Northwestern had planned to award an honorary doctorate to Rev. Jeremiah Wright at this year's commencement, but after all of the unfortunate publicity (ZOMGobama'spastorHATESwhitepeople!), they revoked the degree "to ensure that the celebratory character of Commencement not be affected." In other words, they were terrified of upsetting the suburban white parents who paid $40,000 per year for those diplomas.
But now the black alumni
are angry about the revocation... especially considering that Chicago's mayor, who has been less than awesome to the black community, was invited to speak:
“When the university made those decisions they were not applying the same standards all across the board,” says Dillon [president of Northwestern’s Black Alumni Association]. “This is where the lens of racism comes in. Rev. Wright is accused of committing a crime of being unpatriotic,” while Daley is accused of failing to act when learning that Black men were subject to real criminal offenses.
The Black Alumni Association is also critical of Northwestern's declining black enrollment, which dropped to a pitiful 5.5 percent in 2005. The administration was admittedly fucked either way on the Wright issue thanks to their unlucky timing -- but they have not done enough to recruit and support black students at Northwestern, and there is no excuse for sucking at that.
