Harvard Brings Back “Separate but Equal” with First Commencement for Black Graduates

Some things deserve to stay in the past, but the New York Times reports that Harvard might not have enough sense to tell what trends need to stay buried.  Case in point?  This year, they had their first black commencement ceremony.

Looking out over a sea of people in Harvard Yard last week, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive and one of Harvard’s most famous dropouts, told this year’s graduating class that it was living in an unstable time, when the defining struggle was “against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism.”

Two days earlier, another end-of-year ceremony had taken place, just a short walk away on a field outside the law school library. It was Harvard’s first commencement for black graduate students, and many of the speakers talked about a different, more personal kind of struggle, the struggle to be black at Harvard.

“We have endured the constant questioning of our legitimacy and our capacity, and yet here we are,” Duwain Pinder, a master’s degree candidate in business and public policy, told the cheering crowd of several hundred people in a keynote speech.

And it’s not just at Harvard:

This spring, tiny Emory and Henry College in Virginia held its first “Inclusion and Diversity Year-End Ceremonies.” The University of Delaware joined a growing list of colleges with “Lavender” graduations for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. At Columbia, students who were the first in their families to graduate from college attended the inaugural “First-Generation Graduation,” with inspirational speeches, a procession and the awarding of torch pins.

It’s important to note that the “black ceremony” was open to all students, though almost everyone who showed up was black.  Also, though there was much pageantry, no actual diplomas were handed out.  Those are still — shockingly — reserved for the official ceremony.

Here’s the thing.  I’m old enough to remember when “separate but equal” shocked the consciences of Americans everywhere.  Do liberals really want to bring back the traditions of the Deep South and to push identity politics to their ludicrous extremes?  Truth Revolt has more about at least two people who weren’t thrilled at the development:

Bhekinkosi Sibanda, who’s a Zimbabwe Harvard student, expressed ambivalence about the whole thing.  “In an attempt at inclusivity, we don’t want to end up introducing exclusivity,” he said. “You don’t want to end up where this black commencement overshadows the entire commencement of the school.”

Ward Connerly, president of the American Civil Rights Institute, echoed those sentiments. “It’s not easy being a student, being a student anywhere, but especially at a place like Harvard.”  But he went on to say that separate commencement ceremonies only “amplify” racial strife. “College is the place where we should be teaching and preaching the view that you’re an individual, and choose your associates to be based on other factors rather than skin color.”

So at least some people are thinking clearly over there.  MJ Randolph also observes, “Obtaining a degree from Harvard — and all of the rarefied air of Ivy League prestige that comes with it — should preclude people from complaining about anyone else’s privilege.”

Image Credit: Wikimedia