Bringing Back Segregation

Recently we celebrated Martin Luther King Day. We honored a man who led a movement to end Jim Crow and bring us closer to the promise of "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence. He lost his life in that cause as did many others.

Now a respected college wants to bring back segregation. The University of Connecticut is starting a program in which black male students will live together. This is in response to their low graduation rate. It seems to me that the university should focus on helping ALL struggling students. Apparently they don't care if whites or women drop out.

The justification is that sharing their common experience would help them. One official said it was like putting together students interested in entrepreneurship. Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds. One might be from an inner city, another from the rural South, another from Africa or from great wealth. They would have nothing in common other than pigmentation. In effect, they are saying the students don't matter as individuals, just as memembers of an ethnic group. That strikes me as highly racist.

Reaction among black students was mixed. Some women want their own place. My favorite comment accused those opposing segregation of being racist.

This is the exact opposite of what King had in mind. Over 50 years ago he talked about a day when children "will not be judged by the color of their skin,
but by the content of their character".

Many ideological heirs of those that marched now try to create divisions. They are doing a great disservice to those who died in the fight for freedom.