The U.S. landscape of higher education has featured two types of universities: one for people of color, the sometimes formally recognized Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and the other, more informally known as predominantly white institutions (PWIs), where only white students were generally admitted. PWIs are not unlike HBCUs. In the same way the HBCUs were established for the enhancement of Black students, PWIs are doing just the same for white students. However, the fundamental distinction lies in necessity and history. While PWIs continue to serve the historically white demographic they were created to educate, HBCUs are still filling a void in higher education for Black students that was initially created because of a racist and discriminatory system. But in the latter case, supply does not meet the demand. In light of a the significant demographic shift projected by the year 2036, and the increased visibility of issues of race, racism and violence against Black and other minoritized populations, it is clear that HBCUs will always be necessary within U.S. higher education because systemic racism is written into the lining of higher education policy and institutions. PWIs, however, do not have to remain historically and presently white. The demographic shift indicates a growing need not simply for institutional enrollment changes, but also for reassessment of institutional culture. If colleges and universities continue to center whiteness culture as the premise for all else, enrollment decline will be the lesser evil, as higher education will begin to face it's very own, hand-crafted, racial reckoning.