New York City Ivy League school Columbia University announced its intentions of holding separate graduation ceremonies for students based on their race, income level, and sexual orientation, among other categories.
In a strange move to be more "inclusive," New York City's Columbia University is set to hold six segregated graduation ceremonies for groups of different ethnicities, income levels, and sexual orientations. The decision comes from the school's "multiculturalism" initiative, which will "[complement] the school- and University-wide graduation ceremonies."
According to Faithwire, the university is set to hold ceremonies such as the "Latinx Graduation," "Black Graduation," "Asian Graduation," "FLI Graduation" for "first-generation and/or low-income community" students, "Native Graduation" for Native-American students, and "Lavender Graduation" for members of the LGBT community. These ceremonies are set to be held online due to coronavirus restrictions.
FOX News reported that Columbia University took to Twitter to clarify that these graduation ceremonies "exist in addition to, not instead of, University-wide commencement" and are voluntary for students. They explained that such events are "important, intimate and welcoming spaces for students aligned with these groups to come together to celebrate their achievements if they wish."
Graduates from Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, General Studies and Barnard College were announced to be welcome to the events. However, these separate graduation ceremonies based on ethnicity, income, sexual orientation, and more, have drawn criticism from conservative leaders.
According to Newsweek, The Centre for Social Justice senior researcher Mercy Muroki took to Twitter to show her disgust on Columbia University's separate graduation ceremonies based on ethnicity, income, sexual orientation, and more.
She wrote, "Racially and sexually segregated graduation ceremonies...The cheek of calling them 'Multicultural Graduation Ceremonies' when they are literally based on singular 'cultures.' If you want to know what going backwards looks like, this is it."
Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas also took to Twitter to express his outrage on Columbia University's separate graduation ceremonies based on ethnicity, income, sexual orientation, and other categories.
He wrote, "The endpoint of critical race theory: segregation. Critical race theory is the belief that people have value based on the color of their skin, and that our race defines everything about us. It's not just false-it's dangerous."
Sen. Cotton argued that Columbia University was acting as a "woke" university that sees and accepts discrimination. He warned that critical race theory is an agenda that's being pushed by corporations and taught to America's young minds. The senator also accused the Biden administration of "[embracing] it under the guise of 'racial equity.'"
In 2019, the Washington Examiner reported that 76 out of the 173 schools that were examined by the National Association of Scholars were hosting segregating graduation ceremonies based on race. Such schools included Harvard, Universities of California San Diego, Irvine, Berkeley, and LA, Yale, Stanford, and Arizona State.
NAS described the separate graduation ceremonies based on ethnicity as an example of "neo-segregation" that encourages students to "cling to a victim identity at the expense of becoming a positive member of the larger community" and condemned it as "a breeding ground of racial conflict in American society."
