What first comes to mind when you hear “racially segregated school event”?

You probably think of the United States civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Try again. It’s happening now in Canada.

Concerned students got in touch with me about an event the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa put on Tuesday night called In My Skin.

The goal was supposedly to talk about experiences with racism. However, the online invitation was taken down due to controversy.

It read: “In this meeting, we will have all the racialized folks in one room talking about their experiences … In another room, we will have all the non-racialized folks talking about their white privileges.” That’s right. Whites in one room. Non-whites in another.

Emma wrote passionately on the event board: “THIS IS THE MOST F---ING RACIST THING THIS DAMN SCHOOL HAS EVER DONE... YOU ARE MAKING HUGE HUGE HUGE HUMANITARIAN MISTAKES.” Mixed race students had a problem too. Jamie wrote: “I personally have no idea where I will sit considering I’m half white and half black. I actually don’t want to attend this event solely because I will feel awkward no matter what room I’m sitting in as I won’t feel that I completely fit in with either side.” But Selena’s comment was the most powerful: “So I’m guessing I can’t sit with my boyfriend then.” A young couple are able to go about undisturbed in society today because of advances made decades ago. Then an organization says if they want to attend an official event in their community they have to be separated based on colour.

In a statement standing behind the event, the student federation notes:

“Unfortunately, the structure of these two initial discussion groups were misunderstood by some students, who claimed that such an event promoted segregation and ‘reverse racism.’ It is first important to note that reverse racism is a myth.” So that’s how they get around their own racism — claiming it’s a myth.

Has it occurred to the student union’s mostly white executive that the best way to achieve harmony is to focus on similarities, not differences?

In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that state laws establishing separate schools for black and white students was unconstitutional.

And yet half a century later, because of some social justice gobbledygook, we’re faced with this.

The SFUO represents more than 35,000 undergraduate students. They pay yearly dues of around $175.

The purpose is to give students a voice alongside administration, faculty and the broader government. But they stray far from that.

This week is Reproductive Justice Week — a week of pro-choice activism.

There’s a campaign to eliminate bottled water on campus and another to challenge the Health Canada rule banning men who have had sex with men from giving blood.

Whatever your views on these issues, why should every student pay $175 for activists to wage these battles? (Or to segregate races?) Only 3,800 students voted in the 2013 SFUO elections. This low turnout is natural because students care more about studying.

But this enables the extremists to build empires unnoticed.

The student union didn’t return calls about the event and they weren’t making details like the time public.

If you attended either session and would like to share what happened, e-mail me.

If you don’t want your student fees or tax dollars supporting racial disunity, e-mail university president Allan Rock at president@uOttawa.ca.

University today: It’s like some kind of 1960s Alabama-style Occupy encampment. Welcome to the 21st century folks!