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University officials say they wanted to keep the ceremony flowing and the students who danced took up too much time. But graduates Oliver Telusma and Nafeesha Attah believe they were singled out because of their race.
Oliver Telusma was onstage for mere seconds before he was dragged away.
Nafeesah Attah was also forcibly shoved offstage for the same reason.
"It was only towards the end when more of the black graduates were coming on stage that it began to get a lot more aggressive in the nature on how they were treating black students," she told Inside Edition.
When Inside Edition looked through the video of the graduation ceremony we found white student dancing uninterrupted and also black students dancing across the stage untouched.
As a black alumni of two universities, I have several thoughts about this incident.
I basically believe that there is a certain decorum to be followed during a graduation ceremony to ensure that the event flows and remain on schedule.
Although I have three degrees, I never attended graduation but I imagine that I would have had a nice 100% worsted wool suit, crisp cut away contrasted collar shirt, well-shined laced oxfords and proceeded to shake the University President's hand, obtained the diploma and probably a fist pump and then pointed upwards - thanking God for the perseverance and hard work that I endured to be the first person in my family to graduate from college!
While in college, the only organizations that I was a part of was the Finance Club, a co-ed business fraternity and started my own organization - Young Entrepreneurs' Society.
I can understand if there are other students who feel the need to dance to celebrate their accomplishment. Particularly if there were members of a social fraternity or sorority where oftentimes there is a tradition of representing your organization on the stage.
However, the dance should be relatively short and not interfere with the flow of the graduation ceremony.
I do not know all of the facts regarding who was dancing and the average duration of the dance to make a judgement.
Was that usher instructed to physically remove them or did he just go rogue?
UF is usually top 5 to 10 in the country in terms of largest enrollments. I could see making a plea to please leave quickly to get to the other students.
I have mixed thoughts on this. It is college, so I can see being excited, but they are transitioning into becoming professionals, so why not represent themselves and their family with dignity when receiving their diplomas? It's one of those things they'll look back on (maybe) and wish they had just acted professional like everyone else.
That being said, even though they were dancing, it did look to me like they were moving along while they were dancing, so I don't think they needed to be pushed (the clips on Twitter show the incident a little better) . Ultimately it's their choice how they received their diplomas, but people judge you (fairly or unfairly) by your decorum and how you act.
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