Too many people who "support HBCUs" have failed to learn how to big up their own institution(s) without downplaying or speaking negatively about others.

This is what happens on the other side of "hating" because no one likes others making them feel small and/or insignificant.

I'd argue there are as many people who are "hating" on your institution as there are people from your institution consistently making disparaging comments about other HBCUs.

I wrote an article on Medium years ago about HBCU Elitism, and how some students take their school's reputation as an excuse to downplay people who didn't go to that school.

Yes, there are people who are haters for no reason.

But there are also people who have reasons.

And sometime those reasons have nothing to do with them "not getting into the school they are hating on" but having negative experiences with people who went to school they are supposedly hating on.

And this is a cautionary tale. Because our schools onlyr each their fullest potential when the institutions AND their stakeholders/alumni work together.

But as with too many things: Black folks have allowed ourselves to be pitted against each other.

TL;DR:

When it comes to all things, including HBCUs, if you have to downplay someone else to make your school seem better/more important, who are you trying to convince?

Them or you?