Houston Community College (HCC) offers a diverse array of nontraditional courses for students. These include fashion and interior design, solar installer certification, culinary arts, construction management, barber/stylist, cosmetology and HVAC programs.
Another notable initiative is the Community Learning Program, which offers free workshops and learning series for youth, adults and seniors aged 50 and above.
The programs are located on several of HCC’s campuses throughout the city. The city is home to more than 527,000 Black or African American residents, yet only 22.6% of those graduating from a university are Black. In this scenario, short-term credentials can make an impact.
According to U.S. News, certificate programs are typically cheaper than college but pay a median of more than $30,000 annually.
At times, a lack of awareness about these programs can prevent students from pursuing alternate careers. However, these programs can also be useful in equipping students with specialized skills that employers may be looking for.
The “Black Smithsonian” debate
President Trump recently issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” singling out the Smithsonian Institution, comprising 21 museums and the National Zoo. The order says the National Museum of African American History and Culture is pushing a “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
While Trump calls it a move to “restore truth” to American history, critics say it is more about the erasure of Black history.
Historians, civil rights leaders and Black lawmakers are sounding the alarm. They argue that the Founding Fathers enshrined slavery in the Constitution U.S. and declared enslaved people to be “three-fifths of a person.” They added one cannot talk about the nation’s story without talking about racism and resistance.
The order also shocked many critics. In 2017, at the start of his first term, Trump praised the National Museum of African American History and Culture, saying he was “deeply proud we now have a museum that honors the millions of African American men and women who built our national heritage.”
“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College.
Black comic shops: there’s only one in Texas
Byron Canady’s Gulf Coast Cosmos Comics in Third Ward is Texas’s only Black-owned comic book store. The shop is next to Kindred Stories, a Black-owned bookstore, and offers comics, graphic novels and manga featuring Black characters written by writers of color.
Black comic characters, some argue, are necessary not just for representation’s sake but to shape the imaginations of young people. Characters like Storm, Black Panther and Miles Morales can expand what heroism looks like to children. It can show that Blackness isn’t a monolith.
