Safe Spaces for Minority Populations

Hi readers.  I would like to share with you a Facebook post written on July 11, 2017 by my friend Pablo Mendoza about the need for safe spaces for minority populations on college campuses.  Although he does not address issues related to people with disabilities, I believe they too easily fit into his argument for the need for safe spaces. Have a read and see what you think…

 “Over the last few years, I've been asked about the need for safe spaces for people of color and LGBTQIA spaces. Many of my majority colleagues call this self-segregation, without understanding that segregation is the use of power by majority populations to give lesser services, lesser status to marginalized populations. When our students and colleagues form organizations and ask for spaces of their own in Predominantly White Campuses and Corporations, it is a desire to feel temporarily safe in a place that isolates them/us daily. Asking us to put aside our language and culture to fit into the predominant culture.

One of the most incredible professional experiences I had was serving as the resident director for Casa Cuauhtemoc at UC Davis (I supervised five other buildings as well).This was a residence of 60 Chicano/Latino/Native/Pinoy students who were provided temporary respite from the predominantly white culture of the University of California (circa early 1990s). I could walk through this building and hear discussions about coalition building, cuisine similarities, Spanish/Tagalog/Visayan spoken. It was wonderful to help these students develop leadership cohorts, actively work with the state tribal college, and recruit more students to UC.

I have been to thinking about this in the context of the recent NY Times article about Mizzou [University of Missouri-Columbia]. This article ignored the one thing that spurred the 2015 protests, the failure to recognize the need for safety and respite of the diverse students in light of the daily troubles faced by them on campus from their peers and some majority groups.

The one thing that is problematic about the article is how it basically blamed the protesters for the enrollment drop. It is a sad commentary on the NY Times to take the predominant majority perspective (that of the state legislature and how they feel the state reputation was damaged by the protests) over the narrative of the students who had to suffer ill treatment from the community.

During a meeting, a colleague asked my perspective on the protests. I spoke about my participation in the [California] Prop[osition] 187 protests two decades ago. I said people protest because they love a place, the community. They want to see the place live up [to] the espoused values. If we didn't love California, Missouri, the United States, we would just leave, silent, seeking another place to call our own. We protest because we love. Some of my colleagues feel that you should be silent if you love something. Not understanding their privilege, not understanding what it means to be eternally suspect.”

References

"Long after protests, students shun the University of Missouri." New York Times. July 9, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/university-of-missouri-enrollment-protests-fallout.html

"California Proposition 187." Wikipedia. July 6, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_187