"PROGRESS: Harvard To Hold Blacks-Only Graduation Ceremony"

Actually, I am shocked.

I had no idea this was something occurring in our society.

How does it take away from anyone's achievement if students of all skin tones have their graduation ceremony together?


Also, how do multiracial students and families handle the graduation ceremony?



Are other ethnic groups also having separate graduation ceremonies based on their skin tone?

I'd be very surprised if the black students aren't also attending the regular graduation.  I think this "article" is intended to be inflammatory by implying otherwise.

IMO, I don't think MLK Jr. would've been "proud".  His dream was that the sons of slaves and sons of former slave owners sit down together in brotherhood.  That would mean one ceremony...together in brotherhood.  His dream was that one day his 4 little children would not be judged based on the color of their skin but the content of their character.  

IMO, I don't think segregating ceremonies based on skin color is necessary, or in any way, anything that the great civil rights leaders of the past would've embraced.  

I attended the multicultural graduation for grad school. It was a smaller event held the day before the main ceremony. I also walked at the regular ceremony with my family in attendance.

In grad school, I was often the only person of color in my classes. That made some classes, like multicultural psych, SUPER fun. I can imagine that it's hard to understand what that's like. Participating in a ceremony with my peers who had a similar experience was meaningful to me, which is why I attended.

If you (general you) want to have a "whites only" ceremony before the main event because you feel left out, knock yourself out.

We have been having Latinx and black student graduations at the school where I teach (private religious college) for years. I guess we should be thankful that no one here has ever suggested it is for anything other than to celebrate the accomplishments of students from communities who have been and continue to be underrepresented in the field of law. Our students learn all about the (recent and still ongoing) developments in the law regarding race -- after all, Brown v. Board is a core part of the constitutional law curriculum -- so maybe that is why in ten years I haven't heard a peep of concern.

Everyone goes to the main graduation ceremony as well.

My understanding is that universities hold many smaller graduation ceremonies, some by major or college, some by ethnicity, some for just honors folks, some for military people, some for single majors. All those folks also participate in the main ceremony.

Harvard's diversity is 207th out of 266 universities with the highest percentage being white students. The proposition of a whites only ceremony doesn't make sense when whites do now and have always made up the largest percentage of the student body (47.6% with the next largest group being Asian at 17.2%). Source



People who identify with the smaller groups, for example Native Americans, attend the small ceremonies if they wish. At my university, the smaller ceremonies held for minority groups on campus included Native American/First Nations people, and some others from specific countries I don't recall.

And yet that's not the word we live in.  There seems to be an attitude among some that acknowledging a problem is perpetuating it.

The Daily Wire is known for this.

That is not where we are, and pretending we are there makes it so that we downplay some of the ongoing issues underrepresented students face.

I teach criminal law and criminal procedure.  We cover a number of cases that deal squarely with race, not because that is what I decided we are doing (although I would), but because a lot of the big cases feature race as a major issues -- cases involving profiling, the use of race in sentencing, mentions of race in jury deliberations.  I generally have at most one or two students who are obviously by appearance black, and I know from talking to them outside of class that they often experience those materials a lot differently than white students do.  Having other students in class say that they are more afraid of a young black man on the subway than a white man doesn't exactly make the young black man feel welcome in that community, even when the big bad professor steps in and tries to ameliorate the situation.  

This has been a thing for decades. ASU has had a smaller ceremony (usually they call it a baccalaureat instead of commencement/graduation) for smaller groups - honors, college of education, Native American, Hispanic, etc. In a university like ASU you may have 5000+ people graduating at the main ceremony, so it's not likely that you'll do anything particularly special for that.

At the education ceremony, there were only about 100 people tops - and each was recognized individually. The focus of the speeches was education.
At the Native American ceremony, there are even fewer students. They do things pertaining to that culture - things that wouldn't be meaningful to anyone else. At the Hispanic one, there was an emphasis on doing things in English and Spanish, as many of the parents may not understand. The speeches and music had to do with those cultures, and things that pertain to them.

If you want a "white graduation" you're welcome to have one - only there really isn't a "white culture" so I'm not sure what you'd do - mayonnaise and bad dancing? One thing you could do that would make sense is to do an Irish heritage (with bagpipes and lots of green) or Scottish (bagpipes and kilts) or whatever ethnic group you happen to belong to. Knock yourself out, I doubt anyone will really care.

There was nothing to keep me from participating in any of the smaller group ceremonies if I had wanted to.

Heck, it's an extra celebration! Who could be against that?
It's no different than if all the women there had a special celebration of their own, to celebrate that females have come so far in terms of equality.
Live and let live.

My university began having "Lavender Graduation" for LGBTQ students several years ago. The focus of the speakers is on the challenges faced by that community, and graduates are charged to use their education to make a difference. We also have multicultural ceremony for students of color, and the focus is on how they can use their education to better their communities. Both of these ceremonies acknowledge the challenges and struggles these students have faced during their time on campus.

We also have separate ceremonies for some of our graduate programs. For instance, our Master of Science in Industrial Relations (human resources) holds a ceremony for graduates and families at a local hotel the morning of the "big" graduation. They have special speakers focused on human resources and the challenges presented in today's business world.

ALL of theses students still attend regular graduation. Each college within the University has its own commencement because there are just too many students to fit in one venue. They start Friday morning and finish up around 5:00 Sunday afternoon. The students that attend Lavender Graduation and the multi-cultural one (I'm sorry, I don't know the name of that one) come from all across campus, so LGBTQ students in Education will attend with those in Business.

We had some folks who were quite upset at this concept over the past couple of years, and honestly, I just don't see the problem. Fraternities and sororities have done these "recognitions" forever, so why can't other students who identify with each other and have something in common other Greek life come together to celebrate?

If I'm not mistaken, there is a special ceremony for students in the TRIO programs (first-generation students, students with limited means, etc.), so those students identify with each other through their common experiences. They come together to celebrate each other and their accomplishments, and they are joined by the staff that worked so hard to see them earn a degree. The Honors College has its own ceremony which brings together students in the Honors program who are enrolled in all colleges across campus.

We have about 6000 students graduate each year.  These smaller ceremonies allow colleges and identity groups to select speakers from among students.  I know I gave the address for my graduating class of education majors back in 1985.  We did that in the morning, and then we all attended the main graduation in the afternoon.  We had far fewer graduates back then, so we were all able to fit in the Coliseum for commencement, but only the PhDs, EdDs, JDs, and MDs were called to walk across the stage.  The rest of us just stood up as they "conferred" our degrees en mass.

I don't see a point to a whites-only ceremony at a white-majority institution, personally. I do see the point of smaller ceremonies separate and distinct from the main graduation at an institution that graduates thousands at a time.

That said - perhaps a whites-only ceremony might be appropriate at a historically black college where white students are a miniority? I don't know - I think I personally would still be uncomfortable with it, more so than I am with blacks-only, latinos-only, honours-only, and so on ceremonies. I'm sure that speaks to my own personal biases...