Apparently racial segregation is now an enlightened, progressive policy...just ask the elitist administrators of Harvard University who, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to hold a "Blacks Only" graduation ceremony this spring.
According to BET, the ceremony is intended to recognize the indisputable fact that graduating from Harvard is simply harder for black students than white students because the "outer pressures of society make the already challenging coursework even more difficult."
Getting a diploma from Harvard is one of the biggest accomplishments a person can achieve, but for some, it can come as a bigger task than for others.
Aside from studying and taking grueling tests, if you’re a minority, the outer pressures of society make the already challenging coursework even more difficult. Knowing this, Black members of the class of 2017 decided to form an individual ceremony. It’s the first of its kind at the school in recent memory and took nearly a year to plan.
The separate graduation is an effort to highlight the aforementioned struggles and resilience it takes to get through those.
Oh yeah, and it's also supposed to build a sense of "community"...because the first step in breaking down racial barriers and building an integrated "community" is self-segregation.
“This is an opportunity to celebrate Harvard’s Black excellence and Black brilliance,” Michael Huggins, a soon-to-become Masters graduate from Harvard’s Kennedy School, told The Root. “It’s an event where we can see each other and our parents and family can see us as a collective, whole group. A community.”
But don't worry because a graduate student from Harvard confirmed that this segregated ceremony is "not about segregation."
“This is not about segregation,” He added. “It’s about fellowship and building a community. 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.”
Recently, across America, there have been incidents of racism – both in comments and violence – at college campuses. Hopefully, the ceremony reminds people that minorities have to encounter certain challenges that others don’t.
Martin Luther King Jr. would be so proud of this day
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
We can't wait for the day that minority students are graded on different curve, you know, because the "outer pressures of society make the already challenging coursework even more difficult" for them.