Posted on 06/16/2007 1:45:59 PM PDT by ruination
Commencement weekend is hard to plan at the University of California, Los Angeles. The university now has so many separate identity-group graduations that scheduling them not to conflict with one another is a challenge. The womens studies graduation and the Chicana/Chicano studies graduation are both set for 10 AM Saturday. The broader Hispanic graduation, Raza, is in near-conflict with the black graduation, which starts just an hour later.
Planning was easier before a new crop of ethnic groups pushed for inclusion. Students of Asian heritage were once content with the AsianPacific Islanders ceremony. But now there are separate Filipino and Vietnamese commencements, and some talk of a Cambodian one in the future. Years ago, UCLA sponsored an Iranian graduation, but the schools commencement office couldnt tell me if the event was still around. The entire Middle East may yet be a fertile source for UCLA commencements.
Not all ethnic and racial graduations are well attended. The 2003 figures at UCLA showed that while 300 of 855 Hispanic students attended, only 170 out of 1,874 Asian-Americans did.
Some students are presumably eligible for four or five graduations. A gay student with a Native American father and a Filipino mother could attend the Asian, Filipino, and American Indian ceremonies, plus the mainstream graduation and the Lavender Graduation for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students.
Graduates usually wear identity-group markersa Filipino stole or a Vietnamese sash, for instance, or a rainbow tassel at the Lavender event. Promoters of ethnic and racial graduations often talk about the strong sense of community that they favor. But it is a sense of community based on blood, a dubious and historically dangerous organizing principle.
The organizers also sometimes argue that identity-group graduations make sense for practical reasons. They say that about 3,000 graduating seniors show up for UCLAs regular graduation, making it a massive and impersonal event. At the more intimate identity-group events, foreign-born parents and relatives hear much of the ceremony in their native tongues. The Filipino event is so smallabout 100 students that each grad gets to speak for 30 seconds.
But the core reason for separatist graduations is the obvious one: on campus, assimilation is a hostile force, the domestic version of American imperialism. On many campuses, identity-group training begins with separate freshman orientation programs for nonwhites, who arrive earlier and are encouraged to bond before the first Caucasian freshmen arrive. Some schools have separate orientations for gays as well. Administrations tend to foster separatism by arguing that bias is everywhere, justifying double standards that favor identity groups.
Four years ago Ward Connerly, then a regent of the University of California, tried to pass a resolution to stop funding of ethnic graduations and gay freshman orientations. He changed his mind and asked to withdraw his proposal, but the regents wanted to vote on it and defeated it in committee 63.
No major objections to ethnic graduations have emerged since. As in so many areas of American life, the preposterous is now normal.
Meadow Muffin
I agree in separate Graduations — ye,... for the College of LIERAL Arts, for the College of Engineering, for the College of Science, for the Coleege of Mathmatics, for the College of Law, For the College of Medicene, and for the College of Military Science.
Anything is is just WRONG!
Ridiculous!
The Balkanization of America continues. And it's about to get a big boost from Presidente Bush.
I wonder if there is a separate graduation for the “Hate America” coalition.
That's anything that would fall into the College of LIERAL Arts and the College of Law.
The UCLA Hamas graduates are beheading the UCLA Fatah graduates over at the new Sharia mini-campus.
Glad no one can force us to hire their graduates.
Some students are presumably eligible for four or five graduations. A gay student with a Native American father and a Filipino mother could attend the Asian, Filipino, and American Indian ceremonies, plus the mainstream graduation and the Lavender Graduation for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students.
Oh Barf!
The gubmint hires them. You are forced to pay for them.
Just where you'd expect them to be.(Sigh)
BTW When is the white euro-ethnic ceremony?
I always thought it was the engineers that couldn't spell.
I are an En-GIN-Ear!
Oh, we have many things to thank for this.
Liberals
Insance college professors
The 1964 immigration bill
The Feel Good generation
.....
And the list goes on...
Sounds like there's room for at least four more graduation ceremonies. Probably more, given that it's California.
I have a solution: discontinue all graduation ceremonies.
this entire idea, again is leading to the destruction of AMERICA.
Teddy Roosevelt. “ There is no such thing as a hyphenated American.”
Which means they are NOT AMERICANS.
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