Imagine this:
You go to Carowinds with two people. One is your big brother, who can drive. The other is your cousin.
You and your cousin are, basically, the same age.
Your Uncle Sam gave your big brother money for you and your cousin. $100 for you. $100 for your cousin. Your big brother gives your cousin $130, hands you $30, shares the other $40 with his friends. And this happens every year when you go to Carowinds.
First time? You don’t think much of it.
Second time? Alright now.
Thirty years of this?
Now your cousin owns one of the best college football programs in the country.
You’re doing okay… but imagine if you’d had the same resources he’s had for the last 30 years.
Okay. I’m calm.
What am I getting at?
A few years ago, the federal government sent a letter to the state of South Carolina, basically saying:
“Hey… y’all need to settle up.”
South Carolina said, “Whatchu’ talkin’ ‘bout?”
The federal government said: “$469,956,832.”
Whew.
South Carolina has two land-grant universities: Clemson University and South Carolina State University.
Clemson was established in 1889. SC State came in 1890. That’s not random. That’s because of a policy.
Federal law requires states to support both institutions. Without discrimination.
Not equally. Not identically. But fairly. And according to federal agencies, that hasn’t happened. For about three decades.
Recently, Clemson received around $40 million from the state for a new computing facility. There are partnerships worth hundreds of millions. And listen, I’m not mad at Clemson.
I like Clemson.
Personally, it’s Spurs Up for me, but I get it. A Saturday in Death Valley? That’s church for some of y’all.
Meanwhile, at SC State…
There are buildings on campus that can’t be fully used without upgrades to meet modern safety and maintenance standards.
Now some people hear this and say, “Here we go… making it about race.” No, silly, nobody cares how fast you run. This is about math.
If the system says fund both, and one consistently gets less—that sounds like subtraction or division to me.
And since a lot of us claim faith, the Bible talks about just weights and measures. Doing right by people. Not cutting corners when nobody’s looking. Because eventually, it all gets counted.
So the question becomes: Has big brother South Carolina been just in its responsibility?
This isn’t just about SC State. This is about trust. Because if something can be underfunded for 30 years, and everybody moves like it’s normal…what else are we not paying attention to?
This don’t look right.
So, the question isn’t just, “Do we owe the money?”
The question is: “What are we going to do now that we know?”
Because ignoring it doesn’t erase it.
It just adds interest … unless we’ve already decided we’re not paying.
And just so we’re clear, SC State exists because some students were shut out of Clemson, and the state chose to build a separate institution instead of integrating. That came out of a “separate but equal” era.
The question today isn’t how it started. The question is whether the state has honored the responsibility that came with that decision—making South Carolina the best across the board.
Not by taking away, but by investing in all of its people.