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I, lily white and with an appearance which goes from "aryan nordic" in the summer to "vampiric" in the winter, could go to an HBCU if I wanted to. I don't, and most other whites don't either. These schools are also not in the present day helping the black community very much; they are not very prestigious and going someplace else is a better decision for people who have that option(admissions requirements are extremely low at most HBCUs). I don't begrudge keeping a few universities around for low performers; future claims adjusters and receptionists have to go somewhere when our society won't acknowledge that there's a cheaper way to prove basic literacy, but the fetishization of HBCUs is entirely for historical reasons.
I don't know nearly enough to make any judgment call on this count. Just making the point that 'merit' can be defined differently or take a back seat to other concerns in certain contexts, but I don't want to be forced to participate in the system that intentionally goes for a different definition than I use.
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