Graduation Day in black and white
Today is graduation day at the University of Pennsylvania. As the Washington Post reports, racially and ethnically themed ceremonies for seniors are the new biggest thing, so that seniors can "celebrate their cultural connections as well as their ability to overcome the special challenges they face at predominantly white universities." Professor John H. McWhorter, one of the more well-known and outspoken critics of race-conscious college admissions, had this to say about these ceremonies:
"The fact that these ceremonies are so prevalent nicely shows that the common defense of racial preferences -- that it puts whites and blacks on the same campus to learn about and become comfortable with each other -- is senseless...On the contrary, campuses are precisely where many black students learn a new separatist conception of being 'black' that they didn't have before."
Do separate dorms, cultural centers, and ceremonies make students feel safe and honored - or are they merely isolating students in cultural ghettos? As always, Erin O'Connor has a lengthy and excellent post on the topic:
Supporters of these ceremonies claim that they recognize the special achievement of minority students in the (implicitly oppressive) atmosphere of the predominantly white university. As the house dean of Penn's black dorm explains it, "Our students need the support they get from one another. ... Often, they don't receive the same recognition and support as other students in the university."
The fact that minority graduations are instances where minority students actually get more support and recognition than "other students" does not enter into this argument. Neither does the notion that such a ceremony might feel like a cheap and belated compensation to students who have been underserved by their school (if indeed they have). Neither does the notion that "other students" are hardly an undifferentiated mass of privileged white male oppressors. Neither does the notion that it is not in itself an achievement to be black (or white). Neither does the possibility that some black graduating seniors--perhaps a significant number of the 50% of them that were not at Penn's ceremony this year--might regard black graduation as the final, ironic, crowning insult delivered by the pigeon-holing efforts of Penn's resident diversity industry. More than one Penn undergrad has confessed to me how disappointed and disturbed they were to find that their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality.
And John Rosenberg, from whom I discovered this story in the first place, had this to say:
Another refuge from diversity is the W.E.B. DuBois College House, a Penn dorm that houses about one quarter of Penn's black undergraduates. How does this segregation (and that's what it is, even if it's self-segregation) contribute to diversity? If minorities are admitted to prestigious places like Penn in order to provide diversity, why not require them to live in diverse dorms? Recipients of athletic scholarships are generally required to play sports; why shouldn't diversity preferees be required to provide diversity?
"Required to provide diversity" - this last comment emphasizes one of the aspects of "diversity" that I've always found so insulting. The diversity is not provided for the minority students; rather, they are admitted in order to provide diversity for the "un-diverse" white college population. Therefore, minority students are allowed to segregate themselves, while white students are required to coexist with and learn from minority students, because they need to be more "diverse." How condescending. It's unsuprising that, as Erin reports, minority students were dismayed to find that "their minority status seemed to matter more to the university than their individuality."
Minority students can have their own ceremonies, their own space, their own dorms; white students cannot. This sounds suspiciously as though "diversity" is mandated for whites, but racial segregation is perfectly okay for non-whites. Can anyone give me a better explanation for why the same people who get upset when some high school students in Georgia throw themselves a separate all-white prom (which is no different from throwing a party to which you invite your own friends, if all of them happen to be white) have no problem with college minorities attending segregated graduation celebrations?