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    tomder55's Avatar
    tomder55 Posts: 1,742, Reputation: 346
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    #1

    Jun 16, 2007, 03:08 AM
    Assimilation in practice on U.S. campus
    Commencement weekend is hard to plan at the University of California, Los Angeles. The university now has so many separate identity-group graduations that scheduling them not to conflict with one another is a challenge. The women’s studies graduation and the Chicana/Chicano studies graduation are both set for 10 AM Saturday. The broader Hispanic graduation, “Raza,” is in near-conflict with the black graduation, which starts just an hour later.

    Planning was easier before a new crop of ethnic groups pushed for inclusion. Students of Asian heritage were once content with the Asian–Pacific Islanders ceremony. But now there are separate Filipino and Vietnamese commencements, and some talk of a Cambodian one in the future. Years ago, UCLA sponsored an Iranian graduation, but the school’s commencement office couldn’t tell me if the event was still around. The entire Middle East may yet be a fertile source for UCLA commencements.

    Not all ethnic and racial graduations are well attended. The 2003 figures at UCLA showed that while 300 of 855 Hispanic students attended, only 170 out of 1,874 Asian-Americans did.

    Some students are presumably eligible for four or five graduations. A gay student with a Native American father and a Filipino mother could attend the Asian, Filipino, and American Indian ceremonies, plus the mainstream graduation and the Lavender Graduation for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students.

    Graduates usually wear identity-group markers—a Filipino stole or a Vietnamese sash, for instance, or a rainbow tassel at the Lavender event. Promoters of ethnic and racial graduations often talk about the strong sense of community that they favor. But it is a sense of community based on blood, a dubious and historically dangerous organizing principle.

    The organizers also sometimes argue that identity-group graduations make sense for practical reasons. They say that about 3,000 graduating seniors show up for UCLA’s “regular” graduation, making it a massive and impersonal event. At the more intimate identity-group events, foreign-born parents and relatives hear much of the ceremony in their native tongues. The Filipino event is so small—about 100 students— that each grad gets to speak for 30 seconds.

    But the core reason for separatist graduations is the obvious one: on campus, assimilation is a hostile force, the domestic version of American imperialism. On many campuses, identity-group training begins with separate freshman orientation programs for nonwhites, who arrive earlier and are encouraged to bond before the first Caucasian freshmen arrive. Some schools have separate orientations for gays as well. Administrations tend to foster separatism by arguing that bias is everywhere, justifying double standards that favor identity groups.

    Four years ago Ward Connerly, then a regent of the University of California, tried to pass a resolution to stop funding of ethnic graduations and gay freshman orientations. He changed his mind and asked to withdraw his proposal, but the regents wanted to vote on it and defeated it in committee 6–3.

    No major objections to ethnic graduations have emerged since. As in so many areas of American life, the preposterous is now normal.

    Source :City Journal Let the Segregation Commence by John Leo
    NeedKarma's Avatar
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    #2

    Jun 16, 2007, 03:50 AM
    Yes.
    Starman's Avatar
    Starman Posts: 1,308, Reputation: 135
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    #3

    Jun 16, 2007, 09:09 AM
    The author's use of "separatist" somehow echoes Hitler's favorite term of "defeatist"
    Actually, many American colleges are extremely hostile to minorities. Minority members are very often isolated, shunned, verbally attacked, and otherwise made to feel unwanted both by students and faculty who do so themselves and encourage the students to do so in very subtle and very often not so subtle ways. This makes getting a higher education more difficult for the targets since emotions are stirred, a sense of injustice aroused, and resentment created where there was formerly hope and trust in the American educational institution.

    In view of this, is it little wonder that they band together in order to mutually encourage one another? I don't think so. Neither do I see their seeking alleviation from an otherwise hostile environment as any threat to the country. Actually, what I do see as a divisive threat to the country is the irrational hatred which motivates students and faculty to feel it their patriotic duty to make immigrants or anyone which fits their idea of how an immigrant looks unwanted and hated. That is in my opinion far more dangerous and ridiculous than people banding together for emotional mutual support.

    BTW
    Americans don't have a monopoly on whiteness and it comes across as rather presumptuous, uneducated and ignorant whenever they behave as if they do.
    tomder55's Avatar
    tomder55 Posts: 1,742, Reputation: 346
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    #4

    Jun 17, 2007, 01:35 AM
    Actually, many American colleges are extremely hostile to minorities
    That's a pretty amazing charge since most generally recognize American universities as liberal bastions that dogmatically demand political correctness from faculty and students.

    College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds (washingtonpost.com)
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    #5

    Jun 17, 2007, 06:03 PM
    Quote Originally Posted by Starman
    Actually, many American colleges are extremely hostile to minorities. Minority members are very often isolated, shunned, verbally attacked, and otherwise made to feel unwanted both by students and faculty who do so themselves and encourage the students to do so in very subtle and very often not so subtle ways.
    I couldn't agree more.

    In fact, you've perfectly described my experience as a politically-conservative, Christian, male veteran during my college years. Years which, I might add, were spent at a university in West Texas. If it was like that THERE, I shudder to think about what it would've been like if I'd actually attended Stanford, as I originally planned.

    DK
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    #6

    Jun 17, 2007, 08:31 PM
    So let me get this straight? In the US they have separate graduation ceremonies for different 'types' of people?

    Sounds insane!
    tomder55's Avatar
    tomder55 Posts: 1,742, Reputation: 346
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    #7

    Jun 18, 2007, 04:44 AM
    Sounds insane!
    Indeed it does .Heavily subsidized by taxpayers, the various graduation ceremonies at UCLA make the campus a virtual Balkan peninsula
    speechlesstx's Avatar
    speechlesstx Posts: 1,111, Reputation: 284
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    #8

    Jun 18, 2007, 10:21 AM
    identity-group graduations
    I still have difficulty understanding the liberal/progressive mindset. We should overcome issues of race/ethinicity/sexual orientation/gender and be one big happy family - as long as everyone (but whites/conservatives/evangelicals) gets their own special treatment. If Coke were to remake their "I'd like to teach the world to sing" ad would they have to segregate everyone?
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    ETWolverine Posts: 934, Reputation: 275
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    #9

    Jun 18, 2007, 11:44 AM
    Starman,

    In view of this, is it little wonder that they band together in order to mutually encourage one another? I don't think so. Neither do I see their seeking alleviation from an otherwise hostile environment as any threat to the country.
    Now I am starting to undertand your position on English as a national language. You support the concenpt of segregation on the basis that it helps minorities survive.

    I have to say that my college experience pretty much backs up this article. I am a graduate of Brooklyn College CUNY (class of 92) and on this supposedly egalitarian school, we had an incredible amount of segregation. There were clubs and political activity (activist?) groups of all sorts, each with an ethnic or gender-based edge to them. The African American club, the Haitian American club, the Cuban American club, the Mexican American club, GALA, the Women's club. In fact the only ethnic club that was NOT allowed on campus was the Hillel club (it rented space across the street from the campus), though it was probably the least political of the ehtnic clubs.

    To my knowledge, there was only one club that was not divided across ethnic or religious lines... the Science Fiction club. That was the one I belonged to. During my time there, the Sci-Fi club's membership included Irish, Italian, Hispanic, Black, Philipino, Asian, Indian (Native American and West Indian), and Jewish members. We also had several gay and lesbian members. Coincidentally, we had one of the longest histories on the Brooklyn College campus... we dated back to 1970, when we hosted the world's first Star Trek convention (George Takei was the guest, and this was all before sci-fi conventions became so commercialized). Naturally, being the only completely apolitical and non-ethnic club around, and naturally being one of the oldest clubs on campus, we were the one club everyone was trying to shut down in order for the student council to save money, which would be spent on the councils pet political or ethnic causes.

    In any case, the one thing that I have seen is that campus life is indeed full of segregation, and that segregation is perpetuated by the assumption that segregation for the purpose of protecting your own kind is okay. Last I heard, segregation is segregation, whether it is for offensive OR defensive reasons. And I thought that the purpose of college or university was to expand our horizons and expose us to those outside our usual sphere of influence... to begin our integration as adults into society as a whole, not just our little portion of it.

    But hey, what do I know? I still think that immigrants should conduct government business in English...

    Elliot
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    Skell Posts: 1,863, Reputation: 514
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    #10

    Jun 18, 2007, 04:33 PM
    Im pissed off. If I had of known this I would have a pushed for a separate graduation ceremony that only includes 'leggy blonde female nympho's and slightly athletic, sport mad, 24 year old males who's nickname on the net is skell' ceremony. What a day that would have been for yours truly. And who would anyone be to take it away from me. Its who we are.

    Why don't people simply graduate with those who are earning the same degree? That's all we do down under here. All the law and teachers one day, architects and nurses the nest. Quite simple really!
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    Starman Posts: 1,308, Reputation: 135
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    #11

    Jun 18, 2007, 08:46 PM
    Quote Originally Posted by tomder55
    That's a pretty amazing charge since most generally recognize American universities as liberal bastions that dogmatically demand political correctness from faculty and students.

    College Faculties A Most Liberal Lot, Study Finds (washingtonpost.com)


    I agree, the dogmatic claims and vociferous demands and general posturing is there
    Unfortunately for the unwary and naïve and trustful, there are very crafty ways to get around such demands. I attended a class where the professor had Affirmative action awards as part of his resume. However, I found him to be the biggest bigot of all the other bigots at that respected institution. How did he get away with it? I'll sum it up for you--tenure and the cooperation from most of the faculty who felt that tenure grants professors much more than what they should really be entitled to.

    You also seem to forget that talk is cheap. Look at all the talking that was going on about democratic ideals and resounding statements about all men being created equal and entitled rights by virtue of being human while a large segment of the USA population was being held in cruel slavery. So please spare me the written claims guarantees action shpiel.

    BTW

    The article you give to support your view actually contradicts it. First the results are based merely on claims by the faculty members themselves. Second and more importantly, the views of these faculty members were not correlated with how they treat minority members or even on how they teach their courses. So the article is really useless in terms of lending support to your claim of academic fair treatment.


    The article even admits that it isn't claiming that such findings are relevant
    to student or faculty attitudes. So what we have here essentially is faculty opinion about itself when asked. Anything beyond that is your imagination. Below are excerpts from the article.

    Excerpts

    The study did not attempt to examine whether the political views of faculty members affect the content of their courses.

    When asked about the findings, Jonathan Knight, director of academic freedom and tenure for the American Association of University Professors, said, "The question is how this translates into what happens within the academic community on such issues as curriculum, admission of students, evaluation of students, evaluation of faculty for salary and promotion." Knight said he isn't aware of "any good evidence" that personal views are having an impact on campus policies.

    "It's hard to see that these liberal views cut very deeply into the education of students. In fact, a number of studies show the core values that students bring into the university are not very much altered by being in college."


    It is exactly those core values that are levelled against minorities.
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    tomder55 Posts: 1,742, Reputation: 346
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    #12

    Jun 19, 2007, 05:31 AM
    Given enough time I could find hundreds of examples where political correctness and tolerance to a fault is the dogma of the university community .I'll give you a couple .

    SUNY -Albany has a S&M student association on campus without any objections at all from the school administration. A university spokeswoman said "As long as they abide by the student guidelines, they have a right to have their club officially recognized by the student association on campus and to be funded by the student association."

    Administrators at Johns Hopkins University targeted the lone conservative campus newspaper, the Carrollton Record. The school confiscated copies of the Record when it revealed that university funds were paying for a campus appearance by a porno director. After rounding up the offending newspapers, the school restricted distribution of the paper.

    In sharp contrast "The ALF Primer: Your Guide to Economic Sabotage and the Animal Liberation Front." is a terrorists publication funded by student fees by animal rights groups on the campus of the University of Oregon. This paper has not been targeted for restriction.

    At San Francisco State, the College Republicans group was hauled up on charges after it sponsored an anti-terrorism rally. The administration accused the Republicans of "attempts to incite violence and create a hostile environment" and "actions of incivility." However, in 2004 when a mob of Arab students swarmed the College Republicans, screaming abuses and threats, campus police and the administration took no action.

    College of William & Mary President Gene Nichol ordered a cross removed from the campus chapel. Shortly thereafter, he welcomed to campus a "Sex Workers Art Show" featuring topless women.

    Perhaps the biggest example of it is the recent attempted lynching of the Duke Lacross players . Before any evidence was in a 88 members of the faculty wrote letters condemning the students. Clearly their race was the deciding factor to condemn them before the facts were known .Even after the facts were known that did not stop certain members of the faculty to attack the innocent students. Duke biology Professor Sheryl Broverman said :

    'Since we haven't gone through a normal legal process, we don't know what really happened. The fact the charges were dropped doesn't mean nothing happened. It just means information wasn't collected appropriately enough to go forward.'

    By a normal legal process one would have to conclude that she means someone gets prosecuted based on real evidence and not because of the political ambitions of the DA. That kind of "normal" legal process ?
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    speechlesstx Posts: 1,111, Reputation: 284
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    #13

    Jun 19, 2007, 06:50 AM
    Tom, if you want to keep up with the lunacy at college campuses check out FIRE's website. Some examples:

    Today’s ‘Campus Alert’: Banning Dave Barry

    Last October, Ph.D. student Stuart Ditsler posted a Barry quote on his office door that read, “As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.” Within days, Philosophy Department Chair James South deemed the quote “patently offensive” and ordered its removal, all the while maintaining in an e-mail to Ditsler that “while I am a strong supporter of academic freedom, I’m afraid that hallways and office doors are not ‘free-speech zones.’”
    Today’s ‘Campus Alert’: Think Like Us—Or Else

    We used today’s Campus Alert column in the New York Post to point out problems with Columbia University’s Teachers College student evaluation criteria, which includes the use of “dispositions” to evaluate its students. One such “disposition” the school uses is the student’s “Respect for Diversity and Commitment to Social Justice.”

    This may sound admirable at first until one considers the subjectivity involved in such an evaluation. As we stated in Campus Alert:

    This warps the discussion of whether a student might make a good teacher into whether that student has the “correct” personal, religious or political beliefs. Evaluating students’ aptitude for teaching based on their commitment to “social justice” necessarily means that only one definition of “social justice” counts: Teachers College’s definition, which demands that students recognize how “the legitimacy of the social order [is] flawed.”
    Today’s ‘Campus Alert’: Hassles at Hopkins

    No school demonstrated greater contempt for the rights of its students this past school year than Johns Hopkins University. In fact, Johns Hopkins nearly destroyed the academic career of one student this past fall—and all because of the student’s constitutionally protected speech on an outside Web site.

    Torch readers undoubtedly remember our case at Johns Hopkins well. In November, junior Justin Park posted an invitation on Facebook.com that some found offensive, so the university suspended him for a year, required him to complete 300 hours of community service, attend a diversity workshop, read 12 books on diversity, and write a reflective paper on each book. The Johns Hopkins administration charged Park with harassment, intimidation, and failing to respect the rights of others. They followed up Park’s sham trial with the institution of a new “civility” code on campus, warning students that “[r]ude, disrespectful behavior is unwelcome and will not be tolerated.”
    Professor on Brink of Being Fired for E-Mailing George Washington's Thanksgiving Address

    GLENDALE, Ariz. May 7, 2007—The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) has placed a professor on forced administrative leave and has recommended that he be terminated for e-mailing a Thanksgiving message to his colleagues last November. On the day before Thanksgiving, Professor Walter Kehowski sent out the text of George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” and a link to the webpage where he’d found it—on Pat Buchanan’s web log. After several recipients complained of being offended by the e-mail, MCCCD found Kehowski guilty of violating the district’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy and technology usage standards. Kehowski then contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.

    “It simply boggles the mind that a professor could find himself facing termination simply for e-mailing the Thanksgiving address of our first president,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “This situation is an embarrassment to MCCCD and would be laughable if a professor’s most basic rights and very livelihood weren’t on the line.”
    And believe me, it gets worse...
    Starman's Avatar
    Starman Posts: 1,308, Reputation: 135
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    #14

    Jun 20, 2007, 09:39 AM
    Quote Originally Posted by tomder55
    Given enough time I could find hundreds of examples where political correctness and tolerance to a fault is the dogma of the university community .I'll give you a couple .

    SUNY -Albany has a S&M student association on campus without any objections at all from the school administration. A university spokeswoman said [I] "As long as they abide by the student guidelines, they have a right to have their club officially recognized by the student association on campus and to be funded by the student association." ]
    Sure, all say ad infinitum. Words are cheap.



    Administrators at Johns Hopkins University targeted the lone conservative campus newspaper, the Carrollton Record. The school confiscated copies of the Record when it revealed that university funds were paying for a campus appearance by a porno director. After rounding up the offending newspapers, the school restricted distribution of the paper.

    In sharp contrast "The ALF Primer: Your Guide to Economic Sabotage and the Animal Liberation Front." is a terrorists publication funded by student fees by animal rights groups on the campus of the University of Oregon. This paper has not been targeted for restriction.

    What the above shows is inconsistency of policy which seems irresponsible at worse and whimsical at best.


    At San Francisco State, the College Republicans group was hauled up on charges after it sponsored an anti-terrorism rally. The administration accused the Republicans of "attempts to incite violence and create a hostile environment" and "actions of incivility." However, in 2004 when a mob of Arab students swarmed the College Republicans, screaming abuses and threats, campus police and the administration took no action.
    Another irresponsible inconsistent policy which proves nothing other than administrative imbecility.

    College of William & Mary President Gene Nichol ordered a cross removed from the campus chapel. Shortly thereafter, he welcomed to campus a "Sex Workers Art Show" featuring topless women.
    Approval of porno but intolerance of the Christian religion. Beautiful!

    Perhaps the biggest example of it is the recent attempted lynching of the Duke Lacross players . Before any evidence was in a 88 members of the faculty wrote letters condemning the students. Clearly their race was the deciding factor to condemn them before the facts were known .Even after the facts were known that did not stop certain members of the faculty to attack the innocent students. Duke biology Professor Sheryl Broverman said :

    'Since we haven't gone through a normal legal process, we don't know what really happened. The fact the charges were dropped doesn't mean nothing happened. It just means information wasn't collected appropriately enough to go forward.'

    By a normal legal process one would have to conclude that she means someone gets prosecuted based on real evidence and not because of the political ambitions of the DA. That kind of "normal" legal process ?
    This is the only example which makes sense. Doesn't surprise me at all since overt discrimination isn't the modus operandi employed and I never said it was.
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    #15

    Jun 20, 2007, 10:31 AM
    Damn, I could have went to FOUR different graduation ceromonies?

    S.U.N.Y 1986
    The college and then Filippino, Chinese, Spanish.

    But despite this, my parents, who emigrated here, have always instilled in me you're American first.


    Who in there right mind wants to go to more than one?
    Sorry, I've been to 3 graduation ceremony[s] this spring and it was torture.



    Grace and Peace
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    Starman Posts: 1,308, Reputation: 135
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    #16

    Jun 22, 2007, 06:01 PM
    Quote Originally Posted by inthebox
    Damn, I could have went to FOUR different graduation ceromonies?!

    S.U.N.Y 1986
    the college and then Filippino, Chinese, Spanish.

    But despite this, my parents, who emigrated here, have always instilled in me you're American first.

    Who in there right mind wants to go to more than one?
    Sorry, I've been to 3 graduation ceremony[s] this spring and it was torture.

    Grace and Peace
    The question is why do these colleges or universities feel it their duty to provide these separate ceremonies if the one ceremony in English is suffice for all? Certainly they do have a choice not to. So if they do there has to be a good reason for it. What do you think that reason is? Simply being politically correct in some mysterious but useless way?

    BTW

    It's "I could have gone...." not "I could have went...."
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    #17

    Jul 19, 2007, 09:25 AM
    Quote Originally Posted by tomder55
    Commencement weekend is hard to plan at the University of California, Los Angeles. The university now has so many separate identity-group graduations that scheduling them not to conflict with one another is a challenge. The women’s studies graduation and the Chicana/Chicano studies graduation are both set for 10 AM Saturday. The broader Hispanic graduation, “Raza,” is in near-conflict with the black graduation, which starts just an hour later.

    Planning was easier before a new crop of ethnic groups pushed for inclusion. Students of Asian heritage were once content with the Asian–Pacific Islanders ceremony. But now there are separate Filipino and Vietnamese commencements, and some talk of a Cambodian one in the future. Years ago, UCLA sponsored an Iranian graduation, but the school’s commencement office couldn’t tell me if the event was still around. The entire Middle East may yet be a fertile source for UCLA commencements.

    Not all ethnic and racial graduations are well attended. The 2003 figures at UCLA showed that while 300 of 855 Hispanic students attended, only 170 out of 1,874 Asian-Americans did.

    Some students are presumably eligible for four or five graduations. A gay student with a Native American father and a Filipino mother could attend the Asian, Filipino, and American Indian ceremonies, plus the mainstream graduation and the Lavender Graduation for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students.

    Graduates usually wear identity-group markers—a Filipino stole or a Vietnamese sash, for instance, or a rainbow tassel at the Lavender event. Promoters of ethnic and racial graduations often talk about the strong sense of community that they favor. But it is a sense of community based on blood, a dubious and historically dangerous organizing principle.

    The organizers also sometimes argue that identity-group graduations make sense for practical reasons. They say that about 3,000 graduating seniors show up for UCLA’s “regular” graduation, making it a massive and impersonal event. At the more intimate identity-group events, foreign-born parents and relatives hear much of the ceremony in their native tongues. The Filipino event is so small—about 100 students— that each grad gets to speak for 30 seconds.

    But the core reason for separatist graduations is the obvious one: on campus, assimilation is a hostile force, the domestic version of American imperialism. On many campuses, identity-group training begins with separate freshman orientation programs for nonwhites, who arrive earlier and are encouraged to bond before the first Caucasian freshmen arrive. Some schools have separate orientations for gays as well. Administrations tend to foster separatism by arguing that bias is everywhere, justifying double standards that favor identity groups.

    Four years ago Ward Connerly, then a regent of the University of California, tried to pass a resolution to stop funding of ethnic graduations and gay freshman orientations. He changed his mind and asked to withdraw his proposal, but the regents wanted to vote on it and defeated it in committee 6–3.

    No major objections to ethnic graduations have emerged since. As in so many areas of American life, the preposterous is now normal.

    source :City Journal Let the Segregation Commence by John Leo
    Interesting article…so many people just can’t bear the idea of being, ‘left-out’- when I couldn’t bear the idea of being included in some controlling, follow the rules organization that saps a person’s individuality.

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