On the evening of May 27, SF State's gym will come alive. There will be music, dancing and singing. But this is not a performing arts event - this is the African Black Graduation.

Every year black students graduating from SF State come together to rejoice at their very own cultural commencement, together with their family, friends and faculty.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported last year that only 40 percent of black students who enter college actually graduate, compared to 61 percent of their white counterparts.

Though San Francisco is often considered one of the more diverse and progressive places to go to school, of the 28,804 students who were enrolled at SF State as of Fall 2004, only 1,614, or 6.9 percent, of these students were black.

“Black graduation is an intimate setting with your kin and your accomplishments as a black student with your family and friends,” said 21-year-old Michelle Irving, who is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in health education.

Although it is not required that every black student participate in the African Black Graduation ceremony, many of them said they look forward to it more than the SF State graduating class commencement.

“That’s the only graduation I’ve ever wanted to do since attending SF State,” said health science graduating senior Talilah Douglas. “It’s more inclusive. It’s more like a family.”
Douglas, 23, said she is not participating in the regular commencement for many different reasons.

“It’s outside," said Douglas. "It’s going to be hot. You can only invite five people and when you’re dealing with a black family we have our immediate family, we have extended family, people that you grew up with in your neighborhood, in your church that want to be able to celebrate your accomplishments with you and you can’t do that in the regular ceremony,” she said.

Liberal studies graduate Marcus Logan, who has yet to decide if he will participate in the regular commencement, agreed.

“We try to bring everybody,” Logan said. “Cousins, uncles, family members, family friends, everybody in the neighborhood you ever knew,” he said.

Douglas is the first person in her family to graduate college and admits it was a tough task to get through school.

“It was a struggle because I’m broke and poor and I come from a low-income background and not having money to do the things that a typical college student would be able to do,” Douglas said. “It was not like I could just go to school and not work and hustle and do everything else to make ends meet.”

Irving also acknowledged the importance of different cultures to have graduation ceremonies of their own.

“As blacks and Latinos and Asians and Pacific Islanders who have been subjected to a lot of racial discrimination, it shows that we can achieve also,” Irving said. “We can get a higher education and do as well as any other race.”

Logan said that preserving cultural traditions can help black students explore their heritage.
“We don’t live in a melting pot,” he said. “People need not ... forget where they come from.”