The Boston Globe reported on Monday that Harvard University will be holding a commencement ceremony exclusively for black students. According to student organizers, Black Commencement 2017 will be the first such ceremony in Harvard's storied history and is intended to celebrate the "unique struggles" of African-American students at an elite institution.
More than 170 students are expected to take part in the ceremony, and over 500 guests have signed up to attend. While the ceremony itself will exclude non-black students, guests of all races are "permitted" to attend the event on May 23 at the university's Holmes Field.
Harvard will also be holding a similar graduation ceremony for Latino students on the same day
According to event organizers, the ceremony was created as a response to the "micro-aggressions" that have "trivialized the experiences of minorities". Courtney Woods, one of the students who organized the exclusionary affair, stated that the black-only ceremony will recognize the lack of social and academic support that African-American students face at Harvard.
Michael Huggins, president of the university's Black Graduate Student Alliance, insists that Black Commencement 2017 isn't about segregation, as the school's 170 black graduates will also be taking part in Harvard's official commencement on May 25.
White people are offended by black snubbing
Right-wing observers see things differently, however. The Gateway Pundit responded to the black-only ceremony as "unbelievably exclusionary and racist" as well as "disgusting and arrogant." The popular website targeted toward conservative females, Chicks on the Right, argued that Black Commencement 2017 is the very epitome of segregation.
"Segregation is segregation, whether it's forced on you or you choose to segregate yourself," Chicks on the Right declared. "Somewhere, Martin Luther King, Jr., weeps."
Harvard and the inclusion/exclusion juggling act
Like many American universities, Harvard is struggling to walk the tightrope between inclusion and exclusion when it comes to the racial and gender identities of students.
In April, Harvard's Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging voted to change the lyrics of the school's 181-year-old alma mater, claiming that it may be offensive to some students since the anthem makes a reference to "the stock of the Puritans". The Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging also encouraged the performance of the school's alma mater at sporting events and other gatherings in an "edgier" format, such as rap or spoken word.
