The University of Michigan-Dearborn is expressing remorse after being called out for segregating students into separate groups based on their background to discuss race and current events.
On Tuesday, the school’s Center for Social Justice & Inclusion hosted a Zoom session where Black, Indigenous, and people of color where assigned one group, while the other was for "non-POC" in an effort to "gather and to discuss their experience as students on campus and as non-POC in the world."
The plan was immediately criticized.
"The original intent was to provide students from marginalized communities a space that allowed for them to exist freely without having to normalize their lives and experiences, while also providing students that do not identify as persons of color the opportunity to deepen their understanding of race and racism without harming or relying on students of color to educate them," Beth Marmarelli, the school's Executive Director of Communications and Marketing, explained in a statement, per FOX News.
"The events were never intended to be exclusive or exclusionary for individuals of a certain race. Both events were open to all members of the UM-Dearborn campus community," Marmarelli added.
Marmarelli said that while anyone could attend either group, the intent behind the event was to "create opportunities for all students to discuss their life experiences openly and honestly - for some, this might be an emotional experience."
