By Sigrid Weidenweber
I can still remember the day when Martin Luther led the march on Washington to end racial segregation. I also remember the first walk of black students into a white school—surrounded by armed police officers.
Imagine my chagrin, when, over times, I heard rumors that reverse segregation was taking place in institutions of higher learning. At Yale, Wesleyan, Cornell and the University of California, among others, Black students had started a process of self-segregation. What was the reason for such once unthinkable development?
Well, let us refresh our memories through documentation produced by Wall Street Journal writers Peter W. Woods and Dion J. Pierre. Contrasting the segregation of yore with today’s racial segregation, one discerns instantly that the former was a movement of an entire racial body for inclusion into the fabric of the whole country, while the latter seems to consist of small, elitist ethnic groups, “walling themselves off within institutions.”
The National Association of Scholars surveyed 173 colleges and public and private universities in all states. It emerged that 46% segregate orientation programs. Again, one wonders why? Are separate groups incapable of understanding the data presented? Or do some groups not want to sit with others in the same room? Or do they speak different dialects?
It makes no sense. Because in the end, they all will sit in the same auditorium—one hopes. 43% of universities segregate residential arrangements. Why? It is counter-intuitive. Lastly, and that is the kicker, 72% of colleges segregate their graduation ceremonies. Woods and Pierre comment that these arrangements are entirely voluntary, however, students cannot easily decline to attend “their group’s’ ceremony,” for it was found that “the social pressure to conform is overwhelming.”
Again, one wonders how did all this come about? Well, this time segregation began with black students organizing exclusive groups with separatist agendas as early as the 1960s.
Yale was the subject of a newly released 210-page study on the new segregation history. Way back in the 1960s, black students founded BSAY (The Black Student’s Association at Yale.) As a reason for taking this step, they cited that they felt that Yale had only recruited them merely for show. Yale’s newly appointed president Kingman Brewster in an effort to “cure racial injustice,”
lowered the admission standards in an outreach to the inner cities. Reasonable questions about test scores, college readiness, and cultural adjustments were thrust aside. It came as no surprise that in 1966 a third of the black enrolled students dropped out during their first year frustrated and unable to keep up.
Shortly, it followed that BSAY demanded that Yale, among ever greater accommodations for blacks, provide separate orientation, separate advisors, and a separate center in a different building. Why? There were already all-black universities. Following that, the African American Studies Program was instituted with a bevy of new teachers in the subject matter.
In this manner arose a university “that aggrandized race and celebrated separation.” The black studies Association realized that racial intimidation yields rich rewards. It is needless to point out here that other universities followed the separation trend. The students mentored by a bevy of racial organizations, regard themselves now as members of persecuted racial groups, albeit thriving in their pampered, rarified environment.
Instead of freeing the individual from group-think to become the best he or she can be, students are now boxed in by walls of racial segregation, erected through their own choice.
Martin Luther’s dreams vanquished in the pursuit of special privileges and power.
Sigrid Weidenweber grew up in communist East Berlin, escaping it using a French passport. Ms. Weidenweber holds a degree in medical technology as well as psychology and has course work in Anthropology. She is co-founder of Aid for Afghans. Weidenweber has traveled the world and lived with Pakistani Muslims, learning about the culture and religion. She is a published author and lecturer. You can find her books on Amazon.com
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