Wednesday, May 27, 2015

This is how they "think". Safe-space means "no whites allowed"-----Ethnic Minorities Deserve Safe Spaces Without White People

Ethnic Minorities Deserve Safe Spaces Without White People | Aeman Ansari:
Last week The Ryersonian reported on an incident that involved two first-year journalism students who were turned away from an event organized by Racialized Students' Collective because they are white.
...2) Marginalized groups have a right to claim spaces in the public realm where they can share stories about the discrimination they have faced without judgment and intrusion from anyone else.
I am a person of colour and a journalist and so there are two conflicting voices inside my head.
But in this case one voice, that of a person of colour, is louder and my conscience does not allow me to be impartial.
I have to take a side.
The organizers of the event, the Racialized Students' Collective, should have done a better job of labelling this event as a safe space on the Ryerson Students' Union online calendar.
They should label safe spaces clearly and maybe even host events that educate the public on what they mean. 
Doing so will help the public and the media have a better understanding of the purpose and value of these spaces.
However, the point to note is not that two white students were asked to leave the event, but rather that this was a safe space and that we as a newsroom, as a campus and as a society are not as knowledgeable as we should be about what these spaces mean...
...These spaces, which are forums where minority groups are protected from mainstream stereotypes and marginalization, are crucial to resistance of oppression and we, as a school and as a society, need to respect them.
...Racialized people experience systemic discrimination on a daily basis, on many levels, and in ways that white people may never encounter. 
The whole point of these safe spaces is to remove that power dynamic
That's partly what makes them spaces for healing.
Read it all and understand the evil and idiocy that festers in our American university system.

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