Harvard will hold a black only graduation ceremony on May 23rd. Thoughts? (Page 3)

Question

Yeah, I'm not joking. It's optional and you have to sign up to attend. Last I heard, about 170 students and over 500 guests signed up to attend. And I don't fully know whose idea this was, either. Highlights from the article: "Michael Huggins, a student who will receive a master's degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts at the end of this month, told The Root that the ceremony is 'an opportunity to celebrate Harvard's black excellence and black brilliance... This is a chance to reaffirm for each other that we enter the work world with a network of supporters standing with us. We are all partners.' " "In 2015, only 5% of the 7,595 Harvard degrees went to black students. Jillian Simons, incoming chair of the Harvard Black Graduate Student Alliance, told The Boston Globe that the ceremony is a time to celebrate the success but also to reflect on the past. 'There is a very somber tone to it because of the things we've had to overcome,' she said. On 23 May, Harvard University will also hold its third annual graduation ceremony for students of Latin American descent." The Boston Globe states: "Similar ceremonies have been held for Harvard undergraduates as well as for students at Stanford, Columbia, Temple, and other campuses. On May 23, Harvard will also hold its third annual graduation ceremony for students of Latin American descent. The ceremony for black students was created during a period of heightened activism related to racism on college campuses and in the country at large — from the Black Lives Matter movement to the increased focus on “micro-aggressions,” passing comments that seem to trivialize or marginalize the experiences of minorities." Here's the Boston Globe article. I'm more curious of everyone's opinions on this.  Here's the link to the Yahoo! article.

NYCQuestions1976 · Answer

Putting aside the reason (s) for a moment, who's paying for multiple ceremonies when one for everyone is enough? Who (or more accurately, "what") really benefits from this? Wait... what's that going through the roof? Oh look! Everyone's tuitions!! Yay!!

Didn't need an Ivy League diploma to figure that one out...

RegularTK421 · Answer

The grad students are holding their own ceremony. They have every right to, seeing as it's a private ceremony and it falls under freedom of association under the first amendment. It doesn't bother me. Also, Harvard isn't the one doing it, it is organized by black students independently of Harvard.

Cosytoasty · Answer

I'm fairly sure Martin Luther King is turning in his grave.

genericname85 · Answer

Wow imagine an all white one... So racist. But it can't be racist if it's about black people right?

legalboxers · Answer

Well this can be looked at two ways:
One - it's a FU to the people who are labeling the minorites
Or
Two- they are making a statement
Either or it's Harvard, when the keyboard warriors have the brain capacity to attend such an auspicious college (and I don't to hear shit about a lib college) then we can talk. Comments from the peanut gallery are a moot point

ToruMatsuda · Answer

Yeah let's bring segregation back😂 let's not learn from the past we should repeat it

Paris13 · Answer

It's My Birthday and it doesn't Phase me One bit. I am Not this Politically Correct Here, dear.
Maybe they do not Feel like having any Whipped Cream In Between that Day. I Mainly get Mad when they Try and Take Christ out of Everything. xx

JamesRandiDebates · Answer

And yet, a high school in the south having an all white prom-held offsite and privately funded-is supposed to be as bad as an old time lynching.

Hell, let them have their private graduation. It's not like any of those affirmative action quotas actually "earned" a degree. They don't deserve to stand on the same platform as those who truly studied and worked hard.

TheUsername27 · Answer

It isn't progressive... no idea what the left wing would think about it... then again they generally attack what white people do that indicates racism so they probably will do a black power salute.

NerdInDenial · Answer

They won't have a private ceremony for Asians, the forgotten minority in America.

Dale1982 · Answer

As long as they don't mind white people doing the same thing. This just proves most folk like being around their own race so why bullshit any more?

Poppykate · Answer

We are going to see segregation for as long as we acknowledge it!.

Janedoe25 · Answer

I'd like a pole over who paid for each of their educations and what were their rankings to get in amongst other races.

tyber1 · Answer

Sure, they may be separate... but they'll be equal, right? Nothing says equality like holding a special ceremony for someone else because they're different.

Ab100 · Answer

Disgusting!!! If it was the other way round it would be racist! Very typical of racism these days! One way traffic

Zinkr7 · Answer

I wouldn't say it's racist, but yea that's just separating black people from white people and every other race. That's absolutely segregation.

evenlift · Answer

What if you do not identify with the race to which you were assigned at birth? #Transracial #WrongSkin

Topaz171 · Answer

I'm surprised you didn't mention the Bethune Cookman graduation...

DontStepOnTheCat · Answer

my thoughts are black people are pushing for segregation again.

ravedave · Answer

Who cares what they do? It's not racist, nor is it harming anyone, so they can do whatever they want.

Harvard will hold a black only graduation ceremony on May 23rd. Thoughts? (Page 3)

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