Zoe is NOT in A Different World: Paying Homage Doesn’t Actually Pay HBCUs

While other HBCU alumni were happily reposting the new Grown•ish promo, I watched it with a side eye. My first thought was simply, “Gentrification.” I’m not mad. It’s cute. It’s an homage. I get it. I’ll always celebrate a show with a diverse cast, centered on a young Black woman. But it goes against everything I believe, study, and advocate to condone the projection of HBCU culture onto a PWI, even if the institutions are fictional. Plus, it is not lost on me that this comes after both Junior on Black-ish and Randall on This Is Us have abandoned their Howard ambitions and storylines.

I study and speak money. And the truth here is, paying homage may be nice but it doesn’t actually pay the honoree. If Kenya Barris (a Clark alum) and FreeForm (part of the multi-billion dollar ABC/Disney empire) wanted to truly honor A Different World, they’d put the same resources into an College-ish or Blerd-ish or whatever.

In a time -or rather, a well-established history- of constant negative press and publicity around HBCUs, and research about us but not by us, a well-executed show with an alum at the helm could be game changing. Moving and merging the racial issues addressed on Black-ish and the coming of age issues addressed on Grown-ish onto the HBCU campus would bring an entirely different lens to those themes and introduce new themes specific to our campuses and communities.

Imagine Junior discovering the other Blerds, having his Blackness questioned, no longer being the smartest Black kid in the classroom, understanding his class privilege, dating a Lena from a working-class background, seeing the diversity of Black people across ethnicity and nationality, pledging (Sigma), dealing with hoteps, and going to homecoming- all in the backdrop of the nation’s capitol and the current political climate.

I want what’s (already) ours. And if NOTHING else is can remain ours, our history and culture must. Sure, like Whitley, Zoe is a fashionista from a wealthy Black family. But Zoe won’t be giving or getting any “You can go to school any place, but no school will love you and teach you to love yourself and know yourself like Hillman” speeches about her alma mater like Whitley. Because that’s not what she’s getting. And that’s what makes HBCUs A Different World.