1. Because he already has the attire.
Casual dress? Not even on a Friday.
2. Because depending on your major, you will not get your degree unless you pass That One Professor's class.
3. Because HBCU professors tend to have been trailblazers in their industries. In some cases, they were the only or the first black person to occupy the spaces they did.
You are a boy. I'm a man. I have worked for every single thing I have ever received. I have fought, and scraped, and bled for every inch of ground I walk on. I was the first in my family to go to college; my daughter went to boarding school with the children of kings — I made that happen.
—Scandal, "A Door Marked Exit"
4. Because it's all fun and games until you step out of line.
5. Because he will make sure you never forget who you are and where you come from.
6. Because he recognizes your potential and truly doesn't want it to go to waste.
7. And he will prepare you for excellence, with caring, because he sees himself in you.
8. Never mind a bad grade — you just don't want to disappoint him.
"People are predictable. Unchanging. Monotonous. They use the same excuses, make the same mistakes. People are endlessly disappointing because you hope they wouldn't be."
—Scandal, "No More Blood"
9. Because he instills in you an immeasurable amount of responsibility.
Seriously, you leave an HBCU feeling that it's your mission to save the world.
10. But he believes in you so much that he also imbues you with off-the-charts confidence.
He once told a colleague that he was on a quest to do the impossible: raise an African-American girl who felt fully entitled to own the world as much as any white man.
—Scandal, "Dog-Whistle Politics"
11. Because he might be cool as hell, and you might think you know him...but he will never tell you all his business.
"I am actually, quite literally above your paygrade."
12. Because he drops little gems that you will remember for the rest of your life.
13. Because you will work so hard in his class that you almost hate him...
14. ...But he will look out for you in so many ways that you remember you can't hate family.
15. And because...all of this.
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"How many times have I told you you have to be...what?"