Segregation at Illinois State University and Others

Many Americans were glad to witness the waning of the cultural turbulence that roiled America in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Racism was diminishing, and the Vietnam War was over. Hardened divisions were softening. But in sullied ivory towers, the revolutionary minds, libidinous bodies, and fevered dreams of leftists without a cause or boundaries began constructing ideas to impose on an unsuspecting nation. Those ideas have coalesced in “wokism,” which has taken root like a noxious weed. And now almost-moribund divisions are springing up everywhere, especially on college campuses.

Across the nation, we are seeing the insalubrious fruits of wokism choking out goodwill, unity, and peace during what should be a joyous graduation season. Instead of fostering unity through the shared experience of completing undergraduate degrees, college and university administrations are rewarding the tribalist, separatist, ethno-balkanist impulses of woke students and their false teachers by offering identity-based graduation ceremonies. E pluribus unum (out of many, one) has been replaced by E unum pluribus—out of one, many.

Here in the land of leftism, Illinois State University (ISU) held its first of four graduation ceremonies on April 22, 2023. The “Lavender Graduation” “honored” students based primarily on who they like to have sex with or what sex they pretend to be. Those with intersex disorders of sexual development were tossed in to pretend that erotic predilections and “gender” pretenses are akin to intersexuality, which is an objective biological anomaly.

If young men who pretend to be women can’t find just the right frock to wear to their Lavender Graduation, they can sashay over to ISU’s “Gender Affirmation Station,” which is a “closet” in ISU’s Multicultural Center where “students who are transitioning or identify as non-binary” can find cross-dressing ensembles. Enquiring minds want to know if Illinois taxpayers fund the Gender Affirmation Station?

Next up on April 29, 2023, was “Nuestros Logros”—translated means “our achievements”—which honored “Latino/a/x graduates.” Take note that “our” does not mean “our” in the inclusive sense of all ISU graduates. “Our” here is used in the racially exclusive sense of no whites, blacks, or non-Latinx browns allowed.

Then on May 6, 2023, Illinois State will host the MAPS graduation ceremony, which will honor “Middle Eastern, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Southeast Asian graduates.”

And finally, on May 11, 2023 “The Umoja Community Forum is hosting its annual celebration for Illinois State University students of African descent and from the "African diaspora.” According to the Umoja Community website, “umoja” ironically means “unity” in the African language Kiswahili. Nothing says “unity” quite like a racist, separatist graduation ceremony.

Calling racism “anti-racism” no more makes it so than does calling Dylan Mulvaney a woman makes him one. Orwell warned us about Newspeak. Clearly, leftists ignored him.

ISU is so deeply committed to separatism, ethnocentrism, and balkanization that the university has a “Native American Student Association” called TRIBE, with the “I” standing for “indigenizing.” For those unfamiliar with the verb “indigenize,” it means, “to bring (something) under the control, dominance, or influence of the people native to an area.”

Take note, all you huddled masses of Americans or descendants of huddled masses who came here from every continent and country, yearning to be free, if TRIBE has its way, this country will no longer be the melting pot for which so many of you yearned. TRIBE wants it indigenized.

Sadly, ISU isn’t alone. It isn’t alone because academicians are ideological lemmings, not known for critical thinking, autonomy, or independence. Groupthink is the defining feature of the leftist Hive mind, so, the university lab-created separatist graduation ceremony virus, intentionally set loose by mad social scientists, is spreading across the nation.

In a 2019 report titled “Neo-Segregation at Yale,” the National Association of Scholars documented 125 colleges and universities that offered segregated graduation ceremonies.

Supporters of this burgeoning segregationist practice are nothing if not creative in defending it. Campus Reform reports that Grand Valley State University (GVSU) spokesman Brian Vernellis said this in a statement as his nose grew preposterously long:

Asian, Lavender, Native American, Latinx, and Black ceremonies are “not ‘segregating graduation ceremonies by race,’ as some people and outlets have alleged. These more intimate celebrations are a complement to GVSU’s Commencement.

Yeahhhh, that’s the ticket. They’re merely “intimate” ceremonies that “complement” commencement. The black ceremony, and the Latinx ceremony, and the Asian ceremony, and the lavender ceremony have nothing whatsoever to do with segregation.

So, would GVSU be eager to host an intimate, complementary white ceremony?

The wokist ideology that inheres separatist graduation ceremonies is destroying relationships among people, poisoning the public square, corrupting education, and eroding the founding principles that made this country the place to which diverse people from across the globe long to come. Ironically and tragically, in their fake pursuit of diversity and inclusivity, leftists are poisoning the soil that makes diversity and inclusivity possible.

Commencement ceremonies should unite diverse groups of people through the celebration of the shared experience of successfully completing college—not divide them by academically irrelevant accidents of birth or erotic choices.

The cure for the Segregationist Odious Virus Infecting Darn-near-everything (SOVID) is not canceling, deplatforming, or firing cable news freethinkers. The cure is not more social control, insulation, and isolation but less. Exclusionary events do not foster inclusion.

The cure for SOVID is to open wide the windows, gates, fences, and schoolhouse doors, allowing ideas and diverse peoples to mingle and even bump up against each other. The feeble-minded and fragile leftists among us will be made heartier by some microaggressive fresh air and gentle bumping. Who knows, maybe bumping will trans into hugging.