Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So, for the first time in Harvard's history there will be a separate graduation ceremony for black students so they can network? LMAO!
No, it's so they can stick together. I get it but I don't think it's a beneficial ceremony.
Yet at the same time we want the nation to treat us as equals, and separate us from the herd of blacks we find bring our reputation down. They also do this at other colleges, and schools. Since when is our skin color a reason to group?
I'm so grateful we aren't grouped by others for the color of our skin that I find it hard to impose this on myself. I think integration provides those perspectives and understanding of backgrounds that are different from our own, it's beneficial to everybody, including white students. These environments promote healthy creativity, are motivating, provide a deeper learning and critical thinking for us. Grouping with those of like mind and problem-solving skills is a benefit. Grouping because of skin color is not a benefit in my opinion.
How is grouping by skin color beneficial? How is having a group based on skin color beneficial? To share our struggles, like Tinawina suggests? Share what it's like to climb through all the prejudice in this nation? What's the benefit of that? Why would I continue to do what I don't want others to do to me?
I rarely if ever mention the color of my skin on here because it doesn't matter. Do I share similarities with other black people? Yes, some, but I can share those anywhere. I don't need a room full of black people at Harvard to have strength. If I made it through Harvard I'd be proud of myself, and not because I'm half black. Being black doesn't make it harder for me to succeed. Damn, I'm so sick of this attitude.
Being poor impacts the ability to succeed more than the color of my skin. That's a fact. The majority of upper class black people don't want anything to do with poor people either, trust me. That's very equal.
So, I'll start where we agree: That interacting with people different than you is a good thing and benefits all involved, poverty (separate from race) is a major barrier to success, and that a lot of upper class blacks don't want anything to do with poor blacks.
The bolded: 1. that people want others to "separate us from" the "bad" blacks routine... No, that is nowhere near the attitude of a lot of black people. Many want EVERYONE to be treated like they matter and for the internal and external factors that helps create the "bad" blacks to change. 2. We aren't grouped by others by the color of our skin???? I don't even have words for that... it's like you haven't even read this very thread, let alone lived in America LOL. Let's just say I not only disagree, I think that statement is purely delusional. Of course there are some people who don't do that but many, many do. 3. If you don't see the benefit of banding together with people who have similar experiences then okay for you, but you are not everyone. Some people find it very helpful and inspiring. But something tells me if there was a group of biraicial people with similar experiences and outlooks to yours having lunch somewhere so they could bytch about how crazy the rest of us are, you wouldn't run away LOL 4. Does being black make it impossible to succeed? Of course not. Does it present some unique challenges that one may want to figure out how to work around, particularly with the help/advice of others who have been there? Yup.
And again... how that entire rant has anything to do with a bunch of students having a party after graduation? They caw, they saw, they interacted with all the people for the entirety of their grad program, they have succeeded beyond most of our dreams with a degree from Harvard. They have conquered. This bad outlook you assume they have has carried them all the way here. So again, what are they holding themselves back from?
Knowing this board I suspect you got a thousand reps from like-minded folks on here who consistently complain when black people say the world black (the whole "white people don't complain" thing was a nice touch hehe), so congrats on that. LOL
On IQ no school uses IQ in their admissions processes and there is no way to even measure intelligence in any specific way. There are different types of "intelligence."
Also, I knew the IQ thing and "quota" thing would come up by posters who probably can't even gain admittance to their local public college yet want to complain about black Harvard graduate students who have an average GPA at admittance in the top 98th percentile. Anytime I see anyone complain about quotas and black students at Harvard, I know those people just don't want any black people to go to Harvard or any good University because they believe that black people are intellectually inferior to whites and Asians (based on the belief that IQ scores from 30 years usually). BTW that belief is the true definition of racism - believing a person is inferior/superior based on race/ethnicity.
Which would, if all things were equal, put them firmly at the bottom of any Harvard class. Harvard could in theory fill its freshman class with individuals with perfect GPAs and SATs, that's how competitive obtaining admission is to Harvard.
At any rate we know as it stands now, African-Americans (defined as Americans with four African descended grandparents born in the USA) form a firm minority of black Harvard students. This has become a secret of elite admissions with schools refusing to honor requests to provide data on this breakout.
Which would, if all things were equal, put them firmly at the bottom of any Harvard class. Harvard could in theory fill its freshman class with individuals with perfect GPAs and SATs, that's how competitive obtaining admission is to Harvard.
At any rate we know as it stands now, African-Americans (defined as Americans with four African descended grandparents born in the USA) form a firm minority of black Harvard students. This has become a secret of elite admissions with schools refusing to honor requests to provide data on this breakout.
On this, I agree, but one also has to admit that crappy black students don't go to Harvard. And Harvard doesn't just admit based on SATs/ACTs or GPAs. Other things, not race related, are taken into consideration. FWIW I have a nephew that will be applying to Harvard. I don't think he will get in because he doesn't have enough outside activities/extra-curriculars. I know one black person who went to Harvard as an undergrad student and one who went to Harvard Business School and received an MBA. Both of them are phenomonal standouts and both of them are not children of recent immigrants. They have their own organizations/companies. They have extensive resumes and both had over a 4.0 GPA and very high test scores. Yet, you and others will look at them and say they are some sort of quota fill and nothing more. Even if they did fill a quota, they are more than qualified to attend Harvard. That is the point.
People speaking ill of black American Harvard students is ignorant because those black students are better than 100% of all the white people who didn't get in along with the Asians who didn't get in. You have to be very esteemed to gain admittance due to the competitiveness.
To think that all the black graduate students there are not capable of being there, even though they graduated with their cohorts, is ridiculous.
ETA: And thinking that someone of another race is more qualified based on mean or average IQ scores is also ridiculous. Most of the IQ score studies cited are 25-40 years old and none of them have any bearing on college admission anyway since kids are not routinely IQ tested anymore. There is no way to measure intelligence because there are different types of intelligence. My nephew who will be applying to Harvard, is a phenomenal, nerdy student and fits the stereotypical Asian nerd look. He plays an instrument, he has a near 4.0 GPA (they don't go over 4.0 at his private school) he studies for at least 5 hours a day, so much that it has been difficult scheduling college visits for him during the school year. He actually speaks Chinese. He is also into anime and art but doesn't do much with it. He has participated in various arts programs but wants to be an physician eventually or an architect or maybe something else. I think he is not as focused as someone who goes to Harvard is. But he is driven academically. He does not like to get less than an A+. Now I can compare him to my son, who is lazy academically. He doesn't like to turn in work so gets average grades (he has a 2.3 GPA). He also is into art, but has made some full length movies via camps he's attended and makes movies in his spare time. He writes screenplays. He is also considered a "math genius" as he scores in the 99th percentile in math and has been accepted in various "gifted" schools and organizations. On paper via GPA specifically, my son is a slacker. Has already taken ACT when he was in 8th grade and didn't get some outlandish score but was in the 85th percentile overall and the 99th percentile in math. He has his own landscaping business in the summer. He loves to read. He has been tested as being "gifted" creatively as well and is just an all around great kid. My nephew is a great kid too but I've had to take him under my wing and get him out more and luckily he has another year to get involved in some things to be more appealing. But him having a 3.98 GPA and high SAT/ACT scores is not going to get him into Harvard. If my own kid brought his GPA up to 3.25 I think he'd have more chance than my nerdy nephew just because of his personality and his interests and what he does in his spare time. Academics for these highly esteemed colleges is not "enough" to get in not even if you are black.
Last edited by residinghere2007; 05-10-2017 at 07:52 AM..
The funny thing is, blacks fought so hard for integration 60 years ago and now want segregation, makes no sense. Don't you like white folks?
Black people fought so hard for over 200 years to not be excluded from opportunities to advance in our society and to gain our civil rights as afforded by our constitution.
It was not specifically about segregation. This would be a whole other subject, but many black people never wanted to be around white people and never wanted to be integrated. The main issue with segregation was the fact that blacks were relegated to the worse conditions. If it had truly been "equal" then I doubt there would have been so many movements to dismantle it.
In regards to white people, black people do like white people. But that doesn't mean that we are obligated to include you in everything we do. Also this party and very few black organizations outright deny the attendance of white people. That is not something that blacks routinely have ever done or do today.
Agree. I have no problem with this as long as it applies to everyone
The problem is it doesn't apply to everyone. If whites requested a white only graduation ceremony, they would be turned down and there would be hell to pay.
Who cares if black Harvard graduates want a separate graduation ceremony?
No one would care if it wasn't that this is just another way of blacks rubbing whites noses in it, just like giving Trayvon Martin a posthumous degree in aeronautical science when he did nothing to deserve it.
I have no problem if black university students want to celebrate graduation separately, black only dorms, black only classes, or any other forms of self segregation. I used to think such demands were divisive, but if that is what college educated blacks want, I don't care.
The problem is it doesn't apply to everyone. If whites requested a white only graduation ceremony, they would be turned down and there would be hell to pay.
OMG. You don't understand this story at all. Harvard will still have its official graduation ceremony where all graduates will be honored. Then some black graduate students will have a separate event just for themselves to celebrate their own achievements. The black graduate students are paying for the separate event from money they raised. And the event is really an opportunity for networking.
It's not really different if the athletes at the University of Florida who were graduating first participated in the school's official graduation ceremony, and then held a separate event to point out and honor the achievements of student athletes. The school wouldn't be sponsoring or paying for the separate event in that case, and Harvard isn't sponsoring or paying for a separate event in this case.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Don't you like white folks?
