Politics & Power Quote by Michael N. Castle

Castle’s line is a neat piece of political jujitsu: it flatters Delaware State University while rewriting the story of why historically Black institutions exist. The pivot from “without other choices” to “university of choice” isn’t just branding. It’s an attempt to move DSU from the shadow category of “default option” (born of segregation, underfunding, and exclusion) into the prestige economy where schools compete for students who could go anywhere.

The intent is coalition-building. As a politician, Castle is signaling to white, suburban, budget-conscious constituents that investing in a historically Black university isn’t a niche act of reparative justice; it’s a statewide bet on quality, workforce development, and civic pride. “University of choice” is a phrase made for press releases and appropriations hearings. It also reassures Black audiences that DSU is not being patronized as a consolation prize.

The subtext carries a risk: it implicitly treats the “college for African Americans without other choices” era as a reputational problem to outgrow, rather than a structural reality imposed by discrimination. That framing can sanitize the conditions that made DSU necessary in the first place, swapping history for a narrative of upward mobility that’s easier to fund and harder to argue with.

Context matters. By the late 20th and early 21st century, many HBCUs were pushing to expand programs, research capacity, and student recruitment beyond a constrained pipeline. Castle’s sentence captures that transition: from surviving as an institution of limited access to competing as an institution of real preference, and insisting the state see it that way.