One of the contradictions in the defense of “diversity” at many institutions is that those same institutions often practice the opposite of what they preach, sponsoring racially and ethnically separate dorms, clubs, graduation ceremonies, and even academic majors (Black Studies, Chicano Studies, etc.).
You might think that one place where such officially sanctioned racially exclusive activities would no longer be permitted is the University of Michigan, after the passage in 2006 of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. But if you did, you’d be wrong.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—For graduating students, sharing the pomp and circumstance of spring commencement with some 30,000 people is a great thrill. But for a number of students, it is equally, if not more, rewarding to be recognized for their accomplishments during smaller events that—although open to all—celebrate diverse groups at the University.
In recent and upcoming days the Black Celebratory, La Celebración Latina, the Native American Student Association Graduation, the Lavender Graduation, the Ginsberg Awards for Service and Social Action, among others, honor graduating students in venues that allow for more individualized recognition of their achievements.
“Individualized recognition,” that is, limited to individuals in the “diverse” racial and ethnic groups being celebrated at the different ceremonies.
“The en masse celebration of commencement is an occasion to be remembered at U-M, but through these smaller events we seek to recognize the uniqueness of diverse groups, and to honor their academic success and contributions in a more personal way,” said John Matlock, associate vice provost for academic affairs and director, Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives ( OAMI ).
The groups mentioned above also reveal a great deal about how “diversity” is understood (and misunderstood) on campuses today. Consider, for example, the Ginsberg Awards for Service and Social Action and the Michigan Leadership Awards Ceremony.
Also held earlier this month were the Rosalie Ginsberg Awards for Service and Social Action and the 29th Michigan Leadership Awards Ceremony. The Ginsberg event recognized U-M and local partners for their commitments to community service and social action….
Provost Teresa Sullivan and Vice President for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper recognized student leaders, organizations and programs during the April 3 Michigan Leadership Awards ceremony. Each year the Division of Student Affairs recognizes exemplary achievement by students who exhibit enthusiasm and initiative, and who provide formal or informal leadership and service to the University community. Also recognized are those who demonstrate a steadfast commitment to learning, education and living, in support of the quest for social justice in human relationships. A student organization is recognized at the event for providing a program that enhances the community and its institutional values, and by fostering student involvement….
These ceremonies recognize students who did something worthwhile. The other ceremonies with which these are misleading lumped, however, recognize students for nothing other than their racial, ethnic, sexual identity — who they are, not what they’ve done.
At Michigan, apparently, racial/ethnic/sexual identity is an accomplishment in itself, worth celebrating.
You may be going a little overboard here. Most of these smaller graduation ceremonies (especially at gigantic schools) don’t really seem that offensive. The funny thing is that, like the admissions process, these ceremonies have very little to do with “individualized attention,” but really speak to group politics. And to think that we have these groups of people whose members, to some extent, have felt alienation and isolation during their college years, and this is their final memory–an isolationist graduation ceremony. Makes you wonder.
They certainly play off, and perpetuate, some pretty offensive ethnic prejudices and stereotypes, to the extent that they seem to be a response to the following mindset: whites and asians are more likely to take a college education for granted in this world, to enter college with a highly qualified background, and to come from families who have reached this educational level for generations as a matter of course, so we can sort of rubber stamp their diplomas, whereas other groups are more likely to be first generation graduates where this is more of a novel achievement–something which was not expected or foreseeable. There may be an implicit assumption that earning a degree is a comparatively greater achievement, given lesser qualifications at the admission stage, or that there is a “role model” effect to more individualized recognition in a more intimate setting that features close family members and friends.
While you can’t just subscribe to a mindset like this and blindly apply to everyone going forward, I’m sure that this a part of the puzzle.
And, don’t forget, they have these small graduations for high achieving asian groups too, not to mention groups like gay/lesbian societies, etc, So the picture is a little bit more complicated.
james e – I see your point. Graduation is a great time for groups to celebrate (especially if family is invited), and I see no problem with let’s say, an African American or Hispanic or Asian (or take your pick) celebrating graduation. So if the celebration, as the diversity fellow at Michigan suggests, is done in a personal way, that is a good thing and makes students and family feel better about their significant investment. But I really feel strongly that these events should in no way be separate graduation ceremonies, or have separate academic awards. I can see why these groups celebrate in a personal way, and think it a good thing that enhances goodwill in the school, but the idea behind these celebrations is that above all else they are there to celebrate the central achievement – walking down the aisle with everyone else at graduation. And to the extent that a university can give its honors and awards based solely on merit come graduation day, the school is better for it.
Look, the University of Michigan is government.
It leads by example. It also shouldn’t waste taxpayer money on smaller graduations restricted only to certain skin-colors.
If it wants to have race-neutral smaller graduations, and there is a compelling reason for that use of tax dollars (I suscribe to the idea that ALL uses of tax dollars require “compelling interests”, and that no uses or very few ones, even if modestly compelling, should be unequal).
Regardless, private groups can host whatever smaller ceremonies they wish. Why does the government/school need to do that?
And it certainly blows away the whole idea of “integration” – which is what BAMN and most others claim to want. It’s not about integration – about about group identity and segregation – which is why the government funded separate graduations are offensive, and should be even to “liberals”. It’s a contradiction of mammoth proportion.
Chetly Zarko writes:
>>>”And it certainly blows away the whole idea of “integration” – which is what BAMN and most others claim to want. It’s not about integration – about about group identity and segregation – which is why the government funded separate graduations are offensive, and should be even to “liberals”. It’s a contradiction of mammoth proportion.”
That sounds great, except:
>>>”Michigan is now the third most segregated state in the nation, in both housing and schools. Racial attacks are on the rise. With the flight of both whites and African Americans to the suburbs, Detroit is now the “blackest” city in America, while neighboring Livonia now shares an equally dubious distinction of being the “whitest.” Today, racial “steering” in housing and employment discrimination garner the largest number of complaints at civil rights advocacy groups and state agencies.”
http://wkar.org/michiganatrisk/program.php?num=1703
If you’re intellectually consistant, Chetly, given these facts, you should be joining ME in railing against “segregation” in the STATE of Michigan, and not reserve your indignation for the U of M.
We already KNOW what Ward Connerly thinks about segregation.
http://www.thecobraslair.com/images/SEPARATE-BUT-EQUAL-NAT.gif
–Cobra
If you’re intellectually consistant, Chetly, given these facts, you should be joining ME in railing against “segregation” in the STATE of Michigan, and not reserve your indignation for the U of M.
Once again, Cobra, you fail to distinguish between segregation and homogeneity. There is no segregation in Michigan, so it isn’t the “third most segregated” or first most segregated or fiftieth most segregated.
David writes:
>>>”Once again, Cobra, you fail to distinguish between segregation and homogeneity. There is no segregation in Michigan, so it isn’t the “third most segregated” or first most segregated or fiftieth most segregated.”
Psst, David…you’d better mention this “no segregation stuff” to the folks at the University of Michigan:
http://www.umich.edu/~cew/PDFs/MCRIresearchbrief.pdf
And the US Government:
>>>” See, e.g., U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Census, Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980—2000 (2002) (documenting residential segregation); E. Frankenberg, C. Lee, & G. Orfield, A Multiracial Society with Segregated Schools: Are We Losing the Dream? 4 (Jan. 2003), http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/
research/reseg03/AreWeLosingtheDream.pdf (all Internet materials as visited June 2, 2003, and available in Clerk of Court’s case file), (“[W]hites are the most segregated group in the nation’s public schools; they attend schools, on average, where eighty percent of the student body is white.”); id., at 28 (“[A]lmost three-fourths of black and Latino students attend schools that are predominantly minority … . More than one in six black children attend a school that is 99—100% minority … . One in nine Latino students attend virtually all minority schools.”).”
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-516.ZD2.html
as cited in Gratz v. Bolligner SCOTUS
I will give you props, however, for using a more soothing metaphor for defacto segregation–”Homogeneity”
–Cobra