Stop Snitchin Start Studying
BOSTON
The National Black College Alliance, a grassroots booster of historically Black colleges and universities, is using T-shirts and its unique spin on popular culture to promote HBCUs.
The group that brought us T-shirts that said, “Wait Till You See My Degree” and “Start Studying,” — a positive spin on the controversial “Stop Snitchin’” shirts designed to discourage witness participation in criminal probes — will launch another T-shirt campaign this fall. During the annual White House Initiative on HBCUs, the group will unveil “Black College or Die” T-shirts, based on Citizen Change’s “Vote or Die” T-shirts popularized by several hip-hop stars during the 2004 presidential election.
The Boston-based nonprofit’s mission is to “create the next generation of urban civic leaders by encouraging community volunteerism, career exploration and college education to high school students while promoting historically Black colleges and universities.”
“These institutions were founded to support Black Americans to reach their full potential,” says George “Chip” Greenidge, founder and executive director of the Alliance and a graduate of Morehouse College. “Besides Black churches, Black colleges are ours and we need to support them. Not everyone can be accepted to Harvard or Princeton, but we have over 107 HBCUs waiting for students to apply and we just have to link them.”
— By Margaret Kamara
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
