That’s great in a Utopian world, but we still live in a world with hate. And Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Asians, the Handicapped, LGBTQ, etc. continue to be harassed and are subjected to discrimination. Throughout history. Stop the hate and then maybe we/they won’t feel the need to have a 2nd graduation ceremony at Harvard. For now, we/they need it.
Someone up thread mentioned wearing heritage stoles to the commencement ceremony. I just don’t see a place for these at an academic ceremony where all students are united to celebrate a common academic achievement.
FTR, we’re not talking about “special commencements” for any group. We’re talking about graduation parties, really. Claiming these are commencement ceremonies, as the Boston Globe’s headline writer did (and, as a result, lots of people in this thread are doing), does a disservice to the conversation about the issue.
“Someone up thread mentioned wearing heritage stoles to the commencement ceremony. I just don’t see a place for these at an academic ceremony where all students are united to celebrate a common academic achievement.”
At some schools, people wear all kinds of stoles and cords to acknowledge and identify with all types of things (definitely not inclusive) as well as decorating their caps, etc. How is this any different?Do leis bother you as well?
Yes, graduating students wear all kinds of things to the ceremony. For example, some in civil engineering have hard hats of the type worn on construction sites.
Why does it matter to anyone what you wear on top of your robe? Goodness. I had lots of cords for various different things.
People are bothered by the most interesting things.
Quoting for emphasis: @dfbdfb
Not understanding why on earth black students would want a commencement ceremony of their own is like not understanding why women need a room of their own.
White privilege, anyone?
Hmm, these ceremonies have been in existence definitely since the early eighties, maybe even before. I certainly don’t understand why it’s a big deal and I don’t appreciate the media couching this as a total separate commencement when that is totally false.
@fractalmstr:
“Personally, race/sex/identity, none of that matters… at the end of the day, we are all human beings. I don’t care if you graduated from college as a black/asian/jewish/gay person… you graduated from college.”
That is all well and good, like people who claim that society is post race, that race no longer matters, that the only race is the human race, etc, but that doesn’t match the reality. Many areas are heavily segregated, even within a city like NYC that is so diverse there is a lot of racial segregation even if the city itself is pretty diverse, in the burbs racial segregation is more the norm than the reality. More importantly, what that idea leaves out is the very real issues that people who are not the majority face, with all the strides in LGBT rights, for example, the day to day lives of LGBT people are not necessarily ‘simply living their lives’, people who are black or Asian or Muslim face their own struggles.
A lot of people are like yourself, who assume that all this ugliness is in the past, but it isn’t. You would think after the horrors of the holocaust and many decades since institutional anti semitism was disbanded, that being Jewish would be no big deal, but check out stats on anti semitic incidences in the US, especially in recent months it has escalated. Asians face many things, both the stereotypes of being the ‘model minority’, and also the resentment of others at their relative success, and can face all kinds of crap that someone who is white may not even be aware of. Just because Jim Crow was made illegal in the 1960’s doesn’t mean that the ugliness is gone, it has shifted forms, but is still present. For example, more than a few of those who benefitted from ACA or expanded medicaid, were all in favor of gutting “Obamacare”, because they thought that that was programs for ‘those people’, basically the mythical welfare queens, while being very happy with ACA or expaned medicaid for themselves, likewise many of those in the anti government side of things believe that budget deficits are caused almost totally by people getting government benefits (here i mean welfare, not entitlement programs like SS or medicare) and there is often a racial component to it, since they likely believe that most welfare recipients are black or hispanic.
One of the reasons groups like LGBT people and blacks and Jews and Asians and whatnot may want to have their own commencement celebration is that they often have felt like they weren’t accepted fully and through shared experience want a place to celebrate making it through.
It is like many things, when you have grown up in a world where who you are is in the majority, whose experience reflects that of many other people, it can be very hard to realize there is different world out there. Many straight people will tell you ‘no one celebrate straight culture’ and why you need ‘gay pride’, and the reason is straight culture is so prevalent they don’t see it shrug.
Lol really, people are stretching so hard now. I wore my Phi Beta Kappa cords at graduation, was there not a place for that when we’re all supposed to be united? If a Jewish student decorates their cap with a quote from a famous Jewish scholar, is that divisive? If a black student puts a quote from MLK Jr? If someone puts a shoutout to their home state? What about their home country? I seriously cannot imagine going out of my way to feel that a graduating student who is proud of their heritage shouldn’t express it.
Giving more thought to this event, I agree that the author of the article slightly mislead us. It doesn’t seem like the Black soon-to-be graduates don’t view their event as an alternative to the larger Harvard university-wide commencement. It seems that graduation events like this and others are reflective of the proposition to ameliorate the “Default White” perception and preference that is widespread in our society.
The problem isn’t that they are having this event. The problem is that the media feels the need to report it. The media likes to create controversy even where none exists.
My kids’university actually has a European heritage celebration (and Asian, African, Hispanic,etc. events at different times). No group has a majority. Anglos are about 30%.
So let’s review. The supposed “Blacks Only Commencement Ceremony at Harvard” isn’t blacks only, and isn’t a commencement ceremony. But it is at Harvard. Congratulations, OP, you’re 1 for 3.
@“Cardinal Fang” I think you mean media 1 for 3.
I’m looking at the title of this thread.
“At some schools, people wear all kinds of stoles and cords to acknowledge and identify with all types of things”
This is a big deal with Harvard’s professional schools, so there’s a strong tradition of distinguishing different groups. Graduates of each one carry lighthearted symbols of the profession. The year I graduated from law school, we had inflatable sharks, the dental school carried toothbrushes, the school of public health had plastic broccoli and carrots, the divinity school wore angel wings and halos, the ed school had Dr. Seuss books…
@“Cardinal Fang” you may be but if you looked at the reference link it’s the Boston Globes headline not the OP’s. Give credit where credit is due.
OP faithfully reproduced the misleading headline in starting this thread, however.
Sometimes, posters reproduce a misleading headline to draw attention to the article and to start a discussion on why it is so wrong. Rebuttal - CC style. So now there is a record on the Internet that the article was 2/3 fake news. 