From The Ramparts

                                            

                                              From The Ramparts

                                             Junious Ricardo Stanton

                                   Depression and Despair in The US Is Growing

            "Americans are more depressed now than they have been in decades, a recent study has found. San Diego State University (SDSU) psychology professor Jean M. Twenge analyzed data from nearly 7 million adolescents and adults from across the country and found that more people reported symptoms of depression — including sleeplessness and trouble concentrating — compared to the 1980s.Twenge’s findings show that teenagers in the 2010s experience memory trouble 38 percent more often than their 1980s counterparts. Teens are also 74 percent more likely to have trouble sleeping and twice as likely to see a professional for mental health issues. College students in the study reported feeling overwhelmed by academic and personal demands 50 percent more often than their 1980s counterparts." 21 Signs That Americans Are the Unhappiest People on The Planet http://www.hangthebankers.com/21-signs-americans-unhappy/

            As we move into the "holiday season" it is alarming and sad to learn that more Americans are on anti-depressant psychotropic medication than ever before, that suicides in the US are at an all time high and reports indicate Americans of all demographic groups admit they are extremely unhappy and depressed. In a society that is  as highly advanced technologically as America is, that is extremely materialistic that has all the superficial trappings of prosperity, the question remains, why are Americans so unhappy, why is this country so depressed?

            America is depressed for many reasons. For an explanation and a summery of the various causes go to: http://www.naturalnews.com/043150_depression_heavy_metal_poisoning_brain_function.html# to see a thoughtful list of reasons why the US is experiencing this phenomenon of unhappiness and depression. The  writer, Mike  Bundrant, offers several cogent reasons why Americans are  suffering from physical, mental and emotional maladies. Each one is valid in and of itself, but taken in total and looked at from a holistic perspective these reasons and causes provide an insightful look into the counterproductive values and maladaptive lifestyles we lead.

            From these and others we can conclude that there are numerous forces both external (outside of ourselves) and internal (inside of ourselves) working to undermine our total well being. In essence, we are miserable because we have been taught and conditioned to seek happiness and satisfaction outside of ourselves. We are outer directed instead of focusing on the inner realms of our being: our mind, emotions and soul. We are unhappy because we acquiesce to the messages and programming of the media and authority figures who molded and controlled us when we were young and this control continued into adulthood. We have been brainwashed to believe our worth is based upon accumulating and owning things. By seeking status in our possessions, we erroneously think our social position is dependent on our ability to have stuff and mold ourselves into the notions and models Madison Avenue tells us make us somebody/something.

            When you look at what Mike Bundrant says in his article  http://www.naturalnews.com/043150_depression_heavy_metal_poisoning_brain_function.html# you can see why we are out of balance and operating in ways that prevent us from living in harmony with ourselves, the environment and others. We do not have to continue to kill our spirits, live in depression, go through life mired in a sense of emptiness and alienation.  If for example we know that there are toxins in the foods that undermine our health stop eating those foods! If we know getting out in nature walking barefoot on the ground or on a beach making contact with the earth and water, breathing fresh air are beneficial to us, we can do more of these things. Our total wellbeing is our responsibility we cannot afford not to take it personally, make it a top priority in our lives or turn it over to someone else no matter how much education they have.

             We have agency we have intrinsic power, we have the ability to alter our psychological, emotional, mental and physical being, to go from depressed to a life of fulfillment and happiness.   We have to move past the pattern of learned hopelessness and helplessness to a position of empowerment! We have to move from being mindless automatons and zombies (it's no coincidence a major theme on television, movies and video games is zombies). The writer of the article Eight Reasons Depression Why Depression Is So Common Today mentions Edward Bernays the mastermind behind American "public relations"; Bernays euphemism for mind control. Edward Bernays was a nephew of Sigmund Freud. Bernays was an influential figure in American business and is credited with the development of  mass psychological manipulation.  He developed a whole regime of tricking and inducing Americans to do things that weren't necessarily in their best interests such a smoking cigarettes and eating heavier breakfasts that enriched his clients and himself! "Bernays was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1891 but grew up in New York City. His mother was Freud's sister and his father was the brother of Freud's wife, Martha Bernays. He maintained contact with his uncle, and the family often joined Freud for summer holidays in the Alps. Bernays began his career shaping public opinion by creating a media campaign to raise awareness of venereal disease and sexual hypocrisy. But his application of psychoanalytic principles to public relations and advertising came only after reading Freud's 'General Introductory Lectures,' a gift from Freud to his nephew in thanks for a box of Havana cigars. In this case, a cigar did prove to be much more than a cigar. The marriage of psychoanalysis and public relations, facilitated by the box of Havanas, made Bernays a very wealthy man.Intrigued by Freud's notion that irrational forces drive human behavior, Bernays sought to harness those forces to sell products for his clients. In his 1928 book, 'Propaganda,' Bernays hypothesized that by understanding the group mind, it would be possible to manipulate people's behavior without their even realizing it. To test this hypothesis, Bernays launched one of his most famous public relations campaigns: convincing women to smoke." Psychoanalysis Shapes Consumer Culture by Lisa Held http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/12/consumer.aspx.

            Much of our depression and misery are because we are being nefariously manipulated. Corporations use psychologists to design advertising campaigns to play on our emotions, exploit our sense of inadequacy and our longing for happiness. Of course this manipulation exacerbates our inadequacies, insecurities and sense of alienation which impacts our psychological health because it creates frustration, anger and a sense of emptiness which over time can morph into depression. We are being unconsciously manipulated and exploited and over time this manipulation can lead to frustration and if it remains pent up within us it eventually leads to psychological and often physical implosion: illness, depression and psychotic episodes.

            Add the readiness of doctors to prescribe anti-depression medications at the drop of a hat to this scenario and we can see why this country is so zonked out. Anti-depression medication is not necessarily a cure all. We need to keep in mind they have side effects and you should be aware of these before you make medication your first and only option. "Antidepressants can make people feel better, but they won't change their personality or make them feel happy all the time. Like taking any other medication, some people will experience some side effects. Common side effects, depending on which medication is taken, include nausea, headaches, anxiety, sweating, dizziness, agitation, weight gain, dry mouth and sexual difficulties (e.g. difficulty becoming/staying aroused). Some of these symptoms can be short-lived, but people who experience any of these symptoms should tell their doctor, as there are ways of minimizing them. The likelihood of a particular side effect happening varies between individuals and medications." Medical Treatments for Depression https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/depression/treatments-for-depression/medical-treatments-for-depression

            The main thing to remember is we have agency, we have the ability to and can choose how we respond to and navigate life's ups and downs. We have the ability to frame our experiences. A flat tire is not a catastrophe it is an inconvenience so view like that instead of a punishment from your idea of god. Maybe getting laid off from the job you hated was a good thing, it will allow you to develop other skills and capacities to earn a living, feel fulfilled and on purpose. Get on with your life.

             We can move beyond learned helplessness and hopelessness to being empowered and self-actualizing beings taking control of our lives! We can choose which regimen we use to feel better, we don't have to go for the okey-doke of prescription drugs nor do we have to set our lives by Madison Avenue's or anyone else's clock.

            As we are bombarded by advertisements and messages to prompt us to buy and spend, remember this is psychological manipulation! You have the power to resist this manipulation,  to live your life on your own terms and not be a pawn of the advertisers and retail industries! Happiness is not based on how big your bank account is. Real happiness comes from loving yourself, being fully engaged in the life process, serving and being a blessing to others.

                                                                        -30-

           

                                                    From The Ramparts

                                                   Junious Ricardo Stanton

                                                   Don't Believe The Hype

            "How many false flags in recent history have all had the same feature: drills at the same time at the same (or a nearby) place? 21st Century Wire reports that Dr. Patrick Pelloux was “a ‘survivor’ of the Charlie Hebdo shootings” who just happened to be on the scene at these shootings. That in and of itself is a coincidence, but Pelloux actually stated that a “multi-site attack exercise”Paris http://www.zengardner.com/paris-shooting-10-ways-looks-like-hallmark-false-flag-op/

            I'm seeing a lot of Black folks draping their profile in the French flag, posting on FaceBook sharing their sense of loss for what happened in Paris last week. Most of them can be forgiven because of their ignorance and lack of awareness of the evil and dastardly nature of the real perpetrators of the event. Most people have been duped and brainwashed to believe everything they hear and see on mass media not realizing the mass media is a global propaganda tool used to shape their perceptions of reality and entrain their minds to "see" the world thought a particular lens. I caution you not to drink the Kool Aid or fall for the proverbial okey-doke. The most recent Paris "attack" in my humble opinion is a classic false flag operation, and I am not alone in this assessment. Go to http://www.zengardner.com/paris-shooting-10-ways-looks-like-hallmark-false-flag-op/ and read the article by Makia Freeman who points out ten compelling indicators the attack was indeed a false flag operation.

            What is a false flag operation you ask? It is a situation where a group or an individual disguises himself, herself or themselves and does something against another person group or nation to make the victims think someone else did it. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a classic false flag operation. British colonists in Boston disguised themselves as Native Americans and threw tea into the Boston Harbor so the British would think it was "Indians" who did it. The term "false flag" goes back to the days when European nation states sailing the seas would hoist the flag of another nation when they attacked a ship, a coast or colony to make any survivors or witnesses think it was another country who did it.

            Having said all that, there is additional information coming out that leads me to suspect the latest Paris attack was not the work of fanatical Jihadists but of cunning resourceful well coordinated Western agents or agencies. Just as 9-11 was not the work of a man dying from renal failure living in a cave in Afghanistan or nineteen supposed Muslim fanatics but executed by a well connected, well funded group of insiders within the US government allied with representatives and supporters of a foreign power. In the recent Paris attack it was discovered the French Security agencies were hacked and disabled prior to the attacks thus rendering the authorities unable to detect, intervene or stop them! Paul Craig Roberts an Assistant Treasury Secretary during the  Ronald Reagan administration who has seen the light and regularly exposes the machinations, mischief and insanity of the Washington Beltway crowd reports this in his most recent article, "I have received a report from European security that there was a massive cyber attack on French systems 48 hours prior to and during the Paris attacks. Among other things, the attack took down the French mobile data network and blinded police surveillance The attack was not a straightforward DDOS attack but a sophisticated attack that targeted a weakness in infrastructure hardware. Such an attack is beyond the capability of most organizations and requires capability that is unlikely to be in ISIL’s arsenal. An attack on this scale is difficult to pull off without authorities getting wind of it. The coordination required suggests state involvement." http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/11/15/french-security-left-blind-during-paris-attacks-2/

            The "attacks" on 9-11, the 7/7 London subway bombing, the Boston Marathon bombing and now this latest Paris situation all were done under cloak of simultaneous first responder drills and/or live police/military simulation exercises. This is not coincidental. The oligarchs seeking to install their fascist New World Order will stop at nothing to frighten, dupe, bamboozle and intimidate us into going along with their depraved agenda.

            The Project for a New American Century signees better known as Neo-Cons stated a major catastrophe was the only thing that would allow them to usher in their program of military imperialism and a domestic police state. "In the summer of 2000, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a neo-conservative think tank riddled with soon to be Bush administration officials and advisors, issued a document calling for the radical restructuring of U.S. government and military policies. It advocated the massive expansion of defense spending, the re-invasion of Iraq, the military and economic securing of Afghanistan and Central Asia, increased centralized power and funds for the CIA, FBI, and NSA, among a slew of other policies that would, in the near future, be enacted upon their ascension to power. In the same document, they cite a potential problem with their plan. Referring to the goals of transforming the U.S. and global power structure, the paper states that because of the American Public's slant  toward ideas of democracy and freedom, 'this process of transformation is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor.' (ibid.)" http://www.911hardfacts.com/report_04.htm

            This is in their own words written to fellow fascists, warmongers and potential elected officials. In it they indicted themselves and exposed their plan. Their goal is to trick us into thinking we are under attack, they would then move in with their plan/program to save us.

            This was not an original idea. Hitler who was financed by major US industrialists, banksters and corporations used this same trick. On February 27, 1933 his party burned down the German Parliament building called the Reichstag blaming it on a few "communist" patsies; thus allowing Hitler to assume dictatorial powers under the Enabling Bill the model for the USA PATRIOT ACT.

            To fully glean the diabolical implications of all this go to http://wot-on-earth.blogspot.com/2012/05/parallels-of-reichstag-fire-and-911.html, https://acenewsdesk.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/the-parallels-between-the-1933-hitler-reichstag-fire-and-2001-911/ and http://www.hermes-press.com/germany1930.htm to see how far along or gone we are.

            You say okay, but why is France being targeted? Good question. The people behind these dastardly deeds want to accomplished several objectives at once: create fear and panic, demonize a target group in this case Muslims jihadists (who by the way are recruited, created and funded by the Saudis, British MI6 the US CIA and Israeli Mossad), to hype people into reactionary revenge to justify future actions such France bombing Syria, Israel expanding their territory, Western hatred of all Muslims and possible WWIII  scenario and to punish France for voting to recognize Palestine as a state. For a few more reasons go to http://www.zengardner.com/paris-shooting-10-ways-looks-like-hallmark-false-flag-op/

            Who benefits from a false flag operation like this you ask? For starters the military industrial complex, defense contractors, the banksters, sundry warmongers as well as the real Axis of Evil US/NATO/UK/France/Israel and their lackeys in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Stock prices for the defense contractors are up as  a result of the attacks. "The Paris attacks took place on Friday night. Since then, France’s president has vowed “war” on ISIS and today significantly escalated the country’s bombing campaign in Syria (France has been bombing ISIS in Iraqsince last January, and began bombing the group in Syria in September). Already this morning, as Aaron Cantú noticed, the stocks of the leading weapons manufacturers — what is usually referred to as the 'defense industry' — have soared" https://theintercept.com/2015/11/16/stock-prices-of-weapons-manufacturers-soaring-since-paris-attack/

            White folks are making millions off of this and this is the continuation and escalation of the bogus "Global War on Terror". Don't fall for the okey-doke this situation is not what it is being promoted in mind control apparatus. For all you Black folks crying and praying for the people in Paris my question to you is, did you cry or pray for the Kenyans, Nigerians, or the millions of innocent people in Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan who are being incinerated and killed by US drones, Israeli and NATO bombs?

                                                             -30-

           

 

                                                    From The Ramparts

                                                    Junious Ricardo Stanton

                                                Saving Cheyney University

            On Tuesday November 10th three busloads of alumni and students along with supporters and alumni from as far away as Atlanta Georgia, Washington D.C. and the surrounding five county area drove by car to converge on Harrisburg to  pressure Governor Wolf and the legislature to commit to saving historic Cheyney University. Several hundred students, alumni, supporters and friends marched, chanted, sang and assembled outside the capital building then met inside the rotunda to hold a press conference where they presented over one thousand signed letters to Governor Wolf, Legislative Black Caucus Chair Vanessa Lowery-Brown and later that afternoon at the Dixon Center Headquarters of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education  additional copies of the letters demanding an immediate search for a permanent president, increased marketing, equitable funding for Cheyney including new academic programs and state of the art facilities for the students.

            During the press conference activist attorney Michael Coard, Heeding Cheyney's Call's legal advisor and leader rattled off a litany of deliberate neglect and racially motivated discrimination against Cheyney dating back to 1901. Twelve legislators including State Representatives: Stephen Kinsey, Education Committee Minority Co-Chair James Roebuck, and Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus Vanessa Lowery Brown along with Curtis Thomas, Ed Gainey, Donna Bullock, Dwight Evans, Joanna McClinton and Thaddeus Kirkland pledged their support for Cheyney and their determination to insure the institution received equitable funding as they labor to break the current budgetary logjam and partisan impasse.

            Students and alumni carrying placards, banners and signs, sang, chanted and spoke during the almost one hour press conference. The rally was planned and coordinated in partnership between Representative Stephen Kinsey and Heeding Cheyney's Call a grass roots organization composed of alumni, students, HBCU supporters, higher education advocates and elected officials. Heeding Cheyney's Call has been working for over two and a half years to get the Commonwealth to honor a 1999 agreement with the US Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to adequately fund the university, cease and desist its discriminatory practices and provide modern facilities and programs to make Cheyney competitive with the other thirteen PASSHE schools. During that time Cheyney's situation has worsened.

            When Heeding Cheyney's Call's negotiations with the Corbett administration stalled, their legal team filed a federal lawsuit on October 29, 2015 seeking redress and remedy from decades of deliberate neglect, violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,  failure to comply with the 1999 Consent Decree agreement and numerous US Supreme Court rulings on behalf of  HBCUs against de jure  and de facto segregation in higher education.

            The lawsuit is still in progress but in June of 2015 based upon favorable communications with the Wolf administration the Heeding Cheyney's Call lead attorney Joe Tucker asked the federal judge hearing the case for a "civil suspension" to allow all parties time to attempt to reach an amicable settlement agreement. The judge agreed and set specific reporting dates to advise him of the status of the negotiations. Thus far negotiations have not been productive due to the state's budget impasse. But as a result of the November 10th demonstration and rally, Governor Wolf reached out to schedule a meeting with the Heeding Cheyney's Call negotiating team.  A face to face meeting is scheduled for December 2 with the governor.

            Cheyney like many HBCUs is facing declining enrollment, fiscal uncertainty, low morale due to forced lay offs and talk of additional faculty retrenchment (layoffs). Recent disclosures about mismanagement in the financial aid office have added to the gloom and exacerbated the financial situation because the institution may be forced to pay millions of dollars in fines and restitution to the federal government because an audit revealed federal financial aid was either not documented correctly or mismanaged. This is millions of dollars Cheyney does not have because it is already deeply mired in red ink from its failure to consistently reach recruitment and  enrollment goals, raise significant grant and scholarship dollars, rebrand the institution and overhaul its image.

            This is why one of the main demands  of Heeding Cheyney's Call is the immediate search for a permanent president. The Governor Wolf  and PASSHE need to signal and demonstrate to the world they are serious about rebranding and resurrecting Cheyney.  The best way to do so is by putting it on sound operational footing by searching for and bringing in an innovative administrative team.

             Several  HBCUs around the country that were facing similar challenges as Cheyney have turned the corner and are in a growth and progress mode. Claflin University in Orangeburg South Carolina and North Carolina Central in Durham N.C. have made great strides developing new academic programs, expanding their enrollment, boosting corporate support and fund raising. Claflin is a private institution while NCC is a state owned school.

             It would be a simple matter for the Commonwealth to look at what those schools did to turn themselves around and apply the same or similar best practices at Cheyney.  That is if the state was serious about saving Cheyney. Apparently it is not. The fact of the matter is PASSHE is experiencing declines in enrollment throughout its system because higher education is not a priority in Pennsylvania. According to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center  Pennsylvania ranks forty-fifth in education k-12 and forty-eighth in per capita appropriations for its public colleges and universities and forty-sixth in terms of investment in higher education. Pennsylvania is cheap, stingy and out of touch for  all students black and white students when it comes to education whether it is primary, secondary or higher ed. When you add racism to this mix it is deadly and does not bode well for the future of the state.

            To add insult to injury Pennsylvania spends far more on incarceration than it does on higher education. It costs over $35,000 a year to house an inmate in the Pennsylvania "correctional System" while tuition at a PASSHE school, including Cheyney,  according to PASSHE's Website is around  $ 19,838 a year http://www.passhe.edu/answers/pages/cost-breakout.aspx . What makes these figures so disturbing is Pennsylvania is currently building additional prisons at a time when their own published crime statistics show crime has been fluctuating downward since 2009! http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/pacrime.htm

            This is why Heeding Cheyney's Call went to Harrisburg, why the fight to save Cheyney University and make education a priority in Pennsylvania must go on!

                                                       -30-

                                     

                                              From The Ramparts

                                         Junious Ricardo Stanton

                                            The War on HBCUs

            "According to documents provided by the Department of Education to the HBCU Digest, total grants from the Department of Education dropped from more than $742 million in 2010 to $680 million in 2012. Grants and research awards from federal agencies to HBCUs for S.T.E.M. development decreased from $661 million in 2010 to $573 million in 2011. According to the WHI-HBCU 2009 annual report, the last produced by the office which, under Dr. Wilson's leadership, never produced an annual report, HBCUs received just under $5 billion from federal agencies, about 2 percent of a total $175 billion awarded to institutions of higher education throughout the nation. In a recent article in the Washington Post, Department of Education leadership suggested that the loan changes were not executive mandates, but rather, changes enacted by lower-ranking officials which went unchecked by policy makers in the Department and within the White House Initiative on HBCUs." Barack Obama and the $300 Million Dollar War On HBCUs by Jarrett L. Carter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jarrett-l-carter/barack-obama-and-the-300-_b_3563173.html

            As we survey the political landscape examining and analyzing the facts and watching actions rather than falling for the rhetorical okey-doke, we are forced to conclude there is a war against HBCUs. Today in America one of the most vile canards being pushed is that we live in a "post racial" social milieu. This in my mind is the equivalent of the "Separate but Equal" lie that fueled American "legal" racial apartheid, color caste and oppression during the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century.

            The war is on both the psychological and policy fronts. The ruling class their political flunkies and mind control apparatus question the validity and need for HBCUs. They assert HBCU are outmoded, inferior and have no place in modern America. They say such things as, "'Even the best black colleges and universities do not approach the standards of quality of respectable institutions,' according to economist Thomas Sowell. 'None has a department ranking among the leading graduate departments in any of the 29 fields surveyed by the American Council of Education. None ranks among the ‘selective’ institutions with regard to student admissions. None has a student body whose College Board scores are within 100 points of any school in the Ivy League.'"   Black Colleges Need a New Mission: Once an essential response to racism, they are now academically inferior. By JASON L. RILEY http://www.nafeonation.org/hbcu-leaders-respond/

             The writer of this article goes on to assert, that HBCU retard the earning potential of their graduates. He quotes Harvard and MIT economists to buttress his claims, "The economists Roland Fryer of Harvard and Michael Greenstone of MIT have found that black colleges are inferior to traditional schools in preparing students for post-college life. 'In the 1970s, HBCU matriculation was associated with higher wages and an increased probability of graduation, relative to attending a [traditional college],' they wrote in a 2007 paper. 'By the 1990s, however, there is a substantial wage penalty. Overall, there is a 20% decline in the relative wages of HBCU graduates in just two decades.' The authors concluded that “by some measures, HBCU attendance appears to retard black progress.'"  

            While this article was supposedly written to challenge HBCUs to rethink their mission and up their game, it was a not so subtle existential attack on HBCUs. Personally I think economists are either the most confused or disingenuous people on the planet. Very rarely do you find agreement amongst them on any issue. The value of HBCUs is no different.  First off the economists and Mr. Riley who shills the anti-HBCU agenda conveniently forget the income gap between HBCUs and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and the legacy of economic caste that still lingers in this country. HBCUs never had the facilities, equipment or endowments their PWI counterparts had, nor the funding or backing!

            The argument that HBCUs are ineffective and outmoded is simply not true. The fact of the matter is despite their lack of resources HBCUs continue to fulfill their original mission, to educate Black people. These are the real facts, "HBCUs represent about 3% of colleges in the U.S. but enroll 12% of all Black college students and produce 23% of all Black college graduates. Remarkably, this small group of colleges confers 40% of all STEM degrees and 60% of all engineering degrees earned by Black students. They also educate half of the country’s Black teachers and 40% of all Black health professionals. And they do this with much less funding support than that of traditionally White institutions." The HBCU Debate: Are Black Colleges & Universities Still Needed? Started as a response to racism and starved of financial support, HBCUs have to do more with less Robin White Goode http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/are-hbcus-still-relevant/

            Studies reveal that despite lower SAT and ACT test scores students at HBCUs go on to perform well in graduate school and especially in Science Engineering Math and Technology than their Black PWI attending/graduating counterparts. "Elliott, et al., indicate that the relative position of blacks in HBCUs as compared to those at non- HBCUs probably accounts for the positive effects of HBCUs. The authors note that black students at non-HBCUs—even those who score well compared to national racial and ethnic norms—are competitively disadvantaged relative to their school’s student body on indicators of developed ability that predict science persistence and achievement, particularly at elite colleges and universities. This results in weaker performance and persistence among blacks than might occur in less competitive settings. The authors note that the differences are large enough to suggest that the achievement gaps are due to nonacademic factors as well as to differences in developed ability. Most importantly in the context of this briefing, Elliott, et al., note that while HBCU enrollees and graduates have quite low SAT scores and high school grades, they nonetheless produce 40 percent of black engineers with only 20 percent of black enrollment. They also note that the top 21 undergraduate producers of blacks with doctoral degrees were HBCUs, and none of the highly successful schools were among the 30 most selective academic institutions." The Educational Effectiveness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities  US Commission on Civil Rights http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/HBCU_webversion2.pdf

            I readily admit HBCU do not have the facilities and equipment of PWIs and much of this is by deliberate design and stems from this nation's ongoing legacy of racism and privation. For example the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has long neglected Cheyney University to  the point it is now on life support unable to compete in a PASSHE system that itself is in serious decline and suffering from massive budget cuts, underfunding and loss of students.  "Many people interviewed for this article, from faculty members to Council of Trustees Chairman Robert W. Bogle to scholars who study HBCUs, placed much of the blame for Cheyney’s challenges with the state of Pennsylvania.

They pointed to historic underfunding and unequal treatment of Cheyney. They described how, decades ago, contractors would use subpar materials when constructing new buildings. They noted that, in 1969, Pennsylvania's government was found by the federal government to be among 10 state governments operating an openly discriminatory higher education system, and how, in 1999, the PASSHE system signed an agreement with the U.S. Office for Civil Rights that aimed to provide more funding and new programs for Cheyney in an effort to compensate for decades of discrimination. Yet that agreement was never fully executed. A new coalition of alumni and advocates, dubbed Heeding Cheyney’s Call, has sued PASSHE and seeks 'parity through equity,' or support that would make up for historic underfunding due to past discriminatory practices. Michael Coard, a member of that group, says Cheyney is treated like the 'stepchild' of the PASSHE system. Bogle says that 'at no time' has the university been treated as an 'equal partner' in the system." An HBCU Fights to Survive- Kellie Woodhouse https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/15/problems-mount-cheyney-university-oldest-hbcu