HBCU Students Told Us What They Want to Hear From Democrats Tonight

The ten Democratic candidates on the stage tonight in Houston, Texas will get a shot at speaking to millions of Americans across the country, and will likely talk about everything from healthcare access to gun safety policies.

But the host venue for the debate, Texas Southern University, is a more specific audience. The historically black college was founded in the 1920s and is one of the largest HBCU’s in the country. Students on the campus that VICE News spoke with had individual concerns that first-time voters may not hear in the news everyday.

Unsurprisingly, student debt and the soaring price of tuition concerned most of the students that VICE spoke with.

Freshman Kurshine Jackson, 18 years old, expressed concern about falling into debt.

Student debt

“We can’t get a job unless we have a degree but y’all want us to pay for a degree and you’re putting us in debt so when we get a job we’re not really taking the money, we’re giving it back to y’all.”

Her friend Makylor Bush, also 18, nodded along, adding that she wants to hear candidates on the debate stage talk to young people directly: “Make sure everything is good for the future!”

Both of the freshman said they are taking out loans to attend college. In-state undergraduate tuition runs around $7,500 a year at Texas Southern, according to the university’s website.

Alexa Romero — another freshman who said she’s a first time voter — likes Sen. Bernie Sanders because he talks so much about the student loan crisis. She plans to watch the debate tonight with her peers, and she’s taking notes on immigration policy.

“My mom got deported.”

“Mostly because I’m Hispanic, I really want to hear their reforms for immigration, and what they plan to do for all the families that were separated with Donald Trump coming into the presidency. I’m one of those affected. My mom got deported,” she said. Her mother was sent back to Honduras, and now her father is a single dad.

Romero’s approaching the debates with a sense of gravity. “There are some things we should really consider when voting for someone, and I feel like many people didn't consider what he [Trump] was saying and I feel like now that I’m older and I’m allowed to vote, I really want to know what each candidate has to say, especially when it comes to things that matter to minorities.”

‘I want to hear change’

Ian Vaults, 18, mentioned less specific issues that he wants to see candidates tackle on the debate stage, and instead want to see candidates who inspire change and can follow through with their promises.

“I want to hear change. I want a Democrat who will actually involve change because what the president is doing is not fair to the country. We need people in office who actually want to help the people and not just themselves,” Vaults told VICE News. He likes former Vice President Joe Biden, and noted that Biden’s vice presidency serving under the first African-American president was “huge.”

He also mentioned that he wants to see a candidate who can lead on behalf of minority communities. Who fills that gap in his eyes right now? Biden and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke.

“I also think that Beto leads this race, especially for minorities because being in the minority community, it’s huge for us to have someone in power, whether that’s a minority or female, someone who is there for us and someone who is there for the people.”

Let's talk about guns

The other main topic that students mentioned: guns. In a state that has seen a number of mass shootings just in the last few weeks in Odessa and El Paso, students at Texas Southern were concerned about how candidates can curb gun violence.

Vaults thinks Democrats are doing a good job of talking about the issue — but he wants them to do even better.

“The NRA and the other organizations that are conservative are more focused on themselves,” he told VICE News. “When it comes down to what we need to do as a nation, we need to have laws that are for guns because we see people get killed every single day. I believe that we have got to do a better job of that.”

Jackson and Bush noted that the university is an open campus — anybody can walk into the academic quad or the student center — and with hate crimes on the rise, Jackson worries that being a historically black college puts them at greater risk.

“We’re an all black school so we are a target,” she said.

Cover: A police vehicle mans the entrance to Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019 as security is tightened ahead of tonight's third 2020 Democratic Party Presidential debate held on campus. (Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)