Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy played Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert on the tv series “A Different World”. Kadeem and Jasmine’s characters were students at Hillman College, a fictional HBCU based off of Hampton University. The show ran from the mid 80s to the late 90s. I was literally a baby when A Different World went off the air, but the show is such a classic and I grew up watching reruns.
I chose a Historically Black University and it was the best choice I could’ve made as a teenager. My experience wasn’t exactly like Whitley and Dwayne’s but there were so many nuances in that show that I understood and appreciated.
The two characters started off despising each other, then they dated on and off, then they got married. It was so much in between each of those steps that centered around being young and Black. I think that’s why these characters still resonate with so many people, decades later.
