California’s taxpayer-subsidized University of California, Riverside campus is set to host a segregated LGBTQ conference at the end of this month.
BlaqOUT, the event in question, is a two day conference designed for people who identify as “Black/African American or of African descent that also identify as Same Gender Loving, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning or somewhere on the LGBT spectrum,” according to the event page.
While it’s relatively common to encounter on-campus events emphasizing or celebrating certain cultural groups or traditions, it is unheard of to deny someone admission to an event simply because they have a different skin color. Remarkably, this scenario appears to be exactly what BlaqOUT organizers are focused on establishing, as is explicitly listed in the event FAQ’s.
“Can other people of color, white people and/or straight people attend?”
“No, we are asking our allies to respect the BlaqOUT Conference as a closed space for folks who identify as Black/African American or of African descent and on the LGBT spectrum.”
The conference is presented by UC Riverside’s LGBT Resource Center. According to event details, registration costs are $10 for admission, while attendees can also opt to pay $20 and receive a shirt. There is no difference in fee between students of UC Riverside and non-students, and the event is open to members of the local community as well. All attendees are pre-selected through an online admissions process.
While colleges have long discriminated against conservative students, the phenomenon of segregated, on-campus events has only been around for a few years. Such events were likely fueled in part by a series of on-campus protests against alleged oppression and discrimination by white campus officials in the Fall of 2015, which has produced an ongoing desire by college students to seize control of their campus as they see fit.
Unfortunately for UC Riverside, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits “discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.” While they may choose to disguise such discrimination under the guise of “creating a safe space,” the rest of society can see right through the ploy.
Administrators at UC Riverside would be well advised to take a break from learning about new ways to be offended, and perhaps attend a history lesson on how America overcame discrimination.
To quote President John F. Kennedy in 1963, “Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination.”
