Between all the laughs, we may not remember how the series between 1987-1992 took on several hard-hitting topics still relevant to today’s HBCU experience. The sports rivalry episode that landed Ron and Dwayne in jail for a night after a racially charged encounter. The episode that confronted domestic violence and the stigmatizing silence around it in the black community. The episode with Freddie that broached the topic of sexual violence and the dismissive nature of some men on college campuses.
The series also pulled back the curtain on lighter topics like an introduction to the post-traditionally aged student (Jaleesa) and the differences in their life experiences with traditionally aged collegiates, or the economic realities of being away from home for the first time (Denise) and having to learn money management skills. The Different World Reboot is a far cry from the celebration of excellence writers of the 1987 series sought to expose Americans to through the experience of the fictional Black collegiates.
In a similar spirit, The Different World Reboot seeks to draw from HBCU headlines, but not necessarily the headlines for which we want our schools known. Being an alumna, a two-time HBCU administrator, and an HBCU researcher who has stepped foot on 83 of our campuses, I smiled at the b-roll shots of Black joy on the yard, but the story line for Season 1 of the reboot hits a little closer to home in ways that make me both smile and grimace.
We open the season at Hillman College, a fictional private HBCU in Virginia, with resounding questions from the student body about school finances after a mass email from the Financial Aid office during fall convocation. In a demeaningly stereotypical way, the fall semester of Hillman starts with the appointment of an Interim President. Unlike the first Different World which centered on the lives and personal development of the iconic characters, Dwayne, Whitley, Ron, Freddie, and others, who are now the parents of this generation of collegiates, the main course of the reboot is the institutional hardships with a side dish of the human story.
In a shallow pastiche dressed up as HBCU life, the Reboot highlights the very trauma that our students experience from housing shortages and bomb threats that disrupted their lives, to making a caricature of alumni trustees who are on campus for Convocation, Homecoming, post-homecoming Alpha Delta Rho’s Chapterversary, the on campus Black to the Future Street fair and Hillman’s Got Talent show, Founder’s Week events, and spring move out.
Seemingly they are retired or independently wealthy, as Whitley and Ron are on the Virginia campus with such frequency from their Connecticut and Detroit homes. The juxtaposition of the original 1987 storytelling of HBCU culture with the 2026 Reboot speaks to what I believe is a larger historical tension: the ways in which negative and often reductive depictions of HBCUs have, over time, shaped public perceptions of our institutions while obscuring the complexity, resilience, achievement, and cultural richness of HBCU life.
Whereas the original Different World that celebrated all the great elements of HBCU life centered around friendships and bonding, the 2026 Reboot offers us only brief moments that illuminate the best of our institutions. We see how alumni success can contribute to strengthening campus infrastructure, as demonstrated by the renovation of Gilbert Hall. We can see how the foundational education from an HBCU can lead students to revered halls of Congress in the nation’s capital, where not one but two Hillman alumni are Congressional leaders working to secure a federal infrastructure bill for HBCUs. We see how faculty support can engage the academic growth of students in a way that is personal and empowering as evidenced in each post class conversation with Professor Brooks, who also provides paid research assistantship opportunities in applied social science research. We get to see joyous representations of conference rivalries like that between Hillman College and Norfolk State University for the MEAC tournament (which they announce is in Baltimore, but we know what conference that is).
Ultimately, the question is not whether the institutional challenges portrayed in The Different World Reboot are real; many of them are. The question is whether those challenges should become the dominant story we tell about HBCUs.
Our institutions deserve stories that acknowledge financial pressures, housing shortages, leadership transitions, and other institutional realities while also showing the innovation, intellectual life, alumni commitment, student joy, faculty mentorship, research, and community that exist alongside them. If we want the public to understand the full measure of our institutions, we have to tell those stories ourselves through our classrooms, archives, alumni networks, media platforms, research, social media, and, yes, our entertainment.
The call to action is simple: we must become more intentional about controlling the narrative about our HBCUs. Not by hiding what is difficult, but by refusing to allow our difficulties to become the only lens through which our institutions are seen. We should document the wins, contextualize the challenges, elevate the people doing the work, and preserve the stories that demonstrate why our institutions continue to matter. If we do not tell the full story of HBCUs, someone else will and they may tell only the parts that make for good television.
Erin Lynch Ph.D., Ed.D., CRA is the president Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network, an educational non-profit that serves over 900 Minority Serving colleges and universities. Prior to QEM, Dr. Lynch served as a faculty member and administrator at a number of institutions, Winston-Salem State University, Tennessee State University, and Austin Peay State University.
