We like to think of our historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as safe spaces for Black students to be themselves and embrace their culture. But it’s no secret that many of our HBCUs also welcome non-Black students with open arms. Now, an Asian student at Howard University (HU) is sparking some controversy after sharing his first semester experience at “the Mecca.”
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Amen Hong posted on Instagram, celebrating his first semester at HU. The college freshman was originally deferred from Howard during the early decision process, he explained on Instagram. Eventually, he was accepted into the HBCU and has clearly been having the time of his life!
The video has over a million views on the app, and Black folks are proud of him for finding his home. “Good for you! So glad you found your people,” @truephoenix55 said. “Never forget Howard held you down when you go off to build a career.”
“One thing about us: we gonna make folks feel welcome,” influencer Jonathan Paul Higgins wrote.
“I love how we accept everyone despite being rejected by the world,” @godmademeglow responded.
HU and other HBCUs have strong multicultural communities. Non-Black students made up around 24 percent of total HBCU enrollment, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. At institutions like West Virginia State University and Bluefield State University, non-Black students outnumber Black ones six times over. Asian students at Howard account for two percent of the total undergraduate population, according to reports.
Despite many folks supporting Hong’s decision to go to an HBCU, he faced criticism and questions about why someone like him would even choose an HBCU.
@mikenice4334 called out Black people for praising an Asian student for simply attending an Black college. “Accepting ass n****s,” the user wrote.
Hong addressed it all on Instagram.
“This place has become my home and I will do everything in my power to graduate from it,” he wrote. Still, folks weren’t buying it. @amaaronthearchitect said, “Now try to be black in an all Asian school and see how that goes.”
In a separate video posted to TikTok, Hong explained how he grew up in an affluent, mostly-white area in Ohio. It wasn’t until he went to high school that he began learning about Black icons like Hattie McDaniel — the first Black woman to win an Oscar — and why Black folks love Michael Jackson so much.
“So basically he got the white experience so now he wants the black one,” @mothaluthaking said on TikTok.
Some people accused Hong of cosplaying as Black. “Blaccent is crazy work, and bonding with Black people over whether MJ ‘did it,’” @2birdsofafeatha said.
However, Hong isn’t taking his college experience for granted. “I got a 3.7 GPA, am a member of the Scholars of Finance, the first Cohort of DECA, and a proud member of team 2F in the School of Business,” he said on Instagram.
Much of the outrage towards Hong ties back to the deep and complex history surrounding anti-Blackness within the Asian community. During the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, armed Korean-American shopkeepers faced off against Black rioters after the Rodney King verdict.
A year before that, a Korean shop owner fatally shot 15 year-old Latasha Harlins for allegedly stealing a bottle of juice.
More recently, a Hmong-American Minneapolis police officer, Tou Thao, stood by as Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in 2020. Five years later and there’s still a lot of tension between the two communities– especially given that 40 percent of Asian voters chose President Donald Trump in 2024.
While there’s a lot more work to be done, Asian students like Hong represent a greater effort to mend the relationship between the Black and Asian community. And in a country were racial tension is at an all time high, we could probably all learn a little something from this Howard student’s story.
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