UC Berkeley hosts ‘black only graduation ceremony’ defying Civil Rights laws; ‘illegal, unconstitutional’

The University of California Berkeley once again hosted a black-only graduation ceremony, defying the notion of racial equality and imposing segregation while reportedly hosting a wide range of woke non-inclusive graduations that boggle the mind.

Other graduation ceremonies ostensibly included a “Lavender Graduation” for LGBTQ students, “Chicanx Latinx Graduation,” “Pasifika Graduation” for Pacific Islander students, and “Pilipinx Graduation,” according to Campus Reform.

The “Black Graduation” planned for May was announced by the African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley in March.

“The Department of African American Studies plans on hosting our annual Black Graduation ceremony, which is open to all majors and degree programs across the campus,” the announcement read.

UC Berkeley’s “Black Graduation” ceremony “gathers Black/African/African American identifying students to celebrate completion of their degrees and to be inspired and uplifted by the community of Black scholars,” according to the Black Graduation Fund.

The event “has been a ‘holy grail’ for Black/African/African American students during their Berkeley careers,” the description noted.

The nearly three-hour graduation ceremony was held on Saturday at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. The full event is included below for context.

(Video Credit: African American Studies – UC Berkeley)

“Black Graduation is an annual, campus-wide ceremony that celebrates all Black/African/African American identifying students upon completion of their undergraduate, master’s, Ph.D., J.D., and/or professional degree programs,” the live stream caption proclaimed during the event.

Campus Reform reported in 2021 that UC Berkeley has been holding a separate graduation for black students since 2013.

They are not the only university to do so. Dozens of others are holding segregated graduations as well across the nation that directly conflict with rights that were fought for during the Civil Rights movement.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits racial discrimination in public accommodations, which includes educational institutions. The act was intended to stop segregation and create a society where individuals were judged on their character, not the color of their skin.

“We’re disheartened to see universities like Columbia and now Berkeley veer so far to the left that they’re resurrecting Democrats’ segregationist history,” California College Republicans Communications Director Dylan Martin told Campus Reform in an interview.

“Encouraging our separation into groups – saying there should be something separate and special for different races – furthers the division in this country. The solution to racism is not segregation. CCR is happy to represent all College Republicans in the state in condemning these segregationist actions,” Martin contended.

And then there are the other woke graduation ceremonies that were scheduled, including the Gender Equity Resource Center that hosted the Lavender Graduation on May 5. Previous Lavender Graduation keynote speakers included drag performer “Honey Mahogany” and Christopher Daley of the Transgender Law Center, according to the Center’s website.

Utkarsh Jain, who is a spokesperson for the Berkeley College Republicans, compared the graduation ceremonies to campus housing practices that he saw in 2021.

“There were segregated housing units based off of race and identity, which kind of seemed very odd to me,” Jain told Campus Reform in an interview.

https://twitter.com/greekkeynyc/status/1660345672317517829

“I was taken aback because I wasn’t expecting this to be something that a university, in general, is electing to do,” he stated. “With all these different practices, it doesn’t seem like, you know, [the university is] really following the law.”

According to Jain, the College Republicans “say that … everyone’s equal in the face of the law,” regardless of “origin, or identity, or race.”

He estimates that roughly 80 percent of the UC Berkeley campus does not agree with leftist agendas but “stays quiet.” That makes it hard to combat the radical ideology on campus.

“I think that we have a kind of epidemic of cowardice in this country that needs to be fixed,” he declared.

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