# Racial segregation at universities--a growing, and legitimate trend? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 25, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334 "2021-09-25T19:03:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/21 "2021-09-26T20:01:24Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence. I’m curious how you would label him if not (classic) liberal. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/22 "2021-09-26T20:41:20Z")
Cranky old contrarian fuck ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/23 "2021-09-26T22:52:27Z")
He’s definitely a classical liberal. Problem is, to the progressive left, a classical liberal is Nazi-adjacent. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/24 "2021-09-26T23:44:18Z")
What was considered a liberal idea a generation ago is by definition no longer liberal if you haven’t changed with the times. It’s no longer a liberal idea that women and minorities deserve a place at the table. It’s no longer a liberal idea that capitalism, by itself can’t fix everything. What was once novel is no longer. “Classical Liberalism” is an oxymoron. But, most importantly, performers are just that. They play a part. Sometimes they are true believers, but often they are just panderers. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/25 "2021-09-26T23:48:40Z")
“Mysogynist, anti-vax, bitter old egotistical asshole” more or less covers it. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/26 "2021-09-26T23:58:01Z")
I thought he self-identified as a libertarian? Don’t know for sure. I can’t stand the guy. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/27 "2021-09-27T03:06:37Z")
You are right about what was a liberal a generation ago is not a liberal today. A liberal 20 years ago wouldn’t have been a segregationist. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/28 "2021-09-27T03:12:46Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > A liberal 20 years ago wouldn’t have been a segregationist. Liberals today aren’t segregationists either. We’ve explained to you very clearly the difference between segregation and the practice of traditionally white institutions including minority-affirming events and areas that white people are in no way excluded from. Do you see that very important point about white people not being excluded? Do you understand the difference between that and actual racial segregation, which was all about officially excluding people, specifically non-white ones? If you’re still confused about that quite clear distinction, feel free to ask for further elucidation, and we’ll do our best to help you. But you aren’t making any progress by continuing to erroneously assert that such practices are “segregationist”. ---
**Author:** ![Tfletch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tfletch1/32/5340_2.png) [@Tfletch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tfletch1)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/29 "2021-09-27T03:13:57Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > > [@chappachula](#): > > > > And he offers some shocking statistics about universities which provide racially segregated residences, and segregated graduation ceremonies. > > OMG, not this nonsense again. No, as GreysonCarlisle’s link makes clear, black undergraduates are not trying to hold “segregated graduation ceremonies”. > > > [@](#): > > > > “…the ceremony is “not about segregation,” said Michael Huggins, president of the Harvard Black Graduate Student Alliance, which is organizing the event. Students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds may attend, he said, and the black students taking part in the ceremony also plan to attend the university’s official commencement on May 25 in Harvard Yard" > > This, and AFAICT all the similar events that conservative media have squawked about as “segregated graduation ceremonies”, is an ADDITIONAL VOLUNTARY celebration event to acknowledge Black graduates. It is in no way a substitute for the institution’s official Commencement exercises where all graduating students, of all races, actually receive their degrees. > > Graduating college students frequently have additional graduation celebrations for graduating members of particular fraternities/sororities, or athletes on particular varsity teams, or underrepresented groups such as women in engineering, or first-generation college students, and so on and so forth. > > There is nothing wrong, or in any way new, about different communities within the larger campus community having their own celebratory events in addition to campus-wide events. The only reason conservative media are bleating about “racial segregation” in this context is to dishonestly promote popular distrust and disdain of academia. > > (ETA: I thought [we had figured this out back in March.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-grievance-is-not-a-governing-agenda/937288/33)) I KNEW it! I was watching this on Bill Maher and the whole time was thinking, “I bet it will take me two seconds to find out his whole premise is a crock of shit.” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/30 "2021-09-27T03:18:37Z")
Bill Maher is basically what we’d call a troll, if he was on an Internet forum of some kind. That’s his whole schtick- to basically say provocative stuff with the express intent of pissing people off. That’s what irritates me the most about him; he’s far less about making points that make you think, and far more about making points intended to inflame people. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/31 "2021-09-27T03:32:07Z")
> **[White students ‘kicked out’ of diversity space](https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/white-students-kicked-out-of-multicultural-space-at-arizona-state-university/news-story/696b1e32fcf009200607cae900650442)** > > Footage has gone viral of a confrontation between two black female students telling two white male students to leave a room at Arizona State University (ASU) over a “racist” sticker. > **['Too many white people in here': race row at US college](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51506733)** > > The University of Virginia is grappling with a race row after the opening of a new diversity centre. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/32 "2021-09-27T03:38:58Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > [https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/white-students-kicked-out-of-multicultural-space-at-arizona-state-university/news-story/696b1e32fcf009200607cae900650442](https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/white-students-kicked-out-of-multicultural-space-at-arizona-state-university/news-story/696b1e32fcf009200607cae900650442) The author of that piece seems to have misspelled “trolling assholes” as “white students”. > [@](#): > > “Police lives matter?” one of the women behind the camera said, referring to a sticker on his laptop. > > The man retorted: “you have the same sticker, just the other” (meaning Black Lives Matter). > > “But this is our space,” the other woman told him. > > His friend – who wore a “didn’t vote for (US President) Biden]” T-shirt, who then began filming the women said he was “just trying to do school” and was “getting kicked out”. They went in there displaying offensive stickers and shirts for the express purpose of causing a confrontation. That kind of behavior would earn you at least a mod warning on this board. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/33 "2021-09-27T03:57:01Z")
There is nothing objectively offensive about “Police Lives Matter” or " I didn’t vote for Biden", IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/34 "2021-09-27T03:58:54Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > There is nothing objectively offensive about “Police Lives Matter” or " I didn’t vote for Biden" Maybe not at a MAGA rally. Displaying those items in a space that’s deliberately intended to be a safe place for multicultural cooperation and goodwill is an act of aggression, and the behavior of these two shows that they wore it in there specifically to provoke a response so they could cry out “Help! Help! I’m being repressed!” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/35 "2021-09-27T03:59:58Z")
Yeah, it’s not the “being white” part that they were being chastised for, it’s the trolling part. Nor, of course, is there any suggestion whatever of any institutional policy of excluding white people from multicultural spaces. But hey, they got themselves into the news with a controversial story that conservatives will be able to gleefully mischaracterize as “segregation”, so well played them, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/36 "2021-09-27T04:12:18Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > There is nothing objectively offensive about “Police Lives Matter There’s nothing objectively offensive about stating your support for the police. But taking a phrase that has been used to promote awareness of the struggles of a certain group, and turning it around to support the perceived oppressors, is at least dangerously ignorant and at most purposefully antagonistic. And doesn’t belong in a space designed to be free from that type of antagonism. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/37 "2021-09-27T04:13:23Z")
The whole concept of “safe spaces” for adults is nonsense, on its face. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/38 "2021-09-27T04:15:55Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > The whole concept of “safe spaces” for adults is nonsense Then maybe people who feel that way shouldn’t go to them. Problem solved! ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/39 "2021-09-27T04:17:21Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > The whole concept of “safe spaces” for adults is nonsense, on its face. I don’t disagree with that. But, allow me to point out that college students are newly minted adults who are just finding their way. And just because you and I think safe spaces are unnecessary, doesn’t make it true. eta: and what **Smapti** said. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334/40 "2021-09-27T12:25:32Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > And just because you and I think safe spaces are unnecessary, doesn’t make it true. What are safe spaces meant to protect people from? It seems to me that it’s never threat or violence but protection from ideas and opinions you don’t like. Newly minted college adults should have no expectation of being provided with that kind of protection. It sets unrealistic expectations and makes for fragile adults. Bill Maher is hardly the only “contrarian”, “cranky”, “classic” liberal that is saying this. He is not saying anything substantively different than Lawrence Krauss and Stephen Fry, Ricky Gervais, among many others. Bill Maher is wrong about things like his wishy washy position on vaccines, and other things I’m sure. But he’s not wrong about his criticism of the irrational positions on the left. In addition to sunlight, I think satire is an excellent disinfectant. I know there are folks here who consider ridicule fair game for exposing bad ideology. I don’t disagree. But they’re triggered when it’s used to expose the failings on their own side. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-segregation-at-universities-a-growing-and-legitimate-trend/951334.md?page=3)