
Speaker 1: into the dissection.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 1: We are so excited to have our friend Xavier Journegan
Speaker 1: on the show. He's gonna be talking to us all
Speaker 1: about his HBCU experience as well as Zakiah, So we
Speaker 1: got two experts today.
Speaker 7: I'm Xavier Journegan.
Speaker 8: Everybody calls me x I'm the host of The Get Up,
Speaker 8: Spotify's daily morning show and I'm also an exec at Spotify,
Speaker 8: and I'm a proud, proud Florida A and M University fam.
Speaker 8: You rattler, I bleed Arnge and Green.
Speaker 7: Yes, I said it, Arnge in Green.
Speaker 1: Choosing a college, if you decide to go to college,
Speaker 1: is a really big deal. Choosing the right college, choosing
Speaker 1: a place where you know you'll feel comfortable to further
Speaker 1: your education is a really big deal. And as you
Speaker 1: can hear, we have someone who is very proud of
Speaker 1: their institution on the show.
Speaker 3: We asked X to tell us why he chose an
Speaker 3: HBCU and where his beginnings of his love for HBCUs
Speaker 3: kind of started.
Speaker 8: My hometown, Daytona is an HBCU city, so I grew
Speaker 8: up around and my aunt and uncle worked there. My
Speaker 8: cousin Zach was section leader at the drum line at Cooking.
Speaker 8: My cousin Terry, his sister, went to cook Mean and
Speaker 8: we always went to the homecoming parade. Zach will march
Speaker 8: by me and my brother and show out in front
Speaker 8: of us and wink at us, and then me and
Speaker 8: my brother became drummers.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like your hbc YOU experience started when
Speaker 1: you were really, really young, very young. I've definitely heard
Speaker 1: that with a lot of people that I know that
Speaker 1: went to HBCUs, they were exposed to HBCU cultures young.
Speaker 7: Now. I do think that's a big part of it,
Speaker 7: exposure to it.
Speaker 8: And I grew up on like school Days came out
Speaker 8: when I was a little kid, and in a different
Speaker 8: world was like, those are my formative years.
Speaker 3: X is making a really good point. Tt I feel
Speaker 3: like over the past couple of years there has been
Speaker 3: so much HBCU exposure in the media. Absolutely, if you
Speaker 3: think back to Beyonce's Homecoming at Coachella, that performance, Yes, yes,
Speaker 3: I've even recently seen Little nas X did something. It
Speaker 3: wasn't HBCU centric, but it definitely gave me homecoming vibes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely drumline homecoming, you know, things like that.
Speaker 3: So X talks about exposure in the media that kind
Speaker 3: of drove his love for HBCUs as well, specifically School Days,
Speaker 3: which was written, directed, and produced by Spike Lee who
Speaker 3: graduated from Morehouse and all male HBCU and School Days
Speaker 3: also gives a good view of, yes, the HVCU experience,
Speaker 3: but in particular the Black Greek experience, and TT.
Speaker 7: You know a little bit about that.
Speaker 3: Yes, the Divine Nine.
Speaker 1: It's made up of nine fraternities and sororities, and I
Speaker 1: am a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
Speaker 8: So like going up to the campus, me and my
Speaker 8: mom and my brother would go up there and just
Speaker 8: hang out in my aunt Helen's office or my uncle
Speaker 8: James's office and just being in that environment. And then
Speaker 8: my mom went to Cookman and a big part of
Speaker 8: my story, y'all, so my mom had me and my
Speaker 8: brother young. My mom was about to enter her freshman
Speaker 8: year at Bathune Cookman at eighteen.
Speaker 7: She was pregnant with my brother. I ain't come along
Speaker 7: in the next summer.
Speaker 8: She still keeps going, but then it was too much,
Speaker 8: so she didn't finish. But all throughout growing up, y'all,
Speaker 8: she will always say to me and my brother, I'm
Speaker 8: going to go back one day. And just a few
Speaker 8: years ago, my mom finally went back to the Cookman
Speaker 8: University and she was able to finish that degree, and
Speaker 8: then she went on and got her master's because she's
Speaker 8: a g That's the HBCU experience, Zakia.
Speaker 1: Listening to X, it really brings back memories from stories
Speaker 1: that you've told me about your upbringing and your experience
Speaker 1: at Hampton because you grew up in Greensboro, so you
Speaker 1: were near an HBCU.
Speaker 3: Yes, what ex is saying resonates so much with me
Speaker 3: because I grew up in Greensboro, and that's where North
Speaker 3: Carolina A and T is, and it's where Bennett College is,
Speaker 3: which is a women's HBCU. It's a huge university town.
Speaker 3: I was talking to somebody and I was saying, Hey,
Speaker 3: I know you went to A and T, but would
Speaker 3: it be strange for me to have an A and
Speaker 3: T sweater? And They're like, you didn't go to A
Speaker 3: and T, But I feel like A and T raised
Speaker 3: b Yep. When I think about my trajectory, my path
Speaker 3: to science, I always say it started with these Saturday
Speaker 3: academies for math and science at North Carolina A and T. Yeah,
Speaker 3: my mom was going back to school at A and
Speaker 3: T while I was in middle school, and so Saturdays
Speaker 3: I was going to these academies learning more or math
Speaker 3: and science and doing like the SAT and psat training.
Speaker 3: And then by the time I got to high school,
Speaker 3: one of my first summer jobs was working on A
Speaker 3: and T's campus. In the Ron McNair building, which was
Speaker 3: named after Ron McNair, who was a black astronaut. And
Speaker 3: my first exposure, TT was in your lane in engineering.
Speaker 3: I was doing some civil engineering stuff with the Army
Speaker 3: Research Lab in North Carolina, A and T. And that
Speaker 3: was like my first hands on science internship that I
Speaker 3: was doing. Yes, you know, TT, I feel like there's
Speaker 3: been a lot of conversation about high school students and
Speaker 3: just people in general when it comes time to deciding, Okay,
Speaker 3: yes I am going to college. Do I want to
Speaker 3: go to an HBCU or a predominantly white institution or
Speaker 3: IVY League. You know, I feel like we've been seeing
Speaker 3: a trend towards high profile students going to HBCUs. Exactly.
Speaker 1: Travis Hunter, he was the top college recruit for the
Speaker 1: class of twenty twenty two for football, and he chose
Speaker 1: to go to HBCU Jackson State University instead of Florida's
Speaker 1: State University. He switched his commitment and now attending Jackson State.
Speaker 3: We talked to X about this a little bit too,
Speaker 3: because that's not a new sentiment, you know, the concern
Speaker 3: about what does it mean if you choose an HBCU
Speaker 3: earlier in your career, and he's heard some different arguments
Speaker 3: against it as well.
Speaker 8: There's like this argument out there, it's like, oh, don't
Speaker 8: go to an HBCU because that's not the real world.
Speaker 8: But when do you get another time to be around
Speaker 8: your true peer group, not just age age and people
Speaker 8: with a similar experience from you, like cultural experience for
Speaker 8: a five year period in my life.
Speaker 7: And what that.
Speaker 8: Does is it removes, at least on that campus race.
Speaker 8: There is no Black student union, is just the student
Speaker 8: union because we're ninety percent black, and it's just this loving,
Speaker 8: welcoming space. It's truly the definition of what a safe
Speaker 8: space is. It gives you this confidence to know that
Speaker 8: you can go out in the world after and truly
Speaker 8: know who you are. When we're talking about HBCUs, we're
Speaker 8: talking about schools that were the only schools that could
Speaker 8: and would educate black folks when they didn't want us
Speaker 8: at the other schools. For me to choose to go there,
Speaker 8: it's just something really special to me. The college experience
Speaker 8: was the black college experience, and that's the only experience
Speaker 8: I wanted. So I only applied to Howard fam at
Speaker 8: the time, and I got accepted to both. You know,
Speaker 8: my brother was at Howard FAM had the five year NBA.
Speaker 7: I went to FAM.
Speaker 8: It was that simple and it was the best choice
Speaker 8: of my life. Never regretted it. Loved every day I
Speaker 8: was that even in bad days.
Speaker 7: Was special. The bonds you form.
Speaker 8: They cared like FAM's model was excellence with caring, and
Speaker 8: that's real.
Speaker 7: Like we're gonna push you to be great, we gonna care.
Speaker 8: About you, but we're gonna hold you accountable and if
Speaker 8: you messing up, we're gonna tell you. So I had,
Speaker 8: you know, a mom from home, doctor harp from my heart,
Speaker 8: like she helped me down.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 7: It's just a special, special experience.
Speaker 3: I think we all can think back to, you know,
Speaker 3: special people who guided us or kept us on the
Speaker 3: right track as we were moving through our academic careers. Yes,
Speaker 3: and I always love this story that you tell about
Speaker 3: doctor White. I met a woman. Her name was doctor
Speaker 3: Gladys Hope Franklin White. She came to my high school
Speaker 3: and she was like, Hey, I want to talk to
Speaker 3: people that want to go to college. She wasn't an
Speaker 3: alumna of Hampton University. If I told her what I
Speaker 3: wanted to do, she said, have you taken the SAT
Speaker 3: I have these Saturday classes. I mean it was very
Speaker 3: much a community and nurturing kind of thing.
Speaker 7: That's right.
Speaker 3: I love that she said come to my church. The
Speaker 3: admissions officer will be here. You can apply in person,
Speaker 3: you can tell your story, talk to them.
Speaker 7: Come on.
Speaker 3: And I got a full ride that day to Hampton
Speaker 3: when I went to meet with the admissions officer.
Speaker 7: That's huge.
Speaker 3: And I had no clue. This woman was just helping me.
Speaker 3: She helped all these other people. She had helped my
Speaker 3: friend Randy the year before. And when I actually went
Speaker 3: to visit Hampton, I was like, Oh, Gladys Hope Franklin
Speaker 3: White Hall, this is her dorm. She earned that thought
Speaker 3: a lot of people in that dome. This type of
Speaker 3: community shows up in different places. So I was able
Speaker 3: to do admissions at a local church. But this is
Speaker 3: no different from some of the offers to interview applicants
Speaker 3: to do or to other schools that we get as
Speaker 3: a lums.
Speaker 1: Right, Absolutely, absolutely, It's a story you hear in a
Speaker 1: lot of different spaces.
Speaker 3: White folks do this all the time. Yes, the Good.
Speaker 1: Old Boys Club exists, and what HBCU grads and HBCU
Speaker 1: faculty and staff do. Is just that giving people opportunity
Speaker 1: and chances that they might not be aware about or say, hey,
Speaker 1: I know somebody that.
Speaker 3: You can talk to.
Speaker 1: They're giving you additional resource. Is that your white counterparts
Speaker 1: are getting. We see it all the time.
Speaker 3: It just feels so special to see these folks. You know,
Speaker 3: have you ever met on any other traditional you know,
Speaker 3: PWI campus. Have you ever met the person that the
Speaker 3: dorm is named after? Have they ever come and recruited
Speaker 3: you and your friends? No? And that type of love
Speaker 3: and care that is central to the hbc you experience,
Speaker 3: and I think we try to do it across the board.
Speaker 3: I've tried to bring TT into the HBCU folk. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have my Hampton sweatshirt that now I'm afraid to
Speaker 1: wear because I wore it in the airport because I
Speaker 1: was going to visit a Kia.
Speaker 3: It was for her birthday.
Speaker 1: I was meeting up with her and all of her
Speaker 1: friends from Hampton, qt F the arm everybody.
Speaker 3: So I put on my Hampton sweatshirt.
Speaker 1: And I was in the airport and beautiful black woman
Speaker 1: comes up to me and she says, I like your sweatshirt,
Speaker 1: and I said thank you.
Speaker 3: That wasn't the right answer. I was a fraud.
Speaker 1: She knew that I did not go to Hampton and
Speaker 1: I was mortified. I started sweating. I was like, sweatshirt
Speaker 1: got so heavy, it felt like.
Speaker 3: A million pounds. In that moment, I was just like,
Speaker 3: someone helped me get this.
Speaker 7: Off bulletproof vest on all of a.
Speaker 3: Sudden real And that's what it is, the HBCU experience.
Speaker 3: People are holding you accountable. They're like, do you belong
Speaker 3: in that Hampton shirt? Are you really a Hamptonia? And
Speaker 3: there's so much nuance even from university to university, and
Speaker 3: even when you get to a school, tt little groups
Speaker 3: at that school. Absolutely, as we know, black people are
Speaker 3: not a monolith, and there are lots of different types
Speaker 3: of black folks. And you and ex told me about
Speaker 3: your experiences on your HBCU campuses, and you're exposure to
Speaker 3: different black upbringings and lifestyles.
Speaker 8: Most of my friends growing up came from single parent homes.
Speaker 8: I thought that was the norm because that was all
Speaker 8: my friends. I went to fam I was in the
Speaker 8: minority when it came to that. So my roommate lands
Speaker 8: he had both his parents in the house. My boy
Speaker 8: Brian both parents, Alita both parents, Erica both parents, Comal
Speaker 8: both parents. I got this other experience and I needed that, y'all.
Speaker 8: I didn't know I needed it until I met a
Speaker 8: whole bunch of people who had an opposite experience coming
Speaker 8: from the black Community's a kid, what about you?
Speaker 3: I can remember my first day coming on the campus
Speaker 3: similar to you X. You know, I just thought, my
Speaker 3: experience is my experience. This is black folks in the South.
Speaker 3: Virginia is still the South to me, right, It's true,
Speaker 3: my guy. When I got there, I was like, who
Speaker 3: are all these people dressing different? I always tell t
Speaker 3: T because T is from PG County, and so I
Speaker 3: always tell her the Maryland and Baltimore people are just ninjas.
Speaker 3: They have Yeah, it was New Balances, it was Nike,
Speaker 3: ACG boots. There were all these little microcosms of blackness
Speaker 3: that I didn't even know about. There were stratf cations
Speaker 3: of class, socioeconomic status, exposure to different things, things that
Speaker 3: were related to geography, language difference that you could just
Speaker 3: pick up on and hear. Exposure to music culture just
Speaker 3: so much, and I grew to appreciate black culture in
Speaker 3: such a way that I hadn't experienced and hadn't appreciated before,
Speaker 3: and so I was meeting people for the first time
Speaker 3: from the Caribbean. One of my closest friends my first year,
Speaker 3: she came in and she was already married. That wasn'theard
Speaker 3: of to me.
Speaker 7: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: One of my other exposures from Hampton is everybody I
Speaker 3: knew up until then what I considered to be middle
Speaker 3: class or doing well. When I got to Hampton, I
Speaker 3: met folks whose parents were in entertainment or show business
Speaker 3: or were lawyers. And my parent is about to be
Speaker 3: a judge. This is how we do their campaign. Like
Speaker 3: things that I was never exposed to. People whose parents
Speaker 3: were doctors. I didn't know anybody who was a doctor
Speaker 3: before that. Just meeting other people who look like you
Speaker 3: and it opened the world of possibility for me.
Speaker 7: I totally agree.
Speaker 8: You see somebody that looked like they could be your
Speaker 8: uncle or your dad.
Speaker 7: That's big to see.
Speaker 8: That at like seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty years old.
Speaker 1: Right, So it contributes to the if you can see it,
Speaker 1: you can be it mentality.
Speaker 3: So I've heard a lot.
Speaker 1: Of things about life on campus at HBCUs, some things
Speaker 1: like dress.
Speaker 3: Codes, curfews and things like that.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to know more about that.
Speaker 3: Hampton had a lot of rules our first year. We
Speaker 3: couldn't have a car as a freshman. Yeah, it was
Speaker 3: in by like nine or eleven or something like. You
Speaker 3: need to be in the dorm and we didn't have
Speaker 3: co ed dorms. We didn't either, and we had a
Speaker 3: dorm mother or a father somebody who stayed in the dorm.
Speaker 3: And our dorm mother, her name was mssus Charity and Titi.
Speaker 3: You remember, on my birthday we recorded a video message
Speaker 3: for my dorm mother, whom we all still keep in
Speaker 3: touch with all these years later. And so there was
Speaker 3: just this feeling of community and you got in trouble.
Speaker 3: You would not appear as a Hampton University student on
Speaker 3: the news. You would appear as a former Hampton University
Speaker 3: student and they would call it outlive because you would
Speaker 3: be stilled by five pm.
Speaker 7: That's real.
Speaker 3: It was very strict, you know.
Speaker 8: One of the things that famed the dorms were separated,
Speaker 8: so if you went to visit a girl, you couldn't
Speaker 8: go past the lobby and when you stepped in the
Speaker 8: building you had to give an ID sign in and
Speaker 8: be approved, and all you could do was sit in
Speaker 8: the lobby and it was doors that would lock on
Speaker 8: either side of the lobby.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ain't no sneaky links.
Speaker 7: No sneaky links is real. Nah, it ain't going down.
Speaker 8: And you see all these guys lined up on the
Speaker 8: stairs like waiting for the girl they want to talk to.
Speaker 8: I just remember hearing stories about people sneaking people into
Speaker 8: the dorms. That's not happening with the girls doring, but
Speaker 8: it was a way to do it in Sampson Hall.
Speaker 7: Where I stayed. Another story for another day.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's curfew. What about dress code?
Speaker 8: Talking about dress, going to the School of Business and
Speaker 8: Industry SBI, there were certain dress that we had to
Speaker 8: wear for certain events. We had to wear a certain
Speaker 8: dress code on certain days. Blue suit for men, not
Speaker 8: black blue or power gray. It was teaching us how
Speaker 8: to be ready for the corporate world. And it'd be like, listen,
Speaker 8: you're going to get judged on the way you look,
Speaker 8: So do you want to get discriminated against because you
Speaker 8: don't know the proper dress and the proper etiquette in
Speaker 8: the business environment, Because you already got certain things to
Speaker 8: deal with as black folks, we're going to go in
Speaker 8: there and we're going to be dope.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I remember receiving something in the mail that said,
Speaker 3: you need to have a black pant or skirt suit.
Speaker 3: You need to have a white dress. That was for convocation.
Speaker 3: There's a building on campus called Ogden Hall, and there's
Speaker 3: a circle in front of it, and there's, first of all,
Speaker 3: some superstition that you don't walk across the grass in
Speaker 3: Ogden Circle or you won't graduate on time. But the
Speaker 3: way they told us, this is how you dressed when
Speaker 3: you come to Ogden Hall. This was like our auditorium.
Speaker 3: So when people were describing a tire for events, it
Speaker 3: would say you wear your Ogden's Best.
Speaker 7: I like that.
Speaker 3: Two different things, right, I'm coming to my Ougden's Best. Yes,
Speaker 3: we knew what we were supposed to have on. And
Speaker 3: you just got used to dressing up. You got used
Speaker 3: to being comfortable in those clothes. If it's your turn
Speaker 3: to present in class, you're dressing up. You're not presenting
Speaker 3: in your jeans. Not happening.
Speaker 1: I presented them pajamas. What was wrong with me? You know,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you think these people are important people? Clearly
Speaker 1: their professors why wouldn't you try and impress them?
Speaker 3: And you've seen this in person. TT Remember when we
Speaker 3: went to a and T gave that to.
Speaker 1: Everyone was so impressive. Folks came in their Ogden's best okay,
Speaker 1: and they were ready. First of all, when folks would
Speaker 1: stand up, everyone knew the exact spill to give.
Speaker 3: To introduce themselves.
Speaker 1: So they would say their name, they would say what
Speaker 1: year they were, they would say where they were from,
Speaker 1: and then they would proceed with their question.
Speaker 7: That's right. We would talk that good afternoon. I'm Xavier Journigan.
Speaker 8: I am a fourth year NBA student from Daytona Beach, Florida.
Speaker 7: Same thing we got taught that in SBI. I was
Speaker 7: like week one. Oh you know what else? Two handshakes.
Speaker 8: We got taught how to do handshakes, look at each
Speaker 8: other in the eye, and then do that with the introduction.
Speaker 7: As well.
Speaker 8: As a freshman, we had to go around with a notebook.
Speaker 8: It was called a nothing book and you carried it
Speaker 8: around your first semester and you had to have upper
Speaker 8: classmen sign it. But you had to go up to
Speaker 8: them and give the proper introduction. They'll correct you if
Speaker 8: the handshake was wrong. Like no, you do it like this, Okay,
Speaker 8: try it again, and once you got it right, then
Speaker 8: they would sign your nothing book. And you had to
Speaker 8: get three signatures the week for like the whole first semester,
Speaker 8: so you had to go up to professors to upper.
Speaker 7: Classmen, wow, until you got it down.
Speaker 3: We didn't have a book like that. But there was
Speaker 3: something very similar about this culture of each one teach
Speaker 3: one right, the upper classes looking out, and everybody had
Speaker 3: like big brothers and big sisters, like folks who moved
Speaker 3: out for you and your crew told you what you
Speaker 3: needed to be doing, like these are the classes you
Speaker 3: should take, here's who you should talk to.
Speaker 7: That's right.
Speaker 8: There's a class where you learn all the presidents of
Speaker 8: the school before if you had to learn that, we
Speaker 8: had to learn our alma mater. We had to learn
Speaker 8: the Negro national anthem. We sung the Negro national anthem before.
Speaker 8: Every form and forum was like a big thing on
Speaker 8: Tuesdays and Thursdays where a big executive from a company,
Speaker 8: for example, Ken Chenault from AMX came down a bunch
Speaker 8: of people.
Speaker 7: This was every week.
Speaker 8: They'd give a speech and a student would introduce them,
Speaker 8: and then we had to ask questions for grades. So
Speaker 8: I go into Corporate America, I had the confidence to
Speaker 8: ask CEO's questions.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 8: So we would have mock dinners and we would have
Speaker 8: receptions where different companies would come in that have relationships
Speaker 8: with FAM and SBI.
Speaker 7: We're going to know how to move in these rooms,
Speaker 7: and you're going to.
Speaker 8: Know how to dress and what proper fork to use
Speaker 8: when you're at dinner.
Speaker 7: That was so special and so important.
Speaker 8: So when you had your interviews and did your internships,
Speaker 8: you were really confident there.
Speaker 7: And I carry a lot of that with me today.
Speaker 3: And there's also just so much culture around being the
Speaker 3: product of an HBCU, so like different songs you sing
Speaker 3: and poems, to know just all kinds of stuff like that.
Speaker 3: You also get that education too, and it's so valuable,
Speaker 3: and I think we see more and more people appreciating
Speaker 3: that as they learn that that's part of the HBCU experience.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll have much
Speaker 1: more with x when we get back. And we're back,
Speaker 1: let's jump into our deep dive with guest expert Xavier
Speaker 1: Journegan on HBCUs. So, my next question is about HBCUs
Speaker 1: in the media X. I know that you have mentioned
Speaker 1: school days and how important that was to you, and
Speaker 1: we also talked a little bit about a Different World,
Speaker 1: which I was absolutely fascinated by growing up and watching that.
Speaker 1: I binge watched a Different World again and it just
Speaker 1: gets better and better with age, and it really highlights
Speaker 1: another point that you and Zekey were making about the
Speaker 1: nuance of blackness. Do you feel like all of the
Speaker 1: different TV shows that are set at HBCUs are accurate
Speaker 1: in their depiction of HBCU culture.
Speaker 7: I was so fortunate.
Speaker 8: One of my favorite interviews so far that I've done
Speaker 8: on The Get Up is I got to sit down
Speaker 8: with Evatt Lee Bowser Goat. She created Living Single, the
Speaker 8: first Black woman to create a network sitcom. Friends took
Speaker 8: that archetype. Sex and the City took that archetype. She
Speaker 8: was a writer and a producer on a Different World.
Speaker 8: I thought A Different World totally nailed it. I experienced
Speaker 8: that as a little kid. Then I went to FAM
Speaker 8: and then my appreciation for a Different World went on
Speaker 8: another level because it was just like, Yo, they really
Speaker 8: got that right.
Speaker 3: I heard that a Different World was based off of Hampton.
Speaker 3: Is that true?
Speaker 8: I think it was an amalgamation of a few schools.
Speaker 8: I think it was like, I know, it was Spelman's
Speaker 8: campus that they shot, like the exterior scenes like when
Speaker 8: they show a campus, but the fictitious school, Hellman, was
Speaker 8: actually in Virginia and they would go to DC sometimes.
Speaker 3: Yes, when I think about it, I feel like every
Speaker 3: show from our time really depicts it well. I feel
Speaker 3: like I have a friend that fits every one of
Speaker 3: those types of characters. And I think about shows like
Speaker 3: Martin where people are wearing HBC es gear and stuff.
Speaker 3: Like living single, it feels like that people are still friends.
Speaker 3: You meet other people's friends from college. It's all this connectedness.
Speaker 3: So at Hampton, we had two cafeterias.
Speaker 7: We did too. We did too.
Speaker 3: One was the big main cafeteria, and on the other
Speaker 3: side of the kitchen for that cafeteria was a smaller
Speaker 3: seating area that they called the little calf Okay, so
Speaker 3: they're connected. They were connected, but they were only connected
Speaker 3: by the kitchen. So they had different entrances and stuff. Okay,
Speaker 3: And it's just so crazy to me that different HBCUs
Speaker 3: they find the smallest things to claim and represent. It's
Speaker 3: not just oh, I went to this school. It's not
Speaker 3: just oh I was this kind of major. Oh I
Speaker 3: was in this dorm. It's also like I'm team Little Calf.
Speaker 3: I saw Justin Tinsley who graduated from Hampton and he's
Speaker 3: a writer. He just did that great podcast with Nipsey Hustle, Yes,
Speaker 3: the thirty for thirty. Yes, he was tweeting and he
Speaker 3: said team Little Calf, and it just brought back so
Speaker 3: many memories when I saw it, because me, I'm team
Speaker 3: Big Calf.
Speaker 1: Okay, then we're Team Big Calf. Was there difference in
Speaker 1: the food.
Speaker 3: The vibes are totally different, Like one of them might
Speaker 3: have had a waffle station on Sundays, or they opened
Speaker 3: at different times, like the Big Calf opened at four pm.
Speaker 3: I was opening up with the people. I'm like, let
Speaker 3: me help you push these chairs in and get ready.
Speaker 3: I wanted to right then. It was like clicks right.
Speaker 3: There were always these older people who were like, now, baby,
Speaker 3: you don't need to be eating this. You've been having
Speaker 3: Corby's cash every day. That's not good for you. All
Speaker 3: of this stuff it just felt so true to my
Speaker 3: singular experience and now realizing it's true across all these
Speaker 3: experiences and really what I'm trying to say is that
Speaker 3: the portrayals of the HBCU experience that I see on
Speaker 3: television feel realistic to me because they capture some of
Speaker 3: this nuance even on a different world. The importance of
Speaker 3: mister Gaines.
Speaker 1: Yes, he was so important a pillar in that community,
Speaker 1: and that was very real. Mister Gaines was the cafeteria man.
Speaker 1: He was one of the cooks for the cafeteria. I
Speaker 1: think he was the head cook. And then some of
Speaker 1: the students would work for him, and he gave really
Speaker 1: great advice. He was very funny and he was critical.
Speaker 3: And they began to realize that it's kind of true
Speaker 3: across all these different experiences regards of which HBCU you
Speaker 3: went to, it's like, hmm, they really nailed it.
Speaker 8: Yes, sk there's this universal experience which bonds all of
Speaker 8: us that went to HBCUs. And you know, we'll say
Speaker 8: HBCU pride, we'll shout that out, and we'll try to go.
Speaker 7: To each other's homecomings.
Speaker 8: I remember when Hour and Fam played in DC. We
Speaker 8: took a trip up to DC, so I hung with
Speaker 8: my brother and then one time he came down and
Speaker 8: surprised me and hung with me and my friends at FAM,
Speaker 8: which was like one of my all time favorite memories.
Speaker 1: And just hearing X talk about going to other people's
Speaker 1: football games, that makes me think about homecoming and what
Speaker 1: we all know. I don't care where you went to school.
Speaker 1: You know that HBCU homecomings are different. Okay, they're built different.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's talk about it because it is something special
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 8: People care first and foremost, we care about homecoming. My
Speaker 8: understanding that pwis people don't really care about homecoming is
Speaker 8: just a regular game.
Speaker 3: I have literally never gone back to homecoming.
Speaker 7: Right. We make plans.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you're in advance, like you're going to homecom You're
Speaker 8: going home when the football schedule is released that day,
Speaker 8: we're booking rooms. It's like that serious and man, just
Speaker 8: to be there on campus again with the outfits, all
Speaker 8: the FAM gear, because any FAM event you're going to
Speaker 8: have a sea of orange green. Ain't nobody got school
Speaker 8: pride like FAM, I'm telling y'all. And you go and
Speaker 8: you actually go see your professors, you email them before
Speaker 8: you go down. Like doctor Harper, who I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 8: she retired. I went and saw doctor Harper and we
Speaker 8: both were like tearing up sitting there.
Speaker 7: Talking like it's that special? How is it there? Zakia?
Speaker 3: I think back to five and six year olds Akida
Speaker 3: marching in the homecoming parade at A and T with
Speaker 3: my little thing's troop. Okay, I think about tailgating on
Speaker 3: Sullivan Street and hanging out at my aunt's house down
Speaker 3: the street from the stadium. Hampton felt a little different
Speaker 3: for me right when I was there. I didn't care
Speaker 3: about the football team. I wasn't particularly in love with
Speaker 3: the homecoming experience at Hampton, which maybe like taboo to say,
Speaker 3: because I was always going back to North Carolina for
Speaker 3: the homecoming experience at A and T right, which is
Speaker 3: known now is the greatest homecoming on earth.
Speaker 7: That's the biggest marketing again because it's it's it's it's
Speaker 7: a farce.
Speaker 3: Stop it, stop it, Aggie's. And So I went to
Speaker 3: the predominantly black high school in Greensboro, which is down
Speaker 3: the street from A and T, which they used to
Speaker 3: call a little tea where the marching band culture was
Speaker 3: really big. So the homecoming for high school would often
Speaker 3: be that Friday, and then it's A and T Homecoming Saturday, right,
Speaker 3: So people would show up at my high school homecoming.
Speaker 3: The old heads would come back and they're trying to
Speaker 3: out cheer in out march the current high school students.
Speaker 3: And so for me, it's always been going back seeing
Speaker 3: my friends and family in Greensboro. I would bring my
Speaker 3: college friends with me from Hampton to come down and
Speaker 3: experience this. We would hang out all night on Friday.
Speaker 3: We would be coming into the house late, but at
Speaker 3: seventh my mom was coming and knocking on that door,
Speaker 3: like everybody ready to go to the parade. So y'are
Speaker 3: getting up to go early morning, early morning to the parade,
Speaker 3: and you're out there all day, tailgating, walking around. Who
Speaker 3: knows where you park your car, You're probably blocked in.
Speaker 3: You're going to be there all day. People are riding
Speaker 3: up and down High Point Road all these places near
Speaker 3: the campus, and you're just running into people tailgating and
Speaker 3: the smells, the sounds generators going. People were selling those
Speaker 3: mixed CDs. You can hear the game in the background.
Speaker 3: I never really went to the game, but I would
Speaker 3: always hear cheering. I mean, it's a roar because there
Speaker 3: are so many people and older folks coming back and
Speaker 3: asking you what you're doing with your life? How can
Speaker 3: they help you. What do you want to do next?
Speaker 3: It is such a communal affair. Everybody there is rooting
Speaker 3: for everybody else.
Speaker 7: I totally agree.
Speaker 3: They used to have huge concerts Saturday night.
Speaker 7: Of course. Of course, I remember my.
Speaker 3: First homecoming concert I went to. It was Rough Riders.
Speaker 3: DMX was there, jay Z was there. It was the
Speaker 3: hard knock Life tour coming through and hearing those things
Speaker 3: on the radio leading up to it. It is just excitement.
Speaker 3: It is celebration in this truest sense.
Speaker 1: So y'all have given us a little bit of background
Speaker 1: on the sites, but let's get into the sound of Homecoming.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the bands.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so you got the guys with the flags, so
Speaker 8: the flag core. They go hard, they throw them flags
Speaker 8: down and get to pop in Florida style because we
Speaker 8: grew up on booty Shake in the state.
Speaker 7: To hear mentioned the base.
Speaker 8: But bass culture and car culture is everything, especially Daytona
Speaker 8: like home and NASCAR birthplace of auto racing. The drum majors,
Speaker 8: I think it's seven of them, and it was the
Speaker 8: first female drum major a couple of years ago, so
Speaker 8: that was a big deal. And she showed out. Now
Speaker 8: the band on the field. You know, they got this
Speaker 8: fast march that fam you is known for, and it's
Speaker 8: like a billion of them on the field. They're the
Speaker 8: march and one hundred, But that's a misnomer. It's literally
Speaker 8: like four hundred of them guys out on the field.
Speaker 7: But they're gonna play the contemporary music.
Speaker 8: I was watching a game on ESPN and they played
Speaker 8: Leave the Door Open, Bruno Mars and Silk Sign.
Speaker 7: I saw this right, you saw that.
Speaker 8: Oh at the end of their performance, they somehow in
Speaker 8: a formation formed.
Speaker 7: A stick figure with the basketball.
Speaker 8: Dunking it in a hoop. They did this on the field,
Speaker 8: and you knew exactly what they were doing. It was
Speaker 8: the illest thing I've ever seen in my life with
Speaker 8: a marching band.
Speaker 3: Do you remember Battle of the Bands? Of course, used
Speaker 3: to go to Battle of the Bands and the bands
Speaker 3: show up. I don't even feel like DRUMLND really captured it.
Speaker 3: It didn't quite get it.
Speaker 7: Yeah it was. They tried intense, y'all.
Speaker 8: But they'll also play classics because they're not trying to
Speaker 8: forget the people who came back parents. They want to
Speaker 8: play music from your time too. So everybody's singing along,
Speaker 8: everybody's standing. So at PWY homecomings or football games, halftime,
Speaker 8: that's when you go use the bathroom, go eat, get
Speaker 8: that third.
Speaker 7: So this is the truth.
Speaker 8: First quarter, super Pack, everybody's in the stands because it's
Speaker 8: the beginning of the game. Then by halfway through the
Speaker 8: first quarter, the only people who's staying are the people
Speaker 8: who really care about the game. Everybody else is going
Speaker 8: below the stands to walk around on the stadium seeing
Speaker 8: people showing off your outfit. It's a day outfit, and
Speaker 8: then you're gonna change clothes for to go out later on.
Speaker 8: But by halftime, you have your butt in your seat
Speaker 8: and everybody standing. We call it corner to corner, like
Speaker 8: every corner of the stadium field, and it's beautiful because
Speaker 8: it's just a sea of black people all on one
Speaker 8: accord and the band's playing we got a chant and
Speaker 8: it's fan Dam you Fam you fam goddang you all right,
Speaker 8: all right, all right, everybody's just singing the songs they'll
Speaker 8: hype and then so if the band kills it right,
Speaker 8: they break it down. They just basically throw their instruments
Speaker 8: down and just start popping and dancing like then they
Speaker 8: pick up the instruments, they go off the field. But
Speaker 8: the last people off the field with the marching one
Speaker 8: hundred are the tuba players, and they form a line
Speaker 8: like a snake coming.
Speaker 7: Off the field.
Speaker 8: Literally all the two was jumping the air and d
Speaker 8: on the split at the end like Domino's. But the
Speaker 8: last tuba gets to show out and spin around and
Speaker 8: everybody's like he and it's the dopest thing. So when
Speaker 8: the tuba player goes up in the air and goes
Speaker 8: down into the split, the whole crowd goes oooo. Everybody
Speaker 8: says that in unison. And this is one thing too
Speaker 8: that I gotta tell you all about the one hundred.
Speaker 8: When they march off the field at the end of
Speaker 8: their performance, they always play good times.
Speaker 7: So that's what they march off the field on. It's like,
Speaker 7: everybody gets it.
Speaker 8: It's just the most special thing you've ever seen in
Speaker 8: your life, and it's nothing like it.
Speaker 7: I just love it.
Speaker 3: If you are not sad about missing homecoming after hearing
Speaker 3: X describe that you have no heart, you've never known
Speaker 3: your soul, never have fun of your life.
Speaker 7: That's right, dude, never ever ever. Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 7: love everything about it.
Speaker 3: So thinking about all of this stuff all of this
Speaker 3: is part of the experience, and it makes me reflect
Speaker 3: on what it means to be a product of an HBCU.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's just a certain Jennesse Qua about people who
Speaker 1: have graduated from an HBCU. There's a certain confidence, a
Speaker 1: level of intelligence, just a swag about them that's just different.
Speaker 1: And so I want you guys to kind of just
Speaker 1: talk about some of the great people from your institutions
Speaker 1: or just from HBCUs in general that have been really
Speaker 1: impactful on your lives and just what that means to
Speaker 1: both of you to be the product of an HBCU.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's like a lineage that you're just so proud of, right, Zee, Right, Yeah.
Speaker 8: Of course, if they go to FAM, I'm super hype
Speaker 8: about that. But if they went to an HBCU and
Speaker 8: they making noise, I go crazy.
Speaker 3: Yes, clap it up for me. It really feels like
Speaker 3: the people who are in my class and the class
Speaker 3: above me. I am still in awe of my peers. Okay, yes,
Speaker 3: and TT knows some of my friends, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: all are killing the game. Doctors, lawyer, everybody's doing something.
Speaker 3: Because now we're at the stage where you're starting to
Speaker 3: see people pivot and you're like, yo, I didn't know
Speaker 3: you could do that. My friend and her husband both
Speaker 3: went to Hampton and Kia, who went to grad school
Speaker 3: with us. When they've built this huge real estate vacation
Speaker 3: rental home empire, I'm like, girl, when did you learn
Speaker 3: this interior design? Kea has a PhD in the sciences.
Speaker 1: Yes, anesthesiology, she said, no, sucception pain, and now she's
Speaker 1: telling real estate you're taking these places.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you're about to be competab with Airbnb. When
Speaker 3: I got to Atlanta, I asked one of my really
Speaker 3: close friends from high school. I said, who do I
Speaker 3: need to know in Atlanta and who should I be helping?
Speaker 3: He's like, this is my homeboy from more House. He's
Speaker 3: running for city council. Here's somebody else, Board of education.
Speaker 3: Like you feel so proud of these folks. I feel
Speaker 3: so excited to say I know them. They went to
Speaker 3: a HBCU And we should spend our dollars here right
Speaker 3: giving back to folks who are trying to make these
Speaker 3: things happen. How do you support the people who are
Speaker 3: out here trying to do it and people are saying
Speaker 3: dope labs, So you got no dope labs, just off
Speaker 3: the strength that I went to a HBCU.
Speaker 7: Same with the get Up.
Speaker 8: We got a really big audience and the show's doing
Speaker 8: really great. But the fact that I get to be
Speaker 8: the current day representation of somebody who went to an
Speaker 8: HBCU and it's.
Speaker 7: Just proud of that.
Speaker 8: And I bring those stories into the Showyne Wayne, thank
Speaker 8: you and you were on the show. T t U
Speaker 8: been on the show. But like for us to be
Speaker 8: able to represent that. I talk about my boy, Brian Price.
Speaker 8: I brag on him all the time. He's this dope
Speaker 8: marketing media exec in Lance, my college roommate from South Chicago.
Speaker 8: He built the parachute on the Mars Rover. He did
Speaker 8: the parachute.
Speaker 3: Call him right now. I have questions.
Speaker 8: I now have people who are like, yo, my kid
Speaker 8: wants to go to FAM. Literally today I got a
Speaker 8: text and she texted me and was like, my seven
Speaker 8: ten year old niece listen to The Get Up for
Speaker 8: the first time yesterday and loved it. She's looking at
Speaker 8: HBCUs fam use on her list. Can you come meet
Speaker 8: with us and talk to her about FAM.
Speaker 7: I was like, We're doing it next week. That's important.
Speaker 8: My friend's daughter. She's in her first semester at FAM.
Speaker 8: They stopped through Brooklyn on the way. I brought her
Speaker 8: to FAM Hoodies like top of the line exclusive joints here.
Speaker 8: Let me get you right, and when I go down there,
Speaker 8: I'm taking you out to dinner. And I got kids
Speaker 8: that ask me, can.
Speaker 7: You give me some FAM gear? Yes? I will. I'm
Speaker 7: telling you all. It touches me. It like makes me
Speaker 7: tear up every time.
Speaker 3: That's real. It just makes me think back my first
Speaker 3: year of grad school. I'm the grad school counselor for
Speaker 3: the summer program for students who are interested in science.
Speaker 3: So we're at Duke and I have a young man
Speaker 3: who went to Western Salem State. He is like, huh,
Speaker 3: deer in the headlights? What do I do? This? And
Speaker 3: that him and another young woman from Wiston Salem State,
Speaker 3: and to see them both become professors now in the SI.
Speaker 3: He's a professor at Vanderbilt. She's a professor at Bowne State.
Speaker 3: Our family reunion used to have this saying, let the
Speaker 3: circle be unbroken, right, we just feeding into each other
Speaker 3: and let it expand. Right, t T get on in
Speaker 3: this circle. You're in here, you got your hands. You
Speaker 3: in here, you and.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you very much. I'm gonna do my
Speaker 1: best to represent well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's looking out for the next generation, showing them
Speaker 3: it's good to be proud. We're just like you wear Nike.
Speaker 3: We're this like onebody wearing those yell sweatshirts.
Speaker 7: Okay, and you can be a part of this.
Speaker 8: We're gonna pull you in, We're gonna tell you about it,
Speaker 8: and we're gonna make a way for you to be
Speaker 8: able to do that. Is one of my greatest joys
Speaker 8: in my life right now.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 1: I really love this conversation. I love hearing about both
Speaker 1: of your experiences. I should have went to Hampton. Thank
Speaker 1: you both so much for sharing all of this. It's
Speaker 1: been heartwarming just to be able to sit back and
Speaker 1: just listen to you guys.
Speaker 7: Talk about this my honor.
Speaker 8: Y'all know I've been a Day one Dope Labs fan listener.
Speaker 3: Yes you have.
Speaker 7: And I'm proud of what y'all really.
Speaker 8: I'm proud of how y'all represent for black women and
Speaker 8: for your varied experiences. Because one thing I do talk
Speaker 8: about is I don't like if somebody that went to
Speaker 8: an HBCU tries to invalidate the experience of somebody that
Speaker 8: went to a PWI. All of these experiences are valid.
Speaker 8: So I'm glad that you have two dope women on
Speaker 8: this show that represent both sides and the commonality because
Speaker 8: there's merit and value and all of it.
Speaker 7: That's the beauty of our people.
Speaker 3: All right, tt, it's time for one thing. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3: What's your one thing? Z Well, we've kind of already
Speaker 3: talked about my one thing in the episode, and if
Speaker 3: you follow me on social media, I've shared it too.
Speaker 3: My one thing is Corine DeMarco. This is a brand
Speaker 3: that produces is HBCU apparel, and I love their sweaters.
Speaker 3: That's where I got the sweater that t T talks
Speaker 3: about wearing and pretending that she was a Hampton alum.
Speaker 3: I am a big fan of this brand, So please
Speaker 3: go support this small brand that's putting out great HBCU gear.
Speaker 3: That's Corinda Marco c O R I N D E
Speaker 3: M A r c O dot com. My one thing
Speaker 3: is Corinda Marco perfect.
Speaker 6: Ha ha.
Speaker 3: That's it for Lab fifty one. What'd you think? Did
Speaker 3: you learn something new about HBCUs call us at two
Speaker 3: O two five sixty seven seven zero two eight and
Speaker 3: tell us what you thought or if you have an
Speaker 3: idea for a lab we should do this semester. Tell
Speaker 3: us that too. We really love hearing from you. That's
Speaker 3: two O two five six seven seven zero two eight.
Speaker 1: And don't forget there's so much more for you to
Speaker 1: dig into on our website. There'll be a cheat cheat
Speaker 1: there for today's lab and additional links and resources in
Speaker 1: the show notes. Plus, you can sign up for our newsletter,
Speaker 1: so check it out at Dope labspodcast dot com. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to today's guest expert, Xavier Journ Again.
Speaker 3: You can find Xavier every weekday at seven am on
Speaker 3: Spotify's morning show The get Up.
Speaker 1: Reading our credits today is an HBCU grad, one of
Speaker 1: Zakia's longtime besties and one of my new friends, Atlanta House.
Speaker 3: Yes, certified clown and a certified goo.
Speaker 7: Hi.
Speaker 5: I'm Atlanta House and I'm a proud graduate of Hampton
Speaker 5: University an HBCU. I'm also a goon and a clown,
Speaker 5: as TT and Zakia shared, but also a scholar too.
Speaker 5: You can find Dope Labs on Twitter and Instagram at
Speaker 5: Dope Labs podcast tt Is on Twitter at Doctor Underscore
Speaker 5: t Show, and you can find Zakiya at z s Etzo.
Speaker 5: Dope Labs is a Spotify original production from Mega Own
Speaker 5: Me Group. Producers are Jenny Rattle at Mass and Lydia
Speaker 5: Smith of Wave Runner Studios. Editing and sound design by
Speaker 5: Rob Smurgiak, Mixing by Hannes Brown. Original music composed and
Speaker 5: produced by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Suguiera from Spotify Creative
Speaker 5: producer Candice Manriquez, Wrenn and Karenne Gillier. Special thanks to
Speaker 5: Shirley Ramos, Yasmine Afifi, Keimu, Elolia, Till krat Key and
Speaker 5: Brian Marquis. Executive producers from Mega Owned Media Group are
Speaker 5: t T. Shoda and Zakiah Watley. And I'm sending all
Speaker 5: of this to you from my teenage sons really stinky
Speaker 5: closet because it's the only quiet place in this whole house.
Speaker 5: Pray for moms. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 7: I love you both.
Speaker 1: Bye.