- 14 hours ago
For generations, HBCUs have been incubators of culture, community, and excellence built specifically for us. Students are choosing them at record numbers, coaches with championship pedigrees are bringing their talents to historic sidelines, and the academic firepower behind these schools is stronger than ever. This conversation brings together the academics, the advocates, and the athletes to talk about the cultural renaissance, the responsibility, and what it takes to make sure the momentum lasts.
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00:02Check one, check two. Shout out to all the brothers in shorts. My man right there got his thighs out.
00:07How y'all doing? Everybody good? I'm here for the jokes, okay? I'm here for the jokes and the fried
00:12food. I'm going to just let y'all know. Hello, Mara Chans. We got elite black women out here. My
00:17name is Rodney Rakai. You all may see this Morehouse hat on my head, but that is because my son
00:22is on the way to Morehouse, but I went to North Carolina A&T State University, so Aggie Prides, all
00:28my Aggies in the building.
00:29We are here right now to have a conversation about HBCUs. They are incubators for brilliance and excellence and have
00:36been so since the beginning of time, and in this current season of life, it's important that we amplify how
00:41important they still are for us, to us, because every industry I've ever worked in, at very near the top,
00:48was somebody who held from an HBCU, so it's important we continue to commit to sending our children there. Wes,
00:54you got kids yet? My fault. Pardon me, champ.
00:58I want to bring our panelists out right now. First up is a guy who I love dearly because we
01:04play tennis together, and I beat him the last two times we played. He went to Clark Atlanta University. World
01:11-renowned DJ, Trummer. My brother, y'all make some noise for my guy.
01:17He ain't like that. He ain't like that. He ain't like, don't be telling the business, bro. It beat me
01:19at tennis.
01:22Always love. Always love. Always love. Next up, we have the seventh president from Dillard University. He's now elsewhere. He'll
01:30talk about that in just a moment, but please welcome Dr. Walter Kimbrough, higher education leader, former HBCU president right
01:39here at Dillard.
01:39He's like, ooh, that's that smooth. You used to play basketball, didn't you? I know that walk. That's that smooth
01:43walk right there. You know he put buckets up back in the day.
01:46And last but certainly not least, one of the biggest personalities on the face of the planet, an HBCU grad
01:52who was also a member of a fraternity.
01:54I'll let him shout that out himself. Y'all please welcome Brother Trav Q to the stage. Trav Q, New
01:59York City Zone.
02:01Yes, sir. What's up, man? How you feeling? Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
02:10First and foremost, I think the most important question that I can ask each of you, how is your spirit
02:15doing today, brothers?
02:17Oh, I feel really good. I feel really, really, really, really good. I'm hopeful.
02:22Okay, Edible's kicking in, I see.
02:27Gee, love, love, love, love.
02:31Well, I'm doing great. It's always good to be back in New Orleans.
02:34Haven't been president of Dillard for 10 years. I've seen a lot of my former students.
02:38So that's always just new energy when you get to see them and watch how they have really progressed in
02:42their careers.
02:43So I'm always happy to be back.
02:45Amazing.
02:45I am grateful. I feel like I'm here with family already. How y'all feeling? Y'all good?
02:50That's what I'm talking about. No, no, we need more energy than that. How y'all feeling?
02:53Okay, now that's what I'm talking about. Now I feel better.
02:55Yeah, Dr. Kimbrell, I want to ask you straight out the gate. We are seeing an uptick in enrollment at
02:59HBCUs.
03:00The application process is crazy. I would not be admitted to North Carolina A&T State University if I were
03:05to apply in 2026.
03:07The thresholds are so high. What is causing this boom and seeing so many young people desire to go to
03:13HBCUs from your perspective?
03:14Yeah, so there are a couple of things. The first thing that's happened over the last 10 years is that
03:19we've had more mainstream media lean into HBCUs in ways we've never seen before.
03:24So it's really been, I mean, if you think back in the day when we had Martin and people were
03:28always wearing HBCU gear, then it went away for a while.
03:31But now you're seeing people like when Beyonce performs in a, you know, in a football game, the Texas Southern
03:36Band is with her, the videos that TI are doing with, you know, Tuskegee and Ludacris with Clark Atlanta.
03:44So there's a higher profile.
03:46The other thing is, it's just the feeling that's going on in the country right now.
03:50Everybody's feeling all this anti-DEI. They feel like anti-black and they're being attacked.
03:54So I want to go to a place where everybody appreciates me for who I am.
03:58And that's driving a lot of that. And when I talk to students, they're like, I just want to get
04:02out of all of the foolishness that's going on.
04:04So let me be at a place where I'm going to be respected and loved for being me.
04:08And I don't have to, you know, act like I'm someone else.
04:11Yeah. I always say, man, it's the only place that we can go that we are the majority.
04:15And, you know, for those four years, you can't have that kind of experience anywhere else outside of prison.
04:19And, you know, we're not trying to we're not trying to do that.
04:21But when I took my son to Morehouse for the first time last month, he was like, yo, this is
04:25the only place where this many black men come together.
04:28That's not a prison institution. And it was it was mind blowing.
04:32Trav, coming from New York City, man, how did you end up at an HBCU?
04:36So my high school coach, who's a member of my fraternity, the Omega South High Fraternity Incorporated.
04:40Hey, shout out to the bros. Yeah.
04:42Root to the bros. He told me about HBCUs.
04:45I didn't even know about an HBCU until he told me to fill out the application.
04:49When I tell you I had so many acceptance letters, but the first HBCU that I seen was the Lincoln
04:55University, Pennsylvania.
04:56And I said, that's where I want to go. I actually played football there.
04:59And when I arrived on that campus, I seen how family oriented HBCUs were.
05:03You know, Lincoln University was probably the best choice for me.
05:06You know, and just coming from New York City, it was probably it was definitely the best choice.
05:10You know, you know, bringing that New York City swag to HBC, you know, I'm already know.
05:14And trauma, you kind of have a similar experience, you know, coming from New York, ending up down in Atlanta.
05:18Right. Like, oh, yeah, absolutely.
05:20I mean, my experience was a little different because my grandmother was in the Methodist church and Clark was a
05:25is a Methodist school.
05:27So my freshman year of high school, she was like, you're going on a college tour for spring break.
05:34And I was like, OK, but but it changed my life when I started to see all the schools.
05:40And then I went down to Morehouse and Spelman and Clark.
05:43I was like, oh, this is where I'm going to go.
05:45So it definitely changed my immediately changed my my opinion.
05:48You've been all over the world, though, through music.
05:51You are somebody who I admire.
05:53And I mean that genuinely.
05:54The way you carry yourself, the way you carry culture, I think is very important, very healthy.
05:58In all the spaces that you exist in, are you seeing other people that went to HBCUs?
06:03And what's that like to see somebody who went to an HBCU and connect with them in Bali or any
06:08of the countries that you frequent?
06:09Yeah. You know, the one thing I will say about going to an HBCU, even if it's just your school,
06:16there's just a bond that that that you have, even if you didn't go at the same time, if you
06:22see somebody in the other world and you say you went to where?
06:25Oh, you went to Clark. It's just an instant bond.
06:28But it even goes further, like HBCU, like if you see somebody in a different country that went to HBCU,
06:33there's just this unwritten language that, you know, you both speak that that just makes you excited.
06:41Yeah. I know you struggle to manage the financial aid office. Right.
06:44I know that the food and the calf might not always been hitting or something.
06:48It's a lot of things that we got to deal with at HBCU.
06:51So we like there, bro. Like, that's that's what we serving today.
06:54Right. It's an experience. You know, the football play is always going to cause chaos on an HBCU campus and
07:00fried chicken Tuesday was the best day.
07:02All right. Yeah. It was to know Tuesday for us at D-Link University.
07:06You know, I know it's fried chicken. It's Tuesday. You know, she was like, see, it's a universal thing.
07:11She was like, hold on Tuesday. Yeah. Yeah.
07:14Did y'all have good pizza? This is random. It's not on the question list.
07:17Did y'all have good food at Lincoln? Because there's a part of me that feels like they were serving
07:21on Elio's pizza.
07:22No, we had great food because there was nothing but cornfields around. Right.
07:25So the nearest city was Philadelphia, which was an hour and 10 minutes.
07:29So we were stuck on that campus. So they had to have good food for us.
07:31Got you. OK. OK. Dr. Kimbrough, you have a unique perspective because you have led HBCUs.
07:37So from your purview, what's something that's been a challenge during your tenure at Dillard University that you feel like
07:45present day has kind of soothed itself out a little bit?
07:49The challenge then is still the challenge now.
07:53HBCUs are under-resourced institutions that serve under-resourced people.
07:56And the thing that I worry about the most is how do we generate enough resources for students to stay
08:02in school?
08:02We want them to have that full experience.
08:04And so some of that, I think, in many ways might be worse now because the wealth and income gap
08:09continues to grow.
08:10And so I continue to think about that. I think there is, like I said in the beginning, there's much
08:16more of an appreciation of HBCUs beyond the HBCU community.
08:20I mean, it's, you know, NBA's All-Star Game a few years ago, they had HBCU stuff all on the
08:24court.
08:25So we're getting a different level of appreciation from popular culture.
08:28But the bottom line is we've got to figure out how do we support our students and families so they
08:33can afford to go to school and not leave with tons and tons of debt.
08:37So that's something that I'm actually dealing with right now.
08:39Like I told you all, my son is on the way to Morehouse to be a freshman this fall.
08:42And there was a loan, I want to say it's the Parent PLUS loan, that used to be upwards of
08:47$60,000.
08:48And that has since been reduced under this administration down to $20,000.
08:51So a parent who is trying to apply to help their child go to school, we're underfunded.
08:57We don't have that extra income.
08:59We don't have that.
08:59And so it puts quite a few people in a very precarious position.
09:02And it's really unfortunate.
09:04We are seeing a lot of rollbacks in this administration to our HBCUs.
09:08And it's a challenge to figure out how to send your children to college right now because the cost is
09:12crazy.
09:14It's crazy.
09:14But I'm going to tell you this, though, and this is for you and for all the parents out there.
09:18I'm Executive Vice President with United Negro College Fund.
09:21Well, cut the check, brother.
09:22I'm going to tell you.
09:23What's up?
09:24Have your son go to uncf.org, get in the portal, and make sure he is checking for scholarships every
09:31other week.
09:32Because I'm telling y'all, people leave money, free money, on the table every year.
09:37And they leave money because they go through the process, and it might say, write a 300- to 500
09:41-page essay.
09:42And then people are just like, I can't do that.
09:44It's free money.
09:45So he needs to be in the portal.
09:47And that's his home.
09:48You need to tell him, like, you've been on uncf.org.
09:50Do you see what kind of scholarships there are?
09:52Because if you do that enough, and I watch international students come and go for free because they know they
09:56can't get no federal money, and they stay in that portal.
09:59So we've got to stay in those portals and look up that money.
10:02It takes some time, but that's how you cover that gap because you're right.
10:05That Parent Plus loan is cut.
10:07The scholarship essays are daunting, though.
10:10I'm not going to lie to you.
10:11I sit side by side with my son writing them joints out, bro.
10:14And I'm like, they don't teach the kids how to write that well anyway.
10:17So, like, watching him struggle through the essays sometimes, I'm like, oh, man.
10:20Now they're doing video essays.
10:22It's kind of crazy.
10:22It's kind of crazy.
10:23Trav, you are an ambassador for HBCUs, which is beautiful, right, because you get to have experiences like this where
10:30your voice matters.
10:31But it also means that you have to have a certain level of decorum and responsibility because you are a
10:37face that is attached to HBCUs.
10:39Let's talk about the challenges in making sure that you carry HBCUs as strongly and as proudly as you do.
10:45First and foremost, I would like to talk about, you know, HBCUs are not being overlooked anymore, you know, and
10:52the power of HBCUs.
10:53The community of HBCUs.
10:56The leaders that came from HBCUs.
10:58So I have to carry that weight with me wherever I go.
11:00You know, I have to represent the Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, but I also have to represent all the HBCUs
11:06like you said as well.
11:07You get what I'm saying?
11:08I'm going to let you in on a story.
11:09So Langston Hughes graduated from the Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.
11:13Thurgood Marshall graduated from the Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.
11:16They were roommates.
11:18Thurgood Marshall, who's a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, and Langston Hughes, who's a member of the Omega South Alpha
11:23Ten Incorporated, my chapter, them being roommates,
11:26Thurgood Marshall actually got kicked out of Lincoln University.
11:29Langston Hughes wrote the letter to get him back inside.
11:31So it shows how much of a family that we are.
11:34Dr. Kwame, the first president of Ghana, graduated from the Lincoln University.
11:38So I have to carry that every day, everywhere I go.
11:41You get what I'm saying?
11:42And we are not being overlooked anymore, you know?
11:44So I have to just carry that with me wherever I go.
11:48Are you going to?
11:48No, I totally get it, man.
11:50That's a tall task.
11:51Yeah.
11:52Trauma, do you think that that's fair, that we have to?
11:54Because there is a part of society that recognizes as a black people, we always have to bear the brunt
12:00of what it means to be black in this country.
12:02And there are so many people who have attacks against HBCUs who say they're no longer relevant, they're not viable
12:08institutions, they're racist to some people to have an infrastructure designed specifically and explicitly for black people.
12:14What are your thoughts about the perspective of HBCUs from outsiders in 2026?
12:18Oh, I think that until the world is fair, I think it's fair for us to be able to have
12:26our own schools that cater to us.
12:28And I feel like engaging in that conversation is a no-win conversation if you're trying to talk about reverse
12:36racism, because the history is just so great of racism towards us, it doesn't even –
12:44you can't – if you engage in that conversation a lot of times, they can prove you wrong in public
12:51or something like that.
12:52So I feel like sometimes you might want to shy away from that type of conversation.
12:55But I feel like HBCUs, listen, the family feeling that you get is something that is irreplaceable.
13:06So it's just like we need that always.
13:09Always.
13:10Always.
13:10There's a lot of conversations about – or debates between PWIs versus HBCUs.
13:16Dr. Kimbrough, I defer to you.
13:19What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of going to an HBCU versus a PWI from your perspective?
13:24So I always tell people, make sure you choose the institution that's the best fit for you.
13:29I grew up in Atlanta.
13:31I went to Atlanta public schools, black folks all of my life.
13:34I went to University of Georgia.
13:35So I wanted something that was different for me.
13:38But at that time, that was a good fit for me.
13:40So I always tell students and families, particularly, make sure you find a place that's a good fit.
13:45And for a lot of students, particularly in this time, they are looking for an HBCU experience.
13:50So they are trying to figure out how do I get to a place where I am going to be
13:54nurtured and all of those things.
13:55So it's really up to the person.
13:57I tell everybody, though, at least when you're a child and we have a rising senior in high school, you've
14:03got to at least apply to HBCU.
14:04You've got to look at it, and then you can make the right choice for you.
14:08But don't get caught up in – because a lot of students we're finding out will go to a PWI
14:12and get lost because they're not jockeying for you like that.
14:15So it's important for you to make sure you go to a place that's a good fit.
14:18So you have them do that.
14:19And so I think sometimes we go down those rabbit holes with that debate.
14:23Find a place that's a good fit.
14:25But make sure you're looking at an HBCU as a part of that and not rule that out because it
14:29could be a good fit.
14:30Definitely.
14:31Trav, you made the rounds.
14:32You be outside.
14:33For sure.
14:33You be in a mix a little bit.
14:34You know what I'm saying?
14:35I see it from afar.
14:36Just a little bit.
14:36Just a little bit.
14:36That's a touch.
14:37So you've been to different homecomings.
14:39Yes.
14:40There's a lot of conversations out there about who has the best homecomings.
14:43Okay.
14:44I went to North Carolina A&T State University.
14:47Okay, okay.
14:47Hey, Giproy.
14:48Hey, Giproy.
14:49You late, but I hear you, though.
14:52You know, greatest homecoming.
14:53You see the discipline, you have to be on time.
14:54That's the HBCU thing.
14:55Say it one more time.
14:56Let's see if you know.
14:56Hey, Giproy.
14:58Hey, Giproy.
14:58There we go all day.
15:00Hell, you?
15:01Okay, I'll say Lincoln Pride.
15:02All right, yeah.
15:03Crickets.
15:05Who has the best HBCU?
15:06The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.
15:08D-A-U.
15:08The first HBCU.
15:10The first HBCU.
15:11The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania has the best homecoming.
15:13But shout out to y'all.
15:15You know, I can't even front.
15:17Y'all homecoming, it's lit.
15:19Trav.
15:19I ain't going to say it old y'all.
15:21Y'all homecoming is very lit.
15:23I've been there a few times.
15:24I'm going to go down the line.
15:25We're going to talk about this because this is important.
15:27Like Tupac said it best.
15:28We might fight amongst each other, but I promise you this.
15:30We'll burn it down when you get us pissed, right?
15:32That's the fact.
15:32So we're going to compete about HBCUs, but we're going to stick together where it matters.
15:36Because why do you feel like Lincoln has the best homecoming?
15:39I need to understand it because I've never been, and I don't want to judge it, but from
15:43afar, it looks like it doesn't compare to A&T's homecoming, respectfully.
15:46I mean, shout out to A&T first and foremost.
15:48But, you know, like you said, it's a whole family.
15:51HBCUs were a whole family.
15:52But when I go back to Lincoln University, I'm amongst my friends.
15:55I'm amongst my peers.
15:56You know, we crack jokes.
15:59You know, we bring up memories from the past.
16:01So I feel at home again.
16:03That's why I feel as though Lincoln University's homecoming is the best homecoming.
16:06Okay.
16:06But you know what?
16:07I'm going to say this.
16:08All of our homecomings are the best homecoming.
16:10Let's start there.
16:11There it is.
16:12Yeah.
16:13Hell no.
16:15Hell no.
16:16I will just have to say this, that bigger doesn't mean that it's better.
16:21I've got a crazy joke.
16:22I went to CAU and I just feel like our energy is like we kind of, we're in the AUC.
16:28We got Morehouse.
16:28We got Spelman.
16:29You got Morris Brown.
16:30We kind of get overlooked sometimes.
16:31So we tend to go really hard and have a really good time and really show our pride during homecoming.
16:39Okay.
16:40Dr. Kimbrough at Diller University, talk about the homecoming experience.
16:42Were you out there in the mix?
16:44Well, so I was out with all the Diller folks here too.
16:46So we, and so, you know, our, I mean, I just talk about the students at Diller and I have
16:52to, let me add this caveat.
16:55I've been president of three HBCUs, Philander Smith and Little Rock, and I was interim last year at Talladega.
17:00Wow, clap that up, man.
17:01Clap that up.
17:02That's fire.
17:02Oh, I got to.
17:02That's amazing.
17:03Thank you for your commitment.
17:04But I'm here, you know, as a UNCL person, but I'm always Diller too.
17:09And what I see from our students at Diller and at Homecoming, you see those real connections, rekindling connections then
17:16that lead to other things.
17:17So there are a lot of people behind the scenes doing some work at Essence that are Diller grads, that
17:22are running a lot of these things, a lot of these panels.
17:24And so we go back to Homecoming, you watch them connect, and then I'm opening up the Essence magazine like,
17:29yeah, that's one of my students wrote that article.
17:31And another one of my students wrote that article, and that student was just on stage doing X, Y, and
17:35Z.
17:35So it's like we use it for us.
17:37I mean, Diller doesn't have football, but we're making sure we're doing work during Homecoming.
17:41We're making that action.
17:42That's what we do.
17:43So what's your Homecoming sport?
17:46What is it?
17:47It's around basketball.
17:48Basketball?
17:48Yeah, being in the basketball season, yeah.
17:49You know one thing we didn't talk about is the people that you meet at college that you will end
17:57up networking and doing business with your entire life.
18:02You know what I mean?
18:03And I think that's a huge, huge, huge important fact I think that I would love for you to talk
18:09about.
18:10Yeah, listen, I am the beneficiary of having gone to an HBCU.
18:13Because I went to North Carolina A&T State University, obviously you have Terrence, right?
18:18Terrence is like a big brother to me.
18:20But also Howard University, any H-U?
18:26But having gone to an HBCU, I've connected with so many people from other HBCUs who support me.
18:31My sister right here, Mara Chance, who went to Spelman University.
18:35Spelman College, excuse me, Spelman College, my bad, my bad.
18:38We got my brother Ricky Bennett in the back.
18:40Crystal, like these are people who have been in my life now for over 20 years, and we stay connected.
18:44A lot of the jobs and opportunities that I've gotten are because I went to an HBCU, and it is
18:49constantly, or it's said in certain instances in certain spaces, that the experience is limiting, or it's limited.
18:55There's a ceiling when you go to an HBCU because you have to shake white hands in order to advance
18:59in this world.
19:00And I call nonsense on that.
19:02I think that going to an HBCU creates a tighter relationship than you could ever have having gone to a
19:07PWI.
19:07At least that's my experience, and I swear, I am so thankful my son is going to Morehouse.
19:12Like, I am thankful that he's going to be in the fold of that right there.
19:15Like, he's a second-generation HBCU student.
19:17That's the thing that we worked hard for our whole lives.
19:19Like, that's what I wanted, bro.
19:22So, yeah, going to an HBCU, it does create that.
19:24Now, I want to go back to homecoming real fast.
19:28Because going to North Carolina A&T State University, in Greensboro, North Carolina, you would never imagine hundreds of thousands
19:37of people descending upon this borderline food desert of Greensboro, North Carolina, to party.
19:44It is a different experience.
19:46Atlanta is lit.
19:47People are going to go to Atlanta regardless.
19:48Howard, respectfully.
19:49People are going to go to D.C. regardless.
19:51But to descend upon Greensboro, North Carolina, because you know you ain't got to be from there, you ain't got
19:57to be from the school, it's not pretentious, it's a different level of love.
20:00And I just feel like we do that really, really well at our HBCU.
20:04All I will say is that my alumni giving rate at Dillard was higher than A&T's.
20:12Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo.
20:14It ain't even close.
20:16I didn't see the stats on that.
20:18Listen, we can compete.
20:19We got football, though, so, you know, we got that going for ourselves.
20:23Before we close, though, man, what's one thing that you hope people in this crowd take away from the HBCU
20:29experience and a piece of wisdom you can give them to impart on a young person who may be about
20:33to cross that threshold from high school into college?
20:37First and foremost, it's about your education.
20:41Everything after that, everything comes after that.
20:43Focus on your education, focus on getting your degree, and more importantly, focus on graduating.
20:501,000%.
20:52Just real quick, I want to acknowledge the president of Alabama A&M University, Dr. Daniel Williams.
20:57He's here.
20:58What's up?
20:58I need to shout out my colleague who's here as well.
21:02I always tell students, even though we have all this technology, we're in a relationship economy, and you have to
21:08build those relationships, and you can do that better at HBCUs.
21:12Like I said, I see it with my dealer students all around that are running all kinds of things at
21:16Essence.
21:16It's based on those relationships.
21:18So you can't just go to college and be in your room and on the PlayStation and doing those things.
21:23You've got to get out and have relationships with people.
21:25And if you do that, you maximize what we do best at HBCUs.
21:30Phenomenal word.
21:31Word.
21:31He said it better than I could.
21:33But, you know, I would tell anybody who's going to, you know, make sure you make connections with all the
21:40people in your class, as many as you can.
21:43Have your clique, because those people to the left and the right of you will be some of your biggest
21:49allies, some of your biggest clients.
21:53Like, for instance, Amy Sherrill.
21:55She's a world-renowned painter.
21:58She did Michelle Obama's painting.
22:01We used to share notes in class.
22:04And then when she decided to do her Whitney Museum opening, she reached back and was like, oh, I want
22:10a lit DJ.
22:11Let me hit trauma.
22:12So those people that are right next to you are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.
22:16It's a special place.
22:18It really is an incubator for black brilliance, black excellence.
22:21And it is a breeding ground for leadership across so many different industries.
22:25I truly, truly believe that.
22:27Thank you, gentlemen.
22:27I appreciate your contributions to this conversation, as well as to HBCU culture.
22:31Thank you for your time, your energy, your spirit.
22:33And thank you all out there as well.
22:35Make sure you encourage our youth to attend HBCUs, any of them.
22:39It does not matter.
22:39Thank you all for your time, love, and light.
22:41I'm Rodney Rakab.
22:42What's up, Trav?
22:42Everybody, shout out to y'all HBCUs on the count of three.
22:45One, two, three.
22:46C-A-U.
22:48Yeah, yeah.
22:49Shout out Ricky Bennett, man.
22:51It's the guy.
23:11You
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