Last week, The CW aired its series premiere of All American: Homecoming. The show is a spinoff of the highly praised show, All American. The series follows Simone Hicks (played by Geffri Hightower) and her historically Black college and university (HBCU) experience at Bringston University. While the university is fictional, the experience, issues and celebrations that the students face are realities for many HBCU students.
One thing to be appreciated about the show is the realness of the stories. In the pilot episode the audience is introduced to a diverse group of friends: Simone who comes from a rich family but faces financial issues, Damon who is a star baseball player but chose an HBCU over a PWI, Cam who chose to attend BU for worldly issues and Raymond who is on a baseball scholarship. These stories represent many issues and debunk assumptions about the lives of HBCU students.
Let’s unpack the things the show got right for those who have yet to experience the HBCU life.
Everyone attending HBCUs is not poor.
Despite what the media tells us about the demographics of HBCU students, we are a diverse group of students. The show does explore the fact that HBCUs are often underfunded. However, that does not mean everyone attending these schools are poor. Like Damon and Simone, many well off, or upper class students, decide to attend HBCUs. Despite being underfunded, these colleges and universities have prevailed through financial, political and social hardships. HBCUs have continued to defy the odds and produce successful Black professionals. For this reason, students from all classes are drawn to the legacies that HBCUs hold.
This ideology is shown through many characters. When Simone moves into her dorm she expresses how it feels good to be in a space for her people, by her people. No matter your parents tax bracket, it is an overwhelming feeling of joy to be welcomed into a space meant for you.
HBCUs and their programs are often underfunded.
Despite producing highly successful Black professionals–like the current Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris–HBCUs are underfunded. It was not uncommon for HBCUs to be founded before slavery was abolished by the declaration of independece. Because of unfair laws and treatments of African Americans in the earlier years of US history, HBCUs relied on churches and grassroots organizations to fund their education. Now that some of these laws no longer exist, many HBCUs rely on state and federal funding to remain open.
However, state and federal funding does not mean that these colleges and universities are funded appropriately. According to the American Council on Education, public HBCUs rely on federal, state and local funding 16 percent more than their counterparts. For private HBCUs, the institutions rely on tuition-based funding 6 percent more than their counterparts.
In addition to these topics, the show is all about the culture and feels of an HBCU campus. The show’s portrayal of life at an HBCU is very accurate. Maya Griffin revealed to TODAY she is a Clark Atlanta University Alumna. “For me, going to an HBCU wasn’t a scene. It wasn’t an audition. It wasn’t like a script. It was my actual life,” she said.
While the show’s showrunner, Nkechi Okoro Carroll, did not attend an HBCU, she shared that many family members did. She told the publication,“We just wanted to make sure we captured that in an authentic way so that you could really feel the distinction, not just in the storylines and the characters, but also just in the setting.”
You can watch All American: Homecoming on The CW Mondays at 9 p.m. EST or on the CW App the next day.