Morgan State U. & other schools address and try to reverse declining number of male students

[Givethanks]

Yep.

Decades of rappers and social media influences telling black men to get fast money, get clout, smoke the finest weed, and not hit any books is rearing its ugly head called RESULTS. You also have popular people like Young Thug, Gucci Mane, Tariq Nasheed, and others labeling black men as "lames" and "nerds" for not being extroverted characters on the streets.

Its peer pressure.

One of the reasons why proper parenting is extremely important.

 

[TheKongoEmpire]

 

[Squirrel from Meteor Man]

Yep.

Decades of rappers and social media influences telling black men to get fast money, get clout, smoke the finest weed, and not hit any books is rearing its ugly head called RESULTS. You also have popular people like Young Thug, Gucci Mane, Tariq Nasheed, and others labeling black men as "lames" and "nerds" for not being extroverted characters on the streets.

Its peer pressure.

I don’t know if I fully agree with this. Black men eschewing higher education for something deemed as “cooler” or more fun has been going on since the 60-70s.

Black kids attracted to a get money/get high lifestyle typically come from uneducated/lower educated households which typically don’t produce college students (let alone graduates) anyway.

The biggest issue, which is what @Wiseborn mentioned, is that black men (particularly straight black men) are disappearing from campuses nationwide. Recruiters, admission folks, professors, etc used to have many black men who could relate and help drive up recruitment, but higher ed has been forcing them out for years. If you’re a black kid from the city and some gay black guy (not that there’s anything wrong with that) or some yuppie is trying to get you to enroll, chances are he just won’t be able to level with you.

Those college prep programs like he also mentioned are now filled with immigrant children, which is a shame on us. Many of us don’t value education and opportunity.

I do believe the influence of people like Gillie The Kid, etc saying college is a scam or Dame Dash promoting the be your own boss mentality has discouraged a lot of black men from going to college or pursuing any type of formal education.

To that point, a lot of black men are just not willing to go six figures into debt anymore. And in most cases I can’t blame them. The payoff just hasn’t been as beneficial in the job market for many.

 

[Wiseborn]

I don’t know if I fully agree with this. Black men eschewing higher education for something deemed as “cooler” or more fun has been going on since the 60-70s.

Black kids attracted to a get money/get high lifestyle typically come from uneducated/lower educated households which typically don’t produce college students (let alone graduates) anyway.

The biggest issue, which is what @Wiseborn mentioned, is that black men (particularly straight black men) are disappearing from campuses nationwide. Recruiters, admission folks, professors, etc used to have many black men who could relate and help drive up recruitment, but higher ed has been forcing them out for years. If you’re a black kid from the city and some gay black guy (not that there’s anything wrong with that) or some yuppie is trying to get you to enroll, chances are he just won’t be able to level with you.

Those college prep programs like he also mentioned are now filled with immigrant children, which is a shame on us. Many of us don’t value education and opportunity.

I do believe the influence of people like Gillie The Kid, etc saying college is a scam or Dame Dash promoting the be your own boss mentality has discouraged a lot of black men from going to college or pursuing any type of formal education.

To that point, a lot of black men are just not willing to go six figures into debt anymore. And in most cases I can’t blame them. The payoff just hasn’t been as beneficial in the job market for many.

Exactly I had no intention of going to collage I was conned into taking the Black College tour , They sold it me as a multiday party. when we visited the schools they put applications in our hands and waved the application fees so I was accepted to most of the schools and was sent letters of acceptance later.

Then I was chilling at my mom’s side job with a security guard and I told him I was accepted to schools but I was on the fence about going he told me to show up.

Additionally I was accepted to some school in Vermont that I didn’t apply for and Pitt based on my grades and SAT score obviously this was DEI but if I wanted to go I could’ve.


Then when I went to the school that I picked I saw a massive line at the Financial Aid office and I was gonna just turn around and leave when the girl deemed the flyest girl at the school literally pointed at me and told me that they wanted to see me. When I went up there they handed me the forms and had me fill them out.

I brought money to pay for school so I assumed I wouldn’t need Financial Aid they told me to apply anyway as it’s free money.


Later I ran out of money to pay for Room and Board at school and they let me stay illegally so I had a shyt load of help to ensure I went to and stayed in school I know that organization that did the college tour doesn’t do them anymore and I can’t imagine someone would take a guy at the back on the line and have them go to the front for reasons and definitely not let them stay on campus for free.

The point is they let young Brothers just be out here nowadays the old pro Blacks seem to have died off no Young Brothers are given the speech and now no one gives help to Black Boys with the thinking they need special assistance and care.

in the 90’s people really thought that Black Boys were literally going to kill themselves off in Drug wars. Looking back on it now the idea was ridiculous but it mobilized people to help Black Boys.

 

[CoryMack]

You know one thing I’d do is to literally find reasons to have dudes be on campus.

Everyone knows that the Band have tons of non students. You got random schools that ain’t never gonna have anyone go pro, bend the rules have non students or students taking a few classes suit up.

i never heard about non students being in the band while i was at State. and i've never heard that about any other school either. where did you go to school?

and i know coaches have been punished for playing academically ineligible players, but, again, outside of extremely rare instances, i've never heard of a situation where non students were suiting up for these schools.

 

[BlackBall]

Black men are just going elsewhere to get trained and paid without the high debt.

This. Better off learning a trade than rotting in a cubicle

 

[Wiseborn]

i never heard about non students being in the band while i was at State. and i've never heard that about any other school either. where did you go to school?

and i know coaches have been punished for playing academically ineligible players, but, again, outside of extremely rare instances, i've never heard of a situation where non students were suiting up for these schools.

I went to WSSU I was in the drumline and half the drum section was non students.

Any HBCU anyone could strap up and play in the Band if you were good enough. I don’t even think there’s rules against this. However flying or busing you around maybe a liability but the biggest schools have traveling bands and home bands FAMU has a traveling band of say 50 members but probably has like 100 or so people who play home games.

For some reason they want bands to be “big”. and the reasons they have traveling bands is because of the expense of flying that many people around.

I’m sure in non Basketball and Football sports they use non students on the low too. At NCCU they had random white people on their tennis and golf teams.

 

[Wiseborn]

This. Better off learning a trade than rotting in a cubicle

That would make sense if they were actually sending kids to trade schools. You have to apply yourself to trade schools and good luck getting into an apprenticeship through the few Unions still around.

 

[Dwayne_Taylor]

We enacted title IX in the 70s because education discriminated against women.

But Good luck getting people to recognize the systemic issues (black) men and boys face in 2025.

 

[GetSomeMoney]

This. Better off learning a trade than rotting in a cubicle

here we go with this shyt. Rotting away in a cubicle?? This mentality is why black men aren't in college. The vision for black men (specifically American black men) needs to expand. I am all for trade school as an option but we need to be in more fields. College doesn't just put you in a cubicle, we need more teachers, male nurses, doctors, lawyers, etc, all "non cubicle" roles. There are also plenty of affordable university options that won't run you 6 figures in debt as well. Those good paying jobs from trade school are more limited than people know and there is a LOT of nepotism in those fields as well.

 

[get these nets]

Yep.

Decades of rappers and social media influences telling black men to get fast money, get clout, smoke the finest weed, and not hit any books is rearing its ugly head called RESULTS. You also have popular people like Young Thug, Gucci Mane, Tariq Nasheed, and others labeling black men as "lames" and "nerds" for not being extroverted characters on the streets.

Its peer pressure.

One of the reasons why proper parenting is extremely important.

Agree with both.

Boys should be raised in their father's household, and we're feeling the effects of that becoming increasingly uncommon as the decades have gone along.

Outside noise,influence, pressure will always exist, but in ideal situation the boy has solid instruction and guidance from his Father before he goes out in the world and experiences all that negative shyt.

 

[Wild self]

Agree with both.

Boys should be raised in their father's household, and we're feeling the effects of that becoming increasingly uncommon as the decades have gone along.

Outside noise,influence, pressure will always exist, but in ideal situation the boy has solid instruction and guidance from his Father before he goes out in the world and experiences all that negative shyt.

Yeah, I can't believe how much regression happened in the last decade.

A 4 year institution is where most men find their future spouses, and i went to Community College in the summer for those difficult electives, and I found out that a lot of undesirable women (fat, have kids Out of wedlock, much older) lurk there. A lot of brehs that try to CC get discouraged at the environment because its like 13th grade of high school, and they drop out by "taking a break" when financial results dont come in fast enough. Thats why a lot of people never transfer to 4 year schools.

I went to the real HU, and I loved the fact that they were a bunch of childless women that were fit, young, and ambitious going for the kill (good professions, being much smarter than average). Getting a bachelor's or above is legit motivating because you killing that stigma that you are not academic underachieving and you (finally!) Moving above minimum wage jobs as your future.

 

[BlackBall]

here we go with this shyt. Rotting away in a cubicle?? This mentality is why black men aren't in college. The vision for black men (specifically American black men) needs to expand. I am all for trade school as an option but we need to be in more fields. College doesn't just put you in a cubicle, we need more teachers, male nurses, doctors, lawyers, etc, all "non cubicle" roles. There are also plenty of affordable university options that won't run you 6 figures in debt as well. Those good paying jobs from trade school are more limited than people know and there is a LOT of nepotism in those fields as well.

ADHD

 

[TaxCollector13459]

Depressing ash.. but shii fr…

We are usually less likely to be willing to take upon extra debt, with no safety to protect the neck
Shiii, for many of us in our families WE are the fallback option


Truth be told alotta people and they kinfolk never recovered from 07-08 financially and covid landed the killing blow

Alot of people got family members of they actively helping to take of, young siblings, elderly, family with MCs at young age, plus
Covid helped accelerate the disconnect too


A lot of people be clutching pearls about lack of black men on campus but turn their noses
When a lot of us bring up enlisting though…

36 months of active duty service will award you 100% post 9-11, they’ll pay for your books, materials, any uniforms, can only charge you in state rates (even OT) and you’ll pull BAH. You don’t wanna use it, give it to your kids.

You drank the smart water and chasing a high level degree so the tuition at your school is higher? Yellow ribbon will offset the remaining difference

Access to tuition assistance, can still go to class on active duty, …

 

[OperationNumbNutts]

This is really a multi-dimensional issue. I was just at a park Monday and saw kids (brehs) around 10 in full football pads training. Meanwhile, we all know that same push isn't applied to academics. Then you have female counselors unconsciously prioritizing girls over boys. Last, everyone who went to college know they can be on some real bullshyt. Everything from the game on books to having to take classes that has nothing to do with your major. Then on top of that you are being taught by adjuncts because schools don't want to pay professors and then they constantly go up on fees and tuition. A student going to college today overall can't say the "quality" of their education is better than it was 20 years go.