This is just too good to be true – if you can appreciate the hilariously dense students and faculty of the University of Connecticut in this report. You can’t make this stuff up.
First, the alarming headline…
“Faced with alarmingly low graduation rates for black males, the University of Connecticut is trying something it calls bold — and critics call segregation.”
Now for the set up…
“The school’s main campus in Storrs has launched a program slated for fall in which 40 black male undergraduates live together in on-campus housing. Proponents believe the students can draw on their common experiences and help each other make it to commencement. But others cringe at the idea of black-only housing, saying it turns decades of hard-fought racial progress on its head.”
I will cut out comments from the reasonable and intelligent people and cut right to the clown chase…
“My immediate thought was ‘What?’” Haddiyyah Ali, an Africana studies and political science major, told Daily Campus. “I know there had to be a lot of research that went into it…but just for me coming from a student perspective, my initial thought was, ‘What about black women and girls – what about us?’”
Africana Studies? Sounds expensive. More from the university faculty…
“Vice Provost Sally Reis rejected critiques of the program.
“It’s no more segregated than putting individuals with an interest in entrepreneurship together because they have common interests,” Reis told FoxNews.com.”
Hold on, it gets better…
“Erik Hines, a UConn professor set to serve as faculty advisor to the ScHOLA²RS House students, said that while the only current race-based group was for black males, the administration could add learning communities based on other races, genders or cultures.
“We have all types of learning communities,” he told FoxNews.com. “If they bring forth a proposal to our Office of Programs and Learning Communities they will be considered by our executive director.”
Hines said about 13 students had already applied for ScHOLA²RS House. Male students “who identify as African American/Black or mixed-race will be prioritized in selection, however any student interested in engaging in topics related to the experience of black males in higher education is invited to apply,” according to the UConn website.
“In predominantly white institutions, some of the experiences that African-American males face on campus is a little different than some of the other populations,” Hynes said. “In some of your courses you can be the only African American male in your class. It could be stressful and that’s a huge burden to shoulder.”
I know, you’re thinking, “What about me? I grew up as a (insert your ethnicity or identity group here) and I was the only one in my college class. What a burden that was!” I feel you. I was the only Irish-Russian Catholic with a Jewish father throughout most of my elementary, high school and college education. It hurt then, it hurts now.
But here’s the killer punchline, no one sees coming. Please put down anything you may be drinking at this moment and swallow completely. Fair warning.
“Puppetry major Isaac Bloodworth told Daily Campus that opposition could be rooted in racism.
“The white portion of the University of Connecticut is probably not ready for it,” he said. “You have people who are going to go against it because they are just racist and they see this as a form of segregation or that we’re getting better things than they are.”
Puppetry major. Who knew? Honestly, you can’t get better than this for hard news and incisive commentary on the state of our higher education and cultural racism.
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