Grand Valley State University (GVSU) is set to host five different graduation ceremonies segregated by ethnic background, race, and sexual orientation.
In an email sent to community members that went viral on Twitter, the Michigan collegeโs Multicultural Affairs Office outlined that the school would be hosting โfive unique graduation celebrations designed to honor our diverse graduates.โ
Following the announcement, the email outlined that separate โGraduation Celebrationsโ would be held for Asian, Black, โLatino/a/x,โ Native Americans, and โLavenderโ or โLGBTQIA+โ students throughout this coming April.
The Black graduation ceremony will be โrepresentative of Black/African American and African tradition, heritage, culture, and legacy,โ the school notes in a tradition that goes back at least to 2016.
The news led conservative commentator Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire to condemn the segregated ceremonies as โRidiculous.โ
โThere will be no special celebrations for straight white people, of course,โ Walsh added in a tweet from Monday night.
However, GVSU has challenged the notion that such initiatives constitute student segregation.
There has been a growing movement to host racially separated graduation ceremonies across the United States in recent years.
โGrand Valley State University holds unified Commencement ceremonies for all of its graduates. GVSU is not โsegregating graduation ceremonies by race,โ as some people and outlets have said,โ the school wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.
โThe vast majority of graduating students who participate in these celebrations also choose to participate in our larger Commencement ceremony where degrees are conferred,โ the spokesperson added.
Columbia University, the New York-based Ivy League institution, proudly boasts that the school has held โMulticultural Graduation Celebrationsโ since 2005, โwhen social media first become a part of our everyday lives.โ
โThese celebrations are an avenue for highlighting the key moment of graduation with the personal community that they hold dear. Celebrations include events for Multicultural Affairs, Lavender (LGBTQIA+), Asian, First-Generation and/or Low-Income, Black, Latinx, and Native communities,โ the collegeโs website notes.
Harvard University has categorized such racially separated events as โAffinity Celebrationsโ with exclusive days and times for first generations graduates, Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Desi-Americanโ as well as standalone services for Black and โLatinxโ students.
In 2019, GVSU students voted to remove the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance during official meetings. The decision was later overturned.






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