HBCU Students and Staff Have a Lot to Say About That Fiery Presidential Debate

You can always count on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to keep it real and cut through all the BS. So when it came down to how the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris went, you better believe that students and staff at the nation’s most prominent HBCUs had a lot to say on the subject.

It’s no secret that Black Americans are skeptical of the U.S. government. In fact, a Pew Research Center study found 67 percent of Black Americans don’t trust U.S. politics. But Trump appears to have made a concerted effort at targeting the Black vote during this presidential campaign, with specific pleas to HBCUs.

“I got them all funded,” he claimed in his June debate with President Joe Biden, referencing a bipartisan bill he signed as president in December 2019 to permanently provide $250 million per year to HBCUs. Educators have given mixed responses about the effectiveness of the bill, and about whether Trump deserves more credit than Biden for helping HBCUs.

Still, Howard University student Laila Hinton is among those who distrusts the political system. The senior political science major tuned into the presidential debate expecting “craziness,” and was still caught off guard by Trump’s antics.

“A lot of the things he said were very shocking,” Hinton told The Root. From the former president spewing falsehoods about abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy to his blatant racism regarding Haitian immigrants “eating the pets of the people that live there [in Springfield, Ohio],” Hinton said the former president came across as “unprepared.”

Hinton added that Trump showed many signs of weakness in comparison to Harris.

Morgan State University senior Thalya Baptiste had a lot more colorful words to describe Trump’s debate performance. “He obviously proved he’s not competent,” she told The Root, “And he cannot go toe-to-toe with somebody of Kamala’s stature.”

Baptiste, also a political science major, admitted that she hasn’t always sung the Kamala Harris’ praises. When the vice president first became the Democratic nominee, Baptiste said she was “skeptical” that Americans would never elect a Black woman to the Oval Office.

But after the debate, the HBCU senior told The Root that Harris gives her hope. Baptiste even said she’s “seeing myself in her [Harris].”

But another Morgan State University student doesn’t think that Harris’ stellar debate performance will be enough to move the needle. Colin Carr said that it’s unlikely that Trump’s supporters will change their minds about their candidate, regardless of what they watched with their own eyes. “I want to believe there are enough people that are able to put aside their political bias and differences to really look at [the election] at the end of the day,” he says, but he knows American voters typically stick and stay behind their pick.

More than 67.1 million viewers tuned in to watch the Sept. 10 showdown, according to CBS News. It’s safe to say the stakes were high for both candidates, but for Bowie State University professor Dr. Karen Cook Bell, one nominee clearly came out on top.

“She [Harris] presented her policy initiatives, underscored the ways in which Donald Trump will bring chaos to the White House, [and] presented herself as a champion for women’s reproductive health,” Dr. Bell told The Root. In contrast, the professor said, “the chaos that Donald Trump presented really disqualifies him from serving in the White House.”

Political analysts and most American viewers clearly named Harris as the winner of the Tuesday debate, according to a CNN poll. But the goal for the Harris campaign wasn’t just to win the debate. It was to also win over undecided voters. Dr. Bell called Harris’ performance “effective enough” to not only convince independent voters, but to also inspire change.

“I put her in the same category as [former President] Obama with regard to the hope that she’s bringing to Americans who have their eyes open,” she said. Harris’ optimism for the American future in direct contrast to Trump makes her “a change agent,” according to the professor, and that will be vital to Harris’ path to victory in November.

Bell, who graduated from Harris’ alma mater Howard University, added that the vice president is proof that “you can get anywhere from an HBCU including the hallways of Congress and including the Oval Office.” How’s that for a Black job, Trump?