UC Berkeley holds segregated graduation ceremony for black students only

In March, UC Berkeley’s African American Studies Department announced they would be holding their annual “Black Graduation” ceremony for students in May.

According to the announcement, “The Department of African American Studies plans on hosting our annual Black Graduation ceremony, which is open to all majors and degree programs across the campus."

A caption of a live stream of the event read, “Black Graduation is an annual, campus-wide ceremony that celebrates all Black/African/African American identifying students upon completion of their undergraduate, master’s, Ph.D., J.D., and/or professional degree programs.”

According to Campus Reform, the taxpayer-funded university has been hosting a separate graduation for African American students every year since 2013. This year's theme was "Reclaiming My Time."

The event even featured a virtual address from California Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters who said, "This is definitely your time and don't let anyone tell you differently. We are counting on you to fix the problems we have been fighting for for so long to correct and enable this country to live up to its promise. It can and should be a land of equal opportunity. Because everyone will benefit when all of us can live up to our potential."

Then in an apparent dig at former President Donald Trump, Waters added, "I can't wait to hear about and experience and what all of you have in mind to make sure this country great, not great again, but great today, and great in the future."

Dylan Martin, Communications Director for the California College Republicans told the outlet that the event “furthers the division in this country.”

“We’re disheartened to see universities like Columbia and now Berkeley veer so far to the left that they’re resurrecting Democrats’ segregationist history. Encouraging our separation into groups – saying there should be something separate and special for different races – furthers the division in this country. The solution to racism is not segregation. CCR is happy to represent all College Republicans in the state in condemning these segregationist actions."