Jemele Hill Says Black Athletes Should Leave ‘White’ Schools And Attend HBCUs; Twitter Reacts

Jemele Hill has accumulated her fair share of supporters and critics after telling black student-athletes to ditch ‘white’ colleges and bring their talents to HBCUs.

In Hill’s latest article “It’s Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges,” the writer drops statistics on how major dollars are brought into predominately white athletic programs while HBCU’s are getting the short end of the stick. “Black athletes have attracted money and attention to the predominantly white universities that showcase them. Meanwhile, black colleges are struggling,” she wrote. 

Hill continued by saying, “Alabama’s athletic department generated $174 million in the 2016–17 school year, whereas the HBCU that generated the most money from athletics that year, Prairie View A&M, brought in less than $18 million.”

Hill said it would be revolutionary if black student-athletes chose to go to HBCU’s in great numbers, and that the athletes would bring in more money and attention to the schools who supported black athletes when there was no profit to gain.

But after reading Hill’s article, users took to social media to share their strikingly different views. One user tweeted: “WOW! #JemeleHill certainly doesn’t hide that she is a blatant #RACIST! Interesting how those who accuse others of being such things are the ones who actually ARE! Shame on @TheAtlantic for condoning her hate. She aides in bringing race relations back decades. #Pitiful”

While another user tweeted, “You missed the point of the article. The point is that these same schools may not be Power 5 programs without the AA blue-chip players who play for them. If these same AA players went to HBCU’s then what would happen to those Power 5 programs? Would they still be Power 5’s?”

After receiving backlash from those calling her a racist, Hill took to Twitter to rebuke those claims, “Encouraging black people to rebuild their communities is literally the opposite of racism, but OK.”