FIU and black only graduations don’t mix

Jeffrey Steele/ Contributing Writer

A black only graduation is not necessary. We are a school that has people from all backgrounds and it just wouldn’t be fair to everyone just to exclude one race for graduation.

It can’t be viewed as racial equality because more than just black students attend the school.

 Graduation is a time for everyone to bask in their accomplishment and it should be shared with all kinds of people. Which reflects the middle name of our school.

 For our school, having all-black graduation is something that just doesn’t make sense to do. We are Florida International University where we interact with people of all walks of life.

 We are not an HBCU where it is more common to see these kinds of graduations. Here we can get to know people that are from different cultures learn their stories and about them.

Having all-black graduation to me wouldn’t be all black because I would want to people of the Latin community as well. But all in all, graduation is for everyone who attends a college or university. In some colleges and universities, the black population wouldn’t be that big. 

It’s just great to experience graduation with people of other cultures because much like people of color who are the first in their families same can be true for others.

With having black only graduation, students miss out on all the professors and staff who have helped them along the way to reach the goals that they have achieved. It takes away from the friendships made throughout college especially if the classmates are not black.

“I am definitely not for all-black graduation because it’s not really pushing towards equality and it’s just separating the students further. We have people from all around the world in our classes and we are working with them to get good grades and form bonds and graduation is bittersweet,” expressed Amanda Bazil, a senior and Broadcast Media major.

Having all-black graduation isn’t ideal and is something that just wouldn’t fit here at FIU. We are known for being multicultural and it can be seen just by stepping onto any of our campuses. It’s great to meet new people who didn’t grow up as you did and it’s even better to succeed with them.  

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

Photo retrieved by FIU Flickr