When Laphonza Butler, the junior senator from California and just the second Black woman to hold that position, spoke at the Democratic National Convention Monday, the audience cheered and applauded when Butler mentioned that both she and Vice President Kamala Harris had graduated from historically black colleges.
Thank you!!!! What a great column. Powerful rebuttal to the embarrassment and utter vapidity and stupidity that is Megyn Kelly.
I am white, 71 years old, and from Texas to boot. I vividly remember the 1960’s from James Meredith to all the rest of the chaos and cruelty and yes, pure unadulterated racism. Only a truly racist person could or would say something so stupid. I think people of her generation just below mine are actually generally the WORST racists. They have not seen what we all lived through. It was horrific. Go read again about 1963 to 1968 especially. I was 7 to 17 years old in the 60’s. I remember. Thank you for this reminder.
“Natchez” rather than “Nachez” (I’m a Virgo!, not whitesplaining 😂 plus I live here). IMO, It’s still super racist too, no thanks to a weird amount of Texans moving in. Guess Texans like that we have actual infrastructure since they don’t.
We are over 60% black but you’d never know it due to the religious schools versus the public schools (classic systemic racism). Our newspaper even showing racist roots in the fbi vault - dare I say… STILL.
IMO, The Union should have burned all the antebellum homes to the ground when Natchez surrendered. This city didn’t shed one fight in the war. They surrendered immediately yet we still have a confederate statue downtown & a thriving disgusting antebellum home tourist industry. We have carriage rides forcing horses to haul fat white people around in over 115 degree heat index. In a word? Fake. Thanks in advance for letting me vent.
“Meredith would eventually become the first Black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962.” - Just two years before Kamala Harris was born. Here’s the thing, Megyn Kelly is (probably) not stupid, she just plays stupid on tv, or podcast or xitter or wherever she’s bilking the lazy-minded these days. The impotent rage of the perpetually aggrieved white person is a cottage industry.
It’s Fox News’ whole business model, and has been for decades now. When a certain class of people, deficient in their intellect, their humility, their empathy, and above all, their character, are confronted with the fact that ALL Americans now, at least theoretically, have a seat at the table, they are left with a withering sense of defeat, of inferiority. The only remedy for an individual possessed of that specific, unfortunate set of traits is mislaid pride in the immutable characteristic of race. Meaningless but raised up by those who assign it a value it does not merit. Which, as mentioned, is why HBCUs exist in the first place. And pretending not to understand that to pander to just this group of unfortunates is why Megyn Kelly exists. I assume. There must be some reason, anyway. 🤷🏻♀️
The cynic in me suspects Kelly knows most or all of this, and is just counting on her audience either not knowing or not caring.
Honestly, I’m cynical even enough to think: it’s probably more the latter. It’s not they don’t at least dimly know. I mean: I’m about as lily white as you can get and grew up in a mostly pretty white rural milieu and I somehow know the broad strokes (a bit of it, early on, quite possibly, from seeing an episode or two of ‘A Different World’) of the history of HBCUs...
... I think, really, that’s how the Faux/MAGA Church of the Perpetually Aggrieved mostly works. They know perfectly fucking well the marginalized having to build spaces for themselves because of bigotry excluding them elsewhere is the furthest damned thing from an attack on their majority nor somehow unfair to them. They know perfectly fucking well they themselves are generally not the victims. They know perfectly fucking well they generally get advantages they have not at all earned and the criticisms of those inequities are sound. But they figure throwing a tantrum upfront is a good flex on the notion the best defence is a loud offence. They’re afraid of those unearned privileges being eroded, so they scream and pout and stamp their feet hope no one comes anywhere near those, hoping they will focus instead on whatever absurd red herring they’re screaming about. And never mind how childish and petty it looks to anyone who knows the first fucking thing about the context.
There’s this and also, I suspect: the mere fact that those are such nurturing spaces in which they are not themselves dominant or the majority—and/or where they might not be given quite the same unearned advantages—might seem pretty threatening to them all on its own. They’d rather not be reminded there are worlds in which they themselves might be a minority. So someone even reminding them that world exists and that someone being (justly) proud of and grateful for their association with such a thing, that makes them uncomfortable.
(And I think again of that line: huh, why would you worry so much about being a minority? Are minorities treated poorly where you come from or something?)
This has to be one of the best comments I’ve ever read on Substack. I just read your comment out loud to my partner & our eyes met in that way that is just… you are our people.
100% this! If they thought the system was totally fair, it wouldn't matter which side of the debate they would be on. What they are afraid of is being treated in exactly the way that minorities have traditionally been treated. They know it hasn't been fair, and they are desperate to not be in the position of being on the short side of the deal.
HBCUs are critical for higher education. Valuable, important, and many more adjectives. After starting as a teacher in Charlotte, NC, in 2007, I took a side gig as a tutor with Upward Bound (not sure if anyone knows, but this was established under LBJ after civil rights). At first, I was just looking to make some extra money, but within a year I bought into the mission, which was helping first-generation, historically under-represented kids to succeed in college. Full stop. So I was the science tutor - biology and chemistry, and it was awesome to see these kids flourish. Then, I started taking part in the summer program, where the kids got to stay in the dorms for two weeks at Johnson C. Smith University. I ran an almost-science-camp hybrid where we worked on a science project for two weeks and I also ran "preview" classes for the students where I introduced them to their next science class but took it up a notch to college-level work. It was a lot of fun, but along the way I learned how JCSU as an institution is a Civil Rights icon in Charlotte. I had full access to their labs, could show students what college work really looks like, had the run of the house.
So to hear someone is slamming these colleges, and knowing what I know about them, it goes beyond, "How dare they?" or whatever.. .and becomes, "This person has no idea what they're talking about." Or perhaps I could say that I find it weird that people do these things on twitter or wherever. It's just ignorant, and it becomes hard to take back when the behavior is repeated. Also, how could I ever trust this person to "deliver me the news" after this, in the old-fashioned sense? Once people realize the ignorance or weirdness in these characters, they will sail into irrelevance.
Yesterday someone shared on Mastodon a letter written and sent in 1959. I do not remember the name of the person it was sent to or the college it came from. The college was writing to an applicant, informing them they could not attend that school because they were "a member of the Negro race."
Great article that Kelly should read and maybe learn a little bit about HBUC’s and her own prejudices. However, she won’t because ignorance is bliss and good ratings from the cult.
Megyn is dead certain that racism went away 'POOF' after MLK said those 15 words that were the only words he ever said that one time, and ever since it is poor whitey that is discriminated against.
Why just last summer, I was told to get to the back of the bus!
(it was in Yosemite NP, on the park shuttle because there were 19 gazillion people trying to get on it and we all had to cram up together to fit more people.)
This is a good piece (as always.) I feel like white people who question the role of HBCU, really don’t understand how powerful comfort can be in helping you learn. The trope is that you only “grow” when you are “uncomfortable.” But that’s terribly reductive. Sure, being insular is sometimes a choice against growth. But students at HBCUs have had plenty of discomfort growing up in a society that doesn’t value them. And most people need comfort and safety to learn deeply.
There is huge joy and possibility in walking into a space where you don’t have to explain every bit of your struggle every day to people who have few experiences in common with you. A space where we all agree that the people here have value. It makes really deep learning and questioning possible, when you are in a space like that. I have felt that in a few spaces in my life and it was nothing but good. I can imagine that is how it feels to choose a HBCU as a person of color. Safe enough to unlock. Safe enough to question the safety, even.
Denying the value of that opportunity is just another assertion of privilege.
Thank you. Always good to have a script for debating some idiot who deems themselves smart enough to explain why something that they never used themselves is "unnecessary."
This is excellent! Thank you so much!
And now I miss A Different World …
Thank you!!!! What a great column. Powerful rebuttal to the embarrassment and utter vapidity and stupidity that is Megyn Kelly.
I am white, 71 years old, and from Texas to boot. I vividly remember the 1960’s from James Meredith to all the rest of the chaos and cruelty and yes, pure unadulterated racism. Only a truly racist person could or would say something so stupid. I think people of her generation just below mine are actually generally the WORST racists. They have not seen what we all lived through. It was horrific. Go read again about 1963 to 1968 especially. I was 7 to 17 years old in the 60’s. I remember. Thank you for this reminder.
Thank you for the kind response and please stick around!
“Natchez” rather than “Nachez” (I’m a Virgo!, not whitesplaining 😂 plus I live here). IMO, It’s still super racist too, no thanks to a weird amount of Texans moving in. Guess Texans like that we have actual infrastructure since they don’t.
We are over 60% black but you’d never know it due to the religious schools versus the public schools (classic systemic racism). Our newspaper even showing racist roots in the fbi vault - dare I say… STILL.
IMO, The Union should have burned all the antebellum homes to the ground when Natchez surrendered. This city didn’t shed one fight in the war. They surrendered immediately yet we still have a confederate statue downtown & a thriving disgusting antebellum home tourist industry. We have carriage rides forcing horses to haul fat white people around in over 115 degree heat index. In a word? Fake. Thanks in advance for letting me vent.
I’ve never been interested enough in Megyn Kelly to google her, but I’m guessing she belonged to a historically all white sorority??
We could get a president who can laugh and dance? Yay! 💜
“Meredith would eventually become the first Black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962.” - Just two years before Kamala Harris was born. Here’s the thing, Megyn Kelly is (probably) not stupid, she just plays stupid on tv, or podcast or xitter or wherever she’s bilking the lazy-minded these days. The impotent rage of the perpetually aggrieved white person is a cottage industry.
It’s Fox News’ whole business model, and has been for decades now. When a certain class of people, deficient in their intellect, their humility, their empathy, and above all, their character, are confronted with the fact that ALL Americans now, at least theoretically, have a seat at the table, they are left with a withering sense of defeat, of inferiority. The only remedy for an individual possessed of that specific, unfortunate set of traits is mislaid pride in the immutable characteristic of race. Meaningless but raised up by those who assign it a value it does not merit. Which, as mentioned, is why HBCUs exist in the first place. And pretending not to understand that to pander to just this group of unfortunates is why Megyn Kelly exists. I assume. There must be some reason, anyway. 🤷🏻♀️
💯 I call it willful ignorance & where I live in SW Mississippi, it has no color.
It is crazy town the things people believe from Fox News.
What damage that network has caused.
The cynic in me suspects Kelly knows most or all of this, and is just counting on her audience either not knowing or not caring.
Honestly, I’m cynical even enough to think: it’s probably more the latter. It’s not they don’t at least dimly know. I mean: I’m about as lily white as you can get and grew up in a mostly pretty white rural milieu and I somehow know the broad strokes (a bit of it, early on, quite possibly, from seeing an episode or two of ‘A Different World’) of the history of HBCUs...
... I think, really, that’s how the Faux/MAGA Church of the Perpetually Aggrieved mostly works. They know perfectly fucking well the marginalized having to build spaces for themselves because of bigotry excluding them elsewhere is the furthest damned thing from an attack on their majority nor somehow unfair to them. They know perfectly fucking well they themselves are generally not the victims. They know perfectly fucking well they generally get advantages they have not at all earned and the criticisms of those inequities are sound. But they figure throwing a tantrum upfront is a good flex on the notion the best defence is a loud offence. They’re afraid of those unearned privileges being eroded, so they scream and pout and stamp their feet hope no one comes anywhere near those, hoping they will focus instead on whatever absurd red herring they’re screaming about. And never mind how childish and petty it looks to anyone who knows the first fucking thing about the context.
There’s this and also, I suspect: the mere fact that those are such nurturing spaces in which they are not themselves dominant or the majority—and/or where they might not be given quite the same unearned advantages—might seem pretty threatening to them all on its own. They’d rather not be reminded there are worlds in which they themselves might be a minority. So someone even reminding them that world exists and that someone being (justly) proud of and grateful for their association with such a thing, that makes them uncomfortable.
(And I think again of that line: huh, why would you worry so much about being a minority? Are minorities treated poorly where you come from or something?)
This has to be one of the best comments I’ve ever read on Substack. I just read your comment out loud to my partner & our eyes met in that way that is just… you are our people.
100% this! If they thought the system was totally fair, it wouldn't matter which side of the debate they would be on. What they are afraid of is being treated in exactly the way that minorities have traditionally been treated. They know it hasn't been fair, and they are desperate to not be in the position of being on the short side of the deal.
It’s (rhetorically) funny how I’m a 60-year-old white guy and where VP Harris went to college doesn’t make me mad.
HBCUs are critical for higher education. Valuable, important, and many more adjectives. After starting as a teacher in Charlotte, NC, in 2007, I took a side gig as a tutor with Upward Bound (not sure if anyone knows, but this was established under LBJ after civil rights). At first, I was just looking to make some extra money, but within a year I bought into the mission, which was helping first-generation, historically under-represented kids to succeed in college. Full stop. So I was the science tutor - biology and chemistry, and it was awesome to see these kids flourish. Then, I started taking part in the summer program, where the kids got to stay in the dorms for two weeks at Johnson C. Smith University. I ran an almost-science-camp hybrid where we worked on a science project for two weeks and I also ran "preview" classes for the students where I introduced them to their next science class but took it up a notch to college-level work. It was a lot of fun, but along the way I learned how JCSU as an institution is a Civil Rights icon in Charlotte. I had full access to their labs, could show students what college work really looks like, had the run of the house.
So to hear someone is slamming these colleges, and knowing what I know about them, it goes beyond, "How dare they?" or whatever.. .and becomes, "This person has no idea what they're talking about." Or perhaps I could say that I find it weird that people do these things on twitter or wherever. It's just ignorant, and it becomes hard to take back when the behavior is repeated. Also, how could I ever trust this person to "deliver me the news" after this, in the old-fashioned sense? Once people realize the ignorance or weirdness in these characters, they will sail into irrelevance.
Brilliant, Stephen!
Yesterday someone shared on Mastodon a letter written and sent in 1959. I do not remember the name of the person it was sent to or the college it came from. The college was writing to an applicant, informing them they could not attend that school because they were "a member of the Negro race."
Megyn Kelly can get stuffed.
#NotGoingBack
Great article that Kelly should read and maybe learn a little bit about HBUC’s and her own prejudices. However, she won’t because ignorance is bliss and good ratings from the cult.
Megyn is dead certain that racism went away 'POOF' after MLK said those 15 words that were the only words he ever said that one time, and ever since it is poor whitey that is discriminated against.
Why just last summer, I was told to get to the back of the bus!
(it was in Yosemite NP, on the park shuttle because there were 19 gazillion people trying to get on it and we all had to cram up together to fit more people.)
This is a good piece (as always.) I feel like white people who question the role of HBCU, really don’t understand how powerful comfort can be in helping you learn. The trope is that you only “grow” when you are “uncomfortable.” But that’s terribly reductive. Sure, being insular is sometimes a choice against growth. But students at HBCUs have had plenty of discomfort growing up in a society that doesn’t value them. And most people need comfort and safety to learn deeply.
There is huge joy and possibility in walking into a space where you don’t have to explain every bit of your struggle every day to people who have few experiences in common with you. A space where we all agree that the people here have value. It makes really deep learning and questioning possible, when you are in a space like that. I have felt that in a few spaces in my life and it was nothing but good. I can imagine that is how it feels to choose a HBCU as a person of color. Safe enough to unlock. Safe enough to question the safety, even.
Denying the value of that opportunity is just another assertion of privilege.
"The trope is that you only “grow” when you are “uncomfortable.”"
It's like 'That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger' No, it does not. Sometimes it just nearly kills you.
yeah, i'd like to introduce those parroters to the Paralysis Tick.
Thank you. Always good to have a script for debating some idiot who deems themselves smart enough to explain why something that they never used themselves is "unnecessary."
Remember when the racists lived under rock? I miss those days.
Great article!
Thank you!