https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu7C3A54LuU [YOUTUBE]pu7C3A54LuU[/YOUTUBE] WTF? Why don't they just go to a HBCU?
I support fighting racism as much as the next guy, but this might be a bit of overkill. Sure, college campuses are full of racism, but so is society at large. You are going to have to learn to combat it eventually.
My undergrad university had both single-sex and coed dorms. Single-sex dorms seem quaint today with one exception: the amount of violence directed at women has always seemed higher to me than the amount of racial violence. For that reason I guess I can still see a potential need for some limited amount of safe space. In contrast, on-campus race relations seem tense or cold, but I never ever felt that I was in danger of serious violence as a victim of white racial animus in the way women fear and often actually become victims of rape. I only had a couple of fistfights at school and it was an overwhelmingly white campus.
I remember just how segregated college campuses were. Even in a community college campus. I had seen black with black, white with white and Latin/Hispanic with Latin/Hispanic. I was a member of the International Club on campus. The Latin/Hispanics in the club explained that the reason they are often seen together and speaking in their language is because the English language has many words and phrases, which they find confusing. I remember my curiosity about dorm life. I thought it was cool. However, I didn't know about the curfews. And the monthly costs were astronomical. And then I heard the stories. Mostly of the hookups because it was a co-ed dorm. Rape wasn't heard of, but it wasn't tolerated.
Too expensive in most cases. I think that I don't understand the safe space. I once tired a roommate and it was the worse venture that I had. They played music loudly. They smoked. My health drastically went down. I had to go to the hospital. First and last time that I would ever share a room if I had a say. I don't think the safe space is a good idea. The point of college is to broaden your knowledge as well as get a degree. You aren't there to stick with one ethnic group or race. That being said I will never ever live with someone else that isn't family unless I have to. Every time that I have, it has been a terrible experience. There are cultural background differences as in I don't smoke or I don't like music being played so hard that the walls vibrate or attitude. These are not examples but issues that I have had while living with nonfamily members. It is a good thing to do if you and that person get along but if you don't well got to go.
My late older brother and my younger brother went to Bethune-Cookman College(now called Bethune-Cookman University) and Florida A&M University.They were members of the fraternity Phi Beta Sigma. Did they have stories to tell. Especially, the hazing rituals to become members of the fraternity. I had heard about a guy that becomes a dorm studios and an easy girl becomes a dorm whore or slut.
Undergrad? Late 80s, early 90s. Grad school and law school? Early 00s and just finished. I'm not saying I need to feel it, per se, but I was just saying that the very real threat of violence might make a safe space feel more necessary to a group on campus. In all universities I went to, I felt racial tension, but no actually violence, as opposed to campus rape being a continual, recurring feature of school life.
My point is why shouldn't they have what they need. They pay the room and board fees so why not? And like a lot of rape just because we don't see or experience it doesn't mean its not happening to others. Why should I pay 10s of thousands of dollar and not feel safe on campus.
But that's my concern: is this really about feeling safe, or just about having culturally sensitive spaces? For example, we had a Black Culture Center and an International Student Office with spaces where non-white students could gather for fellowship, activities, and togetherness. I thought a safe space was more about feeling safe from real danger, physical harm and threats, like having residential facilities where men cannot enter, etc. I could be off-base but I was thinking of something like a Hope House type of place to protect battered women, etc. But I agree if they feel threatened they should have it.
I agree with TDK's position that students should feel safe everywhere, I just was thinking of physical danger as the baseline for when it's justified.
Considering the dorm fees, they should have the option to stay with whome they feel most comfortable.
Okay, so I attend this school and I don't think the BSU needed to create this Safe Space Housing. Supposedly there have been accounts of racism on our campus, which I have yet to experience, and this was created to support those being affected. Based on what I've seen and experienced on campus, I think things were fine the way they were. I don't live on campus, I live off campus nearby the university.
