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Arizona State University has recently come under fire for declining to follow the well-established tradition of handing out honorary degrees to commencement speakers. The speakers, some of the world's most influential leaders in business, science, and humanities, must have the qualification of showing "an achievement of eminence." President Barack Obama was asked and accepted the role as this year's commencement speaker. However, the university announced soon after his acceptance that he will not receive the honorary degree, as did so many of his predecessors.

In such a time as this, we cannot help but wonder if this is another extension of racism's ugly hand. Or perhaps it is merely the taste of bitter politics, considering this is the home state of the losing contender for President Obama's current position.

University officials state the ASU Honorary Degree Committee decided a few years ago that they will no longer grant honorary degrees to sitting politicians or financial donors. ASU Media Relations Director Sharon Keeler claims they cannot give it to Obama because "his body of work is yet to come," and perhaps he might be considered for the accolade when his term is finished. In fact, she also states that the committee wasn't going to give him the degree, and he may not have even been nominated for it.

This is really surprising, considering all the feats that President Obama has accomplished in his lifetime. He was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer on the south side of Chicago, leading to better living conditions for many residents who were otherwise unheard in the traditional chain of command. He raised more money in a grassroots campaign than any other presidential candidate in the history of this country. He is the author of TWO national bestsellers. Not to mention, the first black president of the United States, a country that has struggled with racism since Europeans first ran aground.

One of the negative campaign points led by the McCain team was focusing on Obama's inexperience, and it sounds like Arizona State University is still trying to perpetuate that idea. In a Huffington Post article by Dawn Teo, she cites an editorial from a local paper discussing the inexperience of previous honorary degree recipients: "But others had much still to accomplish. Barry Goldwater received his honorary degree in May 1961, three years before his Republican nomination for president and only eight years into his three decades as a U.S. senator. Sandra Day O'Connor was similarly recognized just three years in her 25 years on the U.S. Supreme Court." What are people expected to think given this sort of biased declination? Most people would be more understanding if this change in policy had been put in place long before Obama became known outside of Illinois, but this reeks of the "justified" racism that characterizes and stereotypes white people who are in the money and in power.

Of course, President Obama will probably continue to go through with the engagement with grace, as he is known to do. But after witnessing the tea-bagging events across the country, we know that racism is still alive and voraciously consuming the lives of many Americans. Obama wanted so desperately for Americans to give up these centuries-old views of subordinate races and "heathen" or "pagan" religions that divide us as a nation. Our forefathers fought hard to keep those ideologies from being written into our Constitution, yet it has characterized our history from our revolutionary beginnings. A disheartening thought, considering many of us emigrated from all over the world to come to the United States to escape religious, ethnic, and political persecution.

Learn more about this author, Joyce D. Sinclair.
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