Mike Rowe has sparked a heated debate with his scathing critique of Harvard's decision to host “segregation” celebrations. The university's recent announcement that students could commemorate “graduation day with a series of affinity celebrations” has stirred up a storm of controversy.
In a pointed social media post, the “Dirty Jobs” host criticized America's premier higher education institution, questioning the logic of promoting diversity while encouraging separate celebrations. (RELATED: New Investigation Reveals Dire Need For Education Reform in Texas)
Liberals predictably objected to the blue collar star's comments, but the witty Rowe responded with a characteristically effective counterargument.
“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 said in the post.
“I'm old enough to remember when this was called ‘segregation,' At Harvard, they call it ‘affinity,'” he observed. “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.” (RELATED: White House Christmas Celebration Features ‘Defund Police Group')
He proceeded to list the smorgasbord of celebrations: “The Latinix Celebration, The Black Celebration, The Arab Celebration, The Jewish Celebration…The Lavender Celebration, (LGBTQ, etc.),” and his favorite, “The First-Generation Low-Income Celebration.”
Rowe consistently dismisses the idea that college is for everyone and emphasizes the importance of skilled trade jobs. By some metrics, Gen Z cares less about college and is shouldering less college debt, which Rowe told Fox Business is a good thing:
“Back in the mid-'60s, higher-ed needed a PR campaign, a good one, and it got one. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of every other form of education. And then we wound up with a skills gap and no shop class and so forth and so on,” Rowe said.
“I think something really extraordinary happened during the lockdowns,” Rowe told “Bottom Line” co-hosts Sean Duffy and Dagen McDowell.
“Everybody's getting a trophy” and an A, despite attending the country's most prestigious universities, Rowe explained.
“If I'm an employer hiring a Harvard grad, I honestly have no idea who I'm hiring. It could be a disciplined, hardworking, smart, industrious, self-starter. Or it could be the son of the son of a legacy who coasted through the whole thing,” he stressed.
“Ten years ago, if you said, ‘Hey, I've got the support of the college-educated behind me,' I think the average person would immediately go, ‘Okay, so the smart people are with you' – but something's happened,” Rowe told Duffy and McDowell.
He added that “education is too important to root against it.” Still, he predicted that higher education may have to hit rock bottom before it's great again.
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