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 women’s 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 Asian–Pacific 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 school’s commencement office couldn’t 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 markers—a 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 UCLA’s “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 small—about 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 6–3.
No major objections to ethnic graduations have emerged since. As in so many areas of American life, the preposterous is now normal.
It makes me sick. And of course there are no White Graduations. Whites don’t deserve it. I am shocked they still let us sit in the front of the bus.
And the local gay pride parade is now just called the Pride Parade. I suppose straight people have nothing to be proud of.
ah, the swimmer. he is the most bigotted bstrd, in the senate outside of course of john f’n kerry.
Read about how a pro-communist, ultra radical "MEChista" named Tony Villar cut his hair, changed his name, put on a tie, and became the mayor of America's second largest city.
That long hair in the photo above is now the mayor of LA, back in his UCLA pro-communist MEChA leader days.
Same thing at Carnegie Mellon, where #2 son was a grad of the School of Computer Science. The big gathering was in the morning, and by the time the SCS ceremony was held, the campus was mostly cleared out. Again, our son had his name called, he walked across the stage and received his diploma from the head of the department. That was a fun celebration. As we had entered, each person coming in got a 'goody bag', that had a light saber. We were all seated, and when they played Pomp and Circumstance, all the professors filed onto the stage in their colorful robes and caps, carrying LIGHT SABERS! What a hoot!
At the big graduation ceremonies, the undergraduates don't get recognized individually, they are just noted by 'Schools' and they all stand up together. No thanks!
If they’re deported, we won’t have these complications, right?
Just say NO to Illegal Alien Amnesty!! Keep calling!! It’s NOT OVER!!
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I trust that, at our military academies, too, there are “separate-but-equal” graduation ceremonies for the various different ethno-cultural groups and sexual orientations. [/sarcasm]
I swear I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t read it. I understand having separate ceremonies for e.g. the different departments (Physics, Athletics, Nursing, etc.): the crowds are smaller and the atmosphere more intimate. But on the basis of ethnic self-identification??!
Do they have separate areas at the cafeteria, too?
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