WATCH: Nikole Hannah-Jones Reveals the First Time She Was Called The N-Word Was at ‘Prestigious White Institution’ Notre Dame

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones revealed that the first time she was ever called the n-word was as a student at a “prestigious white institution” whose validation she once felt was necessary for her success, the University of Notre Dame.

On Tuesday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, Ms. Hannah Jones discussed her decision to reject an offer of tenure from UNC, and instead accept a tenured position at Howard University, an HBCU (Historically Black College or University). She was joined by renowned author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has also accepted a position at Howard.

Host Joy Reid asked about young Black people thinking about going to “the school of your dreams, Harvard, Yale, whatever school it is,” versus “the schools that were producing the greatest minds in American history, the minds that broke the back of segregation and the rules that had been in this country in place since 1619, which is why I wrote that project, you know the rules excluded us, came from HBCUs.”

“Do you feel like you’re going to Howard and saying no to UNC after they belatedly offered you tenure, do you think that that’s going to spark more young people to change the vision in their minds to Howard?” Reid asked.

Hannah-Jones related her own “traumatizing” experience at one of those “dream schools,” expressed a hope that she would inspire others to eschew the lure of validation from “prestigious white institutions” in favor of HBCUs:

I certainly hope so, and I know that Ta-Nehisi hopes so as well.

I mean look, I chose Notre Dame because I thought, as a Black woman, I had to have this certain credential, that if I wanted white society to believe I was actually intelligent and capable that I needed to have a prestigious white institution on my resume.

And I hated my time at Notre Dame. It was traumatizing, I haven’t been back there since 1999, it’s the first place I was ever called the n-word, was on that campus.

And so we have to get to the point where we ask ourselves, we deserve to be at those places, absolutely, but is that the best thing for us? And so I certainly hope that us making this decision, a choice — this is not a consolation prize for me. This is what I wanted. I decided I was going to go to a historically black college. I had other options and I didn’t want to go anywhere else — that other students will realize, as you said, Howard University has played, of any… academic institution in this country, played the largest role in Black people achieving rights, of any institution in this country.

The tradition of doctors, lawyers, professionals, coming out of HBUs still  is an amazing tradition to be a part of, and we don’t need to feel that we have to get validation from these other institutions. We can come home and build our own.

Watch above via MSNBC.