Mike Rowe slammed Harvard’s “segregation” celebrations after the University once again said it would allow students to celebrate “graduation day with a series of affinity celebrations.”
In a lengthy post on Facebook, the “Dirty Jobs” host mocked the Ivy league school and asked, “What better way to celebrate Harvard’s rich commitment to diversity, then by encouraging diverse groups to celebrate separately?”
“These [affinity] celebrations allow students to separate themselves from each other based on their racial and ethnic identities, and then, celebrate graduation with their own kind,” Rowe wrote, with a link to the move by Harvard.
“I’m old enough to remember when this was called ‘segregation,'” he added. “At Harvard, they call it ‘affinity.’ To be fair, Harvard’s website says these celebrations are not in lieu of the official graduation, and open to all students who pre-register. But the celebrations themselves are clearly labeled, and the invitees are hard to misconstrue.”
He then provided a list of the events, such as “The Latinix Celebration, The Black Celebration, The Arab Celebration, The Jewish Celebration…The Lavender Celebration, (LGBTQ, etc.),” and his “personal favorite, The First-Generation Low-Income Celebration.”
He closed out his post noting that mikeroweWORKS — a foundation that promotes the importance of skilled labor — “couldn’t care less about the color of your skin, the country of your origin, or the number of Y chromosomes you were born with.”
“We are likewise utterly disinterested in your star sign, your blood type, your eye color, or any other characteristic out of your control,” he added. “We do however, care about your thoughts on personal responsibility, work ethic, delayed gratification, a positive attitude, and various other virtues we still believe can lead to a successful life and career. “
Several people blasted the former TV host’s criticism of Harvard, and Rowe hit back, nailing why they were wrong.
One person wrote, “Segregation is not optional. The Affinity celebrations are. Why do you care? Why can’t we celebrate how we choose?”
“No one is saying you can’t celebrate the way you choose, or with the people you prefer to be around,” Rowe replied. “I’m just saying that organized celebrations sponsored by an Ivy League institution that revolve around the color of a person’s skin are so…1960…”
Another wrote, “Mike, You’ve never been made to feel like an outsider based on your inherent identity and it shows glaringly. You’ve always been on the inside and at the very top of our society’s multi-tiered pyramid that has masculine, heterosexual, white, cis-gender men in charge of most things….”
Rowe replied, “I’m not responsible for the way other people treat other people. I’m only responsible for the way I treat other people. And I choose to treat other people as if their color and ethnicity don’t matter…I’ll continue to do my best to ignore the things that don’t matter, and celebrate the things that do. I’d encourage you to do the same.”
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