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 college’s Multicultural Affairs Office outlined that the school would be hosting “five unique graduation celebrations designed to honor our diverse graduates.”
Following the announcement, the email outlined that separate “Graduation Celebrations” would be held for Asian, Black, “Latino/a/x,” Native Americans, and “Lavender” or “LGBTQIA+” students throughout this coming April.
The Black graduation ceremony will be “representative of Black/African American and African tradition, heritage, culture, and legacy,” 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 “Ridiculous.”
“There will be no special celebrations for straight white people, of course,” 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.
“Grand Valley State University holds unified Commencement ceremonies for all of its graduates. GVSU is not ‘segregating graduation ceremonies by race,’ as some people and outlets have said,” the school wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The vast majority of graduating students who participate in these celebrations also choose to participate in our larger Commencement ceremony where degrees are conferred,” the spokesperson added.
Columbia University, the New York-based Ivy League institution, proudly boasts that the school has held “Multicultural Graduation Celebrations” since 2005, “when social media first become a part of our everyday lives.”
“These 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,” the college’s website notes.
Harvard University has categorized such racially separated events as “Affinity Celebrations” with exclusive days and times for first generations graduates, Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Desi-American” as well as standalone services for Black and “Latinx” 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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