Reply to Harvard's Black Commencement

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wonder if schools like Howard and Hampton have additional commencements for white students.[/quote]

I'm sure they would if students advocated for such an event or if the university itself felt compelled to hold such an event in order to celebrate diversity and "update" their identity in terms of inclusiveness, but you gotta bear in mind the fact that while blacks are by far a majority at HBCU's like Howard and Hampton those schools don't have historic ties to slavery and discrimination like Harvard.  Now you may say, "So what that was over one hundred years ago", but that's YOUR attitude.  That's not the attitude of the university or the students and to them it was a big deal last year when Harvard remembered its forgotten past and dedicated a plaque to four enslaved persons who lived and worked on campus in the 18th century.  To them it meant something when the university decided to retire the Harvard Law School Shield, which was modeled on the family crest of an 18th century slaveholder.  And to them the commencement ceremony means something too - it's not what many misconstrue to be an example of a school "accommodating" would-be black separatists...it's an institution of higher learning acknowledging a past of racism and discrimination that has been overlooked and marginalized and hidden while also pledging a dedication to greater acceptance and inclusion.[/quote]

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