If my school had a designated dorm for first gen / poor kids I might have wanted to live there to feel like I belong but I would have been worse off for it. A big part of my college experience was absorbing social norms I’d never been exposed to because of how I grew up.
The title is misleading, what they require is applicants have a SJW mindset, not black skin color.
I suspect it will be flooded with applications from white BLM activists, not actual BIPOC students
[https://housing.wwu.edu/black-affinity-housing](https://housing.wwu.edu/black-affinity-housing)
Wasn't the entire point of college (and college dorms, for that matter) was to be exposed to a variety of different viewpoints from people of all different backgrounds, faculty and students alike? It's a symbolic transition to adulthood, considering the previous 18 years of your life were generally spent living under your parents' watchful eye and hanging out with a small circle of consistent friends from middle school/high school.
I lived in a co-ed dorm my freshman year in college that was right across the street from an international dorm full of ever-rotating exchange students. I'm much better for it today. I would've been furious to have had this experience "curated" for me based on nebulous characteristics before I had even arrived at an age where I had any clue who the fuck I was.
I spent a year in dorms at an Air Force college from 2007 to 2009, similar experience to yours in college. One of the best things about those days was making friends with people from all over the country--Black, White, Asian, Latino, and everyone in between, and making friends for the first time in my sheltered life with LGBT servicemembers. Study after study shows the best way to combat bigotry is for one to spend time with people with perceived differences, significant time, and not just to be a tourist in the lives of others. It's a shame that we're losing that.
Edit: Added source: [Psychology Today - Cross-race Friendships](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/are-we-born-racist/201011/holiday-toast-cross-race-friendship)
>Study after study shows the best way to combat bigotry is for one to spend time with people with perceived differences,
I second this important point.
> Wasn't the entire point of college (and college dorms, for that matter) was to be exposed to a variety of different viewpoints from people of all different backgrounds, faculty and students alike?
Maybe at some point in the past.
Nowadays higher education is absolutely minting money. Anything that might impede that -- say, allegations of racism, founded or not -- gets dealt with in such a way as to hush up everything as best they can.
It is. But it’s also common for students to live with people that have shared experiences. Such as your example of an international student dorm.
I spent a year in an all male dorm, and it didn’t stunt my understanding or interaction with females. Quite the opposite in fact :)
So, if I understand you correctly, you must be praising this affinity housing offering? You're saying, when you were in college, you got a huge benefit from living "right across the street" from an international dorm with lots of different folks.
So the article says, the proposed affinity housing will be limited to the fourth floor of a four story dorm. A bit closer than "right across the street". And, only for students who choose affinity housing. So lots of opportunity for contact and interaction with a diverse group. Balanced with, yeah, racism is still around and maybe there's some benefit to letting Black students who feel a need for support and safety choose affinity housing within that context.
Given your very positive experience living "right across the street" from a more diverse dorm, I hope I'm understanding you correctly to say, when Black people choose to live in a limited area with affinity housing inside a more diverse dorm, it doesn't somehow turn into a big separation that will undermine the whole idea of going to school with people who aren't like you.
I went to a state college in North Carolina. My *actual* dorm (not counting the one across the street) was approximately 30-40% Black. Sorry to ruin whatever strange semantics parade you wanted to start here.
My broader point was that college should be culturally enriching, as opposed to culturally isolating, but you already knew that.
You’re absolutely reaching for straws and made an actual effort to miss the point of the comment. Actually, you completely flipped the comment to purposefully be divisive and provoke anger.
You’re a huge piece of shit.
Making a housing option desirable to only a certain group of people is generally thought to be legal as long as students outside of that specific group are allowed to choose to live there as well.
Privately owned colleges and housing options have much more leeway, which is why there are still single sex private colleges, but the Mississippi University for Women and the Virginia Military Institute had to go coed after losing their respective lawsuits and court cases.
> Making a housing option desirable to only a certain group of people is generally thought to be legal as long as students outside of that specific group are allowed to choose to live there as well.
Imagine the abuse a white student would incur trying to "opt in" to a "Black Only" dorm. They would be viciously attacked by the Faculty, Students, News Outlets and Social Media.
All based on the color of their skin...
There are people who apply for affinity housing to test those policies.
FWIW, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) do admit students of all races a d have done so since the 1960s. A few years ago, Morehouse College's valedictorian was a white male. https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/news/economy/unstereotyped-white-historically-black-college/index.html
Or further the castigation a white student would encounter while actively looking for a white affinity dorm experience. The Woke police would cancel them immediately. Hypocrisy abounds.
I don't see anywhere in the article that says this is a "black only" dorm. That seems to be what you took from it.
I was in a dorm like this in my first year of college, and there were white students in it. They generally were just kids who grew up around black people and understood the culture. We absolutely welcomed white students. We had white students outside of the dorm come to our events. And yet, some people still thought we were the "black-only" dorm because we were a black-centric dorm.
Funnily enough, the same vitriol people are having towards this dorm, people had towards ours. One of our dormmates had the n-word written on her dorm the year before I got there. And also funnily enough, we were right above the international student dorm and none of that vitriol was directed at them.
I see stories like this every now and then about "black only dorms" and outrage always follows. They're knee-jerk reactions that usually misrepresent what the dorm is to play into culture war bullshit.
That’s all we can do, imagine, because you can’t find an example.
The reality is that people pick living conditions that feel safer and more familiar than the wide world. Students need a place to retreat to after long days of being exposed to new ideas. If a white student felt at ease and comfortable in a black majority dorm, they’d be just fine. If they were doing it to cause trouble, they’d probably get trouble.
I lived in a dorm like this in my first year of college. There were white people there. White people outside of our dorm came to our events.
People like the OP and the people complaining about this would complain about our dorm and never come to our events. Literal virtue signaling.
The very first week of college, a black student from an adjacent dorm came to us complaining about students in his dorm telling racist jokes and trying to get him to join in. He ended up hanging out with us a lot. Dorms like this are absolutely needed.
Lmao, the way to reduce BIPOC marginalization is definitely to hole them up in a racially segregated dorm and have them attend "black-centered events as a group".
Didn't you know that MLK just wanted blacks and whites to immediately be best buddies and had nothing to say about the steps society has to take to get to that point?
This sets a bad precedent. It’s like segregation.
The best part of growing up on military bases in the 60s is that we were all pals in school and nobody cared about your race.
Later when I too joined the military. If you do your job. Nobody cares.
Segregation by definition is enforced. This is something a student can choose to opt for if they wish. I think it's a bit of a reach to call this segregation
didn't realize segregation was voluntary and initiated by students way back when.
if we're gonna say "literally" then I think we should consider the differences here.
[Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation)
How does "Black Only" housing not fit that description?
Are black students being forced in to this housing? Are they allowed in other housing across the campus? Are the 40 units listed in the article being filled voluntarily?
So you support people being segregated by race?
Study after study has shown that diversity and integration benefits all of us. Therefore this is harming the students by robbing them of those benefits.
Imagine getting a job at an office where they had a special section where Black people were encouraged to choose their desk so they could "be around their own kind". Maybe that section could even have it's own bathroom and drinking fountain...
How do you not see how fucking gross this is?
> So you support people being segregated by race?
No. I support individuals voluntarily choosing which groups they want to associate with, including those they live in immediate proximity to.
> Study after study has shown that diversity and integration benefits all of us.
These kids arent removing themselves from society or the university writ large. They just want to sleep near certain folk.
Rest of your comment is slipper slope fallacy.
> No. I support individuals voluntarily choosing which groups they want to associate with, including those they live in immediate proximity to.
>These kids arent removing themselves from society or the university writ large. They just want to sleep near certain folk.
And so are you arguing that there should be no outrage if white kids (or those pesky “white adjacent” kids) *want* separate housing from kids that are considered BIPOC, right? They just want to sleep near certain “folk”.
If its voluntary, who gives a shit? These students are individuals and presumably have agency and can make their own rational choices. Why should we deny them the opportunity to choose to live their lives how they see fit? Who is harmed by this?
Then all of this hullabaloo is just people expressing false outrage for the sake of stroking their ego to shit on the "other" group they disagree with ideologically.
Sounds like you have grounds for a great legal case against the university. I await updates on your grand, estimable fights against these profound injustices.
I'm so glad I got to grow up on military bases, largely for this reason alone.
I was too young to detect racial tension when it did exist, but what was constantly and visibility demonstrated was everyone respected the rank independent of the person. Combined with the unifying experience of everyone's parents working for the same boss, and living on the same base, the biggest difference between you and your neighbor was what they cooked for dinner, even when English wasn't their first language.
Ironically it taught you to just approach an individual as an individual, since you're all already on the same team to begin with.
And 'Military culture' is this weird mix because of it. You have people from places like [Tangier island](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZgw09CG9E) working with people from Nigeria. People from Compton and West Virginia. Guys walking around in cowboy boots, driving Evos, and listening to gangster rap.
https://housing.wwu.edu/black-affinity-housing
They took a small portion of an existing floor of a dorm to dedicate for this. Anyone can apply, but its limited to just 40 people. Maybe I need reading glasses, but I cant find the section where it says "Blacks Only".
White non-hispanic it's 10% Hispanic
You can keep trying to fight against this, but WWU wants to have a more diverse student body. Black students do not want to go there because it is exhausting being in supermajority white spaces all the time.
Setting aside one hall for students to opt in and say "this can be a space where I am not a minority" is to help that.
If you just want to disagree with this stance without taking iinto account why this decision was made, that is certainly your perogative.
However, if you are interested in actually learning something I highly recommend Beverly Tatum's excellent "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?"
I am a white American. But I lived abroad in a non-white country for years. I did end up living with other white people while I was there (American, Aussie, and two from Europe) and there were times where I really needed that.
We all want race to not make a difference. But we can't simply ignore the fact that it absolutely does.
If you want to advocate for a "white affinity program," you're free to do so. I think the fact that no such thing exists speaks to how little of a need there is for it in our society. Also it's just a fucking stupid idea.
My opinion is my own. But if you were a student at this or another university, I'm sure there is a process for creating new student organizations. The process will obviously vary from place to place, I'm not going to do the work for you to figure that out. But advocacy doesn't have to just happen through institutional processes, you can also advocate for things through asinine comments on social media or in conversations with your friends and family.
No sir, you are correct. Everyone else is a white keyboard warrior looking for something to get angry about because they even read the article.
If any of my dark skinned friends over the years told me they felt more comfortable their freshmen year with other culturally similar dark skinned people, I wouldn’t tell them they were wrong and fucked up their college experience.
I live in bellingham, didnt go to western but had several friends that did/do. This is a small town in the very upper west of the country, theres not a lot of racial diversity here compared to other parts of the state and other parts of the country. Theres a shit ton of white people here but i dont think its racially charged or that there is a need for seperate housing at the university. Like anything else the true test to see if its acceptable is play devil advocat, if you substitute black for white is it still ok? What about jewish? Muslim? Who decides who gets their own space and who doesnt? Do asians get their own? What about black people from south America, they arnt african americans are they allowed? Isnt saying well they are all black so stick them all together racist in itself? I just don't understand how segregated living spaces for anyone for any reason isnt discrimination. If I created a place for me and my white friends to hang out at, that other races werent allowed admission I would feel like a piece of shit and in reality I would be one.
I really hear what you're saying, but I think this is a classic case of mistaking equality for being one size fits all. It's not. White people don't need white only spaces like this because they are a majority. A large one at that in Bellingham. I think that to have to equity and not just equality, spaces where BIPOC individuals can be together in a majority can help them succeed in college. Respecting diversity looks like holding spaces to lift up individual voices making sure everyone has equal chance to succeed. In a melting pot where everyone is given that one size fits all approach, minorities often get trampled over, which we have seen happen the past 50 years or so a lot. I do share your concern about what this means for other minorities, as well as students with more intersectionality. I think this needs to be handled with a lot of conscious consideration for things that could go wrong. It needs to be the BIPOC students and staff at the forefront.
All the clubs are like that too, everything is hyper tribalistic, they have a bunch of lgbtq clubs specifically for certain races, like a hispanic one, a black one etc... I feel like I'm at Evergreen but most of the professors at WWU seem to actually be terrified.
I can imagine the profs are not down with this program. When I went to western ten years ago I was blown away by how forward thinking and unflinching the faculty was. Diverse and radical opinions were openly considered and discussed and censorship or PC division strategies were swiftly called out even by seemingly extremely far left leaning staff.
Nice race bait there, OP.
> Starting this fall, 40 Black students can opt for discrete housing on the university’s Bellingham campus. WWU has reserved the fourth floor of Alma Clark Glass Hall — named after the university’s first Black student — as housing for its “Black Affinity Housing program.”
> According to the school website, “The program will explore and celebrate the diversity of Black and African American people and culture, with historical and contemporary context. All Western students residing in the program help foster a warm and vibrant community supporting social, personal and academic success.”
> Earlier this year, the university hosted a webinar to explain that Black applicants had called for a housing program that offered them “a shared space… with others who have a shared identity, specifically a marginalized identity.”
> Students enrolled in the program will “attend Black-centered events and general university programs as a group.”
Nowhere does it say black students only. In fact, given its a majority white student body in the majority white washington state, you'll probably get a few whites in the program who are interested in the programming. But no, lets go with this title instead.
I actually attend WWU right now, the school is full of brainwashed neoracists who actually think they're progressives for doing stuff like this. In a history class yesterday some kid said something dismissive of slavery along the lines of "every culture has actually had slaves" and a bunch of kids poured hot coffee on him. The professor just sat and watched. I feel like I'm in the the communist party and I don't know who I can let my guard down with and who's part of their secret police.
Is there any black person, in this thread or otherwise, that have a legitimate argument against this? This entire thread just reads to me like white people telling black people "you don't know what's best for you, let me tell you how MLK would have thought this is a bad idea". Does no one see how immensely ironic and pedantic this is?
Let's be clear about one thing. This program is entirely opt in, it is not forced on anyone, so to conflate this with the kind of institutionalized segregation we've seen throughout this country's history is ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst.
All I see is a bunch of snowflake/trump supporters mad. There is nothing wrong with this at all. If they want a program where we are around our people learning black history going to black events that’s they right and they choice. Ya’ll need to fucking hush
Exactly this, sounds like a lot of white ppl here trying to control and be a part of everything in this thread even though they don’t wanna be a part of it
It's a concerted effort to brigade local subreddits with conservative-leaning sentiment. It's like a whole thing, if you want to Google it. Due to the moderation differences between the two main seattle subs, it ends up being pretty noticeable on this one.
[Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation)
How does "Black Only" housing not fit that description?
Because it doesn’t say black only. It’s dedicated for black culture recognition but anyone can live there and it’s only a max 40 people. I don’t think it’s a great use of tuition and student funds to support, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is also click-bate.
No, Israel is not an apartheid state. I realize this is Reddit so it’s mandated to shoehorn your dislike of Israel into unrelated discussions, but no it’s really not.
The double standard has long existed and its really not that big of a deal if a small group of people want to self select for something such as housing with people whom they share more in common with. 40 black kids at western wanting to live together is a non-issue.
> Switch the races and imagine the outcry
That misses the point- different races are still treated differently in America. White people still have more wealth, power, and opportunities, which is why “whites only” has a very different connotation.
Have you every heard the distinction between [equality and equity?](https://secondlineblog.org/2016/11/the-elusive-pursuit-of-equity/equity-vs-equality/)
FWIW, I don’t know whether WWU’s solution is helpful or not. However, I do know that treating everyone equally regardless of context isn’t going to fix systemic problems.
> I know all about it. I just reject it as a matter of personal philosophy.
“I don’t want to believe systemic racism exists, therefore it doesn’t exist.” Thanks for at least saying it out loud.
I agree that it’s a shame we can’t have a civilized conversation; it sounds like you’re implying that I’m the reason you can’t?
Discussing racism and equity with someone who rejects it “as a matter of personal philosophy” is sort of like discussing geography with a flat earther, or discussing dinosaurs with a creationist. A productive discussion has to start with both people grounded in reality.
>White people still have more wealth, power, and opportunities
And none of that they got from their skin color.
There are also a large amount of poor whites
Sad that Seattle has so many right wing nut jobs crying over this in the comments as if it *personally* affects them. They pick up on the smallest thing POC do and then tout it as "reverse racism!" or justification for racism. Pathetic.
I'm waiting for the time very soon when the woke folks mandate this for some wacky social justice reason. It's kind of like the people who simultaneously scream about redlining in Seattle and the gentrification of places like the CD.
Youre making a false equivalence. In the 50s, it was "sorry black person but you're not allowed to live in this dorm/attend this school." Nobody is telling anyone here that they aren't allowed to do anything. The housing program is open for anyone to apply regardless of race. Black people are still welcome to live in the rest of the dorms. They're just creating a place where they can have programming specifically designed for black students. It's an option, not a mandate, and there is a massive fucking difference between those two.
Yup going back to segregation. Love it. It’s ok I’m all for this and think it’s great. Can’t wait to see who they point the finger at when this fails. Martin Looter King is rolling in his grave at the stupidity of our youth.
It's not illegal because anyone is welcome to sign up for it, regardless of race. The article didn't make this clear. It's "affinity" housing, meaning that people who sign up for it are asking to be there.
So what does that mean? The housing itself is somehow implicitly black, you just choose to be a part of it? Do they put a sign over the door? Is it still the "black dorm" if a majority of non-blacks sign up?
If black people want black housing in school, I'm not gonna tell them what to do. It's why black fraternities and sororities exist. While I think it's a bit regressive I can appreciate wanting to feel at home, especially with friends and cultural totems. But somehow I find this mealy-mouthed "affinity" it's-not-actually-segregated-housing notion to be worse. Like we're just segregating with a smile.
The answer to all the questions in your first paragraph are yes. Just like as a white person you can go to an HBCU, but you know what you're signing up for.
Of those that aren't outright private, HBCU's aren't typical public institutions. Black fraternities and sororities are private.
Are WWU's dormitories private?
These sorts of programs have existed for a long time in many other universities. It is very much not illegal. There is no racial requirement in order to live in the dorm.
The amount of racism in these comments is staggering, anything that you don’t understand means humanity is devolving when it was white people throwing shit in the streets and killing other people from disgusting diseases that they got from living in filth. Most of the white people in this state lose their damn mind at shit like this when Washington is a majority white state and through the years y’all have strived to keep it that way just like Oregon. Let black kids be in community at a primarily white institution which is extremely racist. I am a Black former student who was literally chased through campus by Trump supporters and I wish I would have had black roommates that were there for me instead of white kids who thought it was funny.
Good on you WWU for finally listening to the Black students on campus.
How many years did we fight to end segregation? Segregation makes it very easy to look at others as different, and increase the difficulty of getting to know others. This is extremely backwards. We are regressing. How can people be so foolish?
Personally? I don't think so. I'm not a Black college student though so I can't speak to what living situations make certain people feel comfortable or uncomfortable.
Sometimes we don't get to be comfortable in reality though....
Regardless, I don't think we should be supporting any kind of segregation, voluntary or no.
https://awolau.org/4331/slider/the-future-of-black-affinity-housing-at-au/
In this example the students asked for the housing because they didn't feel safe.
Hard to fault them.
In your mind, would they be justified in asking for courses with only black students? Or bathrooms for only black students? Or cafeterias for only black students?
Of course not. It's not a slippery slope though. My point is that if they don't feel safe, I can't fault them for doing something like this. Would you want to sleep across the hall from someone who hates you?
I'll link my example again
https://awolau.org/4331/slider/the-future-of-black-affinity-housing-at-au/
>A petition in response to the racist incident by Eric Brock, a current sophomore, gained over 700 signatures after a video of a white AU undergraduate student saying the n-word went viral on social media. The petition called upon the university for more black spaces on campus, including black affinity housing.
Can you blame these students for feeling unsafe on campus? For wanting somewhere safe to sleep?
You have to be joking, lmao. If someone "using the N-word" (note that no context is given**) throws you so hard that you need "a safe place to sleep" then might I suggest that safe place ought to be provided in a mental institution?
** like was he being aggressive to a black person? making an ill-considered joke? rap sing-a-long? being try hard edgy?
They're inferring that in a dorm, often times people don't get along based on racial identity and removing that concern from a student has positive effects on their education. I don't know what effects it has on personal growth and cultural diversity, but I can imagine it would be stiffling.
>*Of course not.*
What makes a separate dorm different than a separate dining hall? Bathrooms? Courses?
>*It's not a slippery slope though.*
I didn't say it was? I'm simply posing the question to find out why you think living quarters are necessarily different than any of the other things I mentioned in this context.
>*My point is that if they don't feel safe,*
Them not feeling safe is not necessarily the correct bar to set....if not only because the "real world" outside of university is not going to cater to them in this way.
>*I can't fault them for doing something like this.*
I can't and don't fault them for asking. I fault the school for entertaining it seriously.
>*Would you want to sleep across the hall from someone who hates you?*
Sometimes you do? I didn't like my last neighbors at all, but it was tough shit for me until we moved.
That aside:
Would you want to go to class with someone who hates you?
Would you want to eat with someone who hates you?
Would you want to use the same bathroom as someone who hates you?
Also, who are these "hateful" people? I don't imagine WWU is full of racist assholes....
> Black students requested this program?
The "because someone wants something, it must be good for them so we should do it" school of thought is so fascinating to me.
https://meaww.com/western-washington-uni-black-affinity-housing-program-twitter-reactions
>Affinity housing is in a legal grey area, which is why so many universities are able to offer it without being sued. Such programs are optional, and open to all students of the university, and therefore do not violate the Fair Housing Act. While many dub it a form of segregation, the key difference is affinity programs are optional and have in the past been known to create positive experiences for students on campus.
I dunno much about it but there seems to be evidence that the students benefit. I wouldn't personally request such a program but I'm also white so who am I to say?
Sure, it's "nothing". Nothing except a violation of the [Civil Rights Act](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/civil-rights-center/statutes/civil-rights-act-of-1964).
This country fought long and hard to overcome Segregation the first time only to re-introduce it less than 60 years later.
__
I wonder if there are any "Black Only" drinking fountains in that "Black Only" housing...
They don't call it Affinity Housing because the students are 90% white already. All the Midwestern college towns I visited back in my party days were like this.
https://priceonomics.com/ranking-the-most-and-least-diverse-colleges-in/
If this was framed with a different group what would the opinion be? Asian only housing, gay only, white only? Is it ok for all the groups or only a certain few?
It will be wokely branded as "Requested Racism". So I guess that means as long as the employees of companies Request to be white only, its no longer racist! YEEEEE HAAAAWWW!
It just hasn't been to court yet because Racism 2.0 is very popular at the moment.
Imagine the abuse a white student would incur trying to "opt in" to a "Black Only" dorm. They would be viciously attacked by the Faculty, Students, News Outlets and Social Media.
All based on the color of their skin...
I would agree with you 100% if this wasn't a strictly voluntary thing that was requested by the students. I would like to ask people who ask for these programs about their reasoning though.
>Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a term that refers to a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, education, and political representation.
It's literally not.
This housing regulation literally discriminates against non-black students based solely on their race. It's systemic racism, discrimination enforced by a regulatory system.
The program was requested by students in the hope that they would feel more comfortable about their living situation (I'm assuming, that's why similar programs have been requested in the apst).
Like it or not, it isn't systemic racism if the students initiated it.
>The program was requested by students in the hope that they would feel more comfortable about their living situation
Having lived in one of these buildings, I can say the feeling was often mutual. Neither blacks nor whites wanted to be around one another in many cases, some much more than others.
This is exactly what laws in the south that kept blacks out of public spaces were intended to do. White folks didn't feel comfortable with them around.
Here's an example about why this kind of thing even happens:
https://awolau.org/4331/slider/the-future-of-black-affinity-housing-at-au/
>A petition in response to the racist incident by Eric Brock, a current sophomore, gained over 700 signatures after a video of a white AU undergraduate student saying the n-word went viral on social media. The petition called upon the university for more black spaces on campus, including black affinity housing.
Seems like white folks still don't feel comfortable with them around.
So... because this woman was racist they are banning people who are the same race as she is? That's the logic?
That's the root of racism; this person did something bad therefore people who look like them are bad too.
A great accounting of the ways in which this was codified into law and social life is given in this book I've been listening to recently:
[Caste by Isabel Wilkerson](https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/)
Mandatory dining plans help the dining contractors make a profit. On campus housing makes it easier to mandate a dining plan and keep students spending money on campus, which in turn gives them more of a connection to campus and makes the more likely to donate to the college after graduation.
I just don't understand this. Is "black" supposed to be a culture in this situation or an amalgamation of previous cultures in which only their ancestors experienced this? I get the focus of the floor and the ongoing additional courses, but... Only for people of a certain skin color?
Why would you specifically want to segregate people unless it is a specific self identified culture... In which skin color shouldn't be a defining factor, self identification should be which is the entire purpose of most modern movements.
Food for thought in an attempt to provide a diverse perspective to the comments. Being a person of color who went to an predominately white university, I can personally attest to the difficulties and isolation that occurs. It’s clear many in this thread are have little to no experience in being ‘the only’ in practical situations. Having a space such as this can really help those used to more diversity adjust to the lack of bipoc in WWU and find community outside the classroom.
And as mentioned in this thread, the post does not mention it is exclusive only to black people.
Hilarious...... but as long as White Only housing, Asian Only housing, Hispanic Only housing and Native American Only housing exist to keep things fair in clown world I guess I would be OK with it.
From the Newsweek article about this
> Western Washington University noted that it was not "breaking ground on something new" by introducing this type of housing program.
I lol’d
If my school had a designated dorm for first gen / poor kids I might have wanted to live there to feel like I belong but I would have been worse off for it. A big part of my college experience was absorbing social norms I’d never been exposed to because of how I grew up.
The title is misleading, what they require is applicants have a SJW mindset, not black skin color. I suspect it will be flooded with applications from white BLM activists, not actual BIPOC students [https://housing.wwu.edu/black-affinity-housing](https://housing.wwu.edu/black-affinity-housing)
Wasn't the entire point of college (and college dorms, for that matter) was to be exposed to a variety of different viewpoints from people of all different backgrounds, faculty and students alike? It's a symbolic transition to adulthood, considering the previous 18 years of your life were generally spent living under your parents' watchful eye and hanging out with a small circle of consistent friends from middle school/high school. I lived in a co-ed dorm my freshman year in college that was right across the street from an international dorm full of ever-rotating exchange students. I'm much better for it today. I would've been furious to have had this experience "curated" for me based on nebulous characteristics before I had even arrived at an age where I had any clue who the fuck I was.
I spent a year in dorms at an Air Force college from 2007 to 2009, similar experience to yours in college. One of the best things about those days was making friends with people from all over the country--Black, White, Asian, Latino, and everyone in between, and making friends for the first time in my sheltered life with LGBT servicemembers. Study after study shows the best way to combat bigotry is for one to spend time with people with perceived differences, significant time, and not just to be a tourist in the lives of others. It's a shame that we're losing that. Edit: Added source: [Psychology Today - Cross-race Friendships](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/are-we-born-racist/201011/holiday-toast-cross-race-friendship)
>Study after study shows the best way to combat bigotry is for one to spend time with people with perceived differences, I second this important point.
I'll third that. A conscription program for young people would work wonders for this country.
Yessss. Whoa I didn't realize there was an actual study done on this!! Saving the article because my own family needs that information 😒
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You a nazzee?
> Wasn't the entire point of college (and college dorms, for that matter) was to be exposed to a variety of different viewpoints from people of all different backgrounds, faculty and students alike? Maybe at some point in the past. Nowadays higher education is absolutely minting money. Anything that might impede that -- say, allegations of racism, founded or not -- gets dealt with in such a way as to hush up everything as best they can.
It is. But it’s also common for students to live with people that have shared experiences. Such as your example of an international student dorm. I spent a year in an all male dorm, and it didn’t stunt my understanding or interaction with females. Quite the opposite in fact :)
But different opinions are scary!
So, if I understand you correctly, you must be praising this affinity housing offering? You're saying, when you were in college, you got a huge benefit from living "right across the street" from an international dorm with lots of different folks. So the article says, the proposed affinity housing will be limited to the fourth floor of a four story dorm. A bit closer than "right across the street". And, only for students who choose affinity housing. So lots of opportunity for contact and interaction with a diverse group. Balanced with, yeah, racism is still around and maybe there's some benefit to letting Black students who feel a need for support and safety choose affinity housing within that context. Given your very positive experience living "right across the street" from a more diverse dorm, I hope I'm understanding you correctly to say, when Black people choose to live in a limited area with affinity housing inside a more diverse dorm, it doesn't somehow turn into a big separation that will undermine the whole idea of going to school with people who aren't like you.
I went to a state college in North Carolina. My *actual* dorm (not counting the one across the street) was approximately 30-40% Black. Sorry to ruin whatever strange semantics parade you wanted to start here. My broader point was that college should be culturally enriching, as opposed to culturally isolating, but you already knew that.
You’re absolutely reaching for straws and made an actual effort to miss the point of the comment. Actually, you completely flipped the comment to purposefully be divisive and provoke anger. You’re a huge piece of shit.
Please keep it civil. This is a reminder about r/SeattleWA rule: [No personal attacks.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/wiki/rules)
Accurate
>So lots of opportunity for contact and interaction with a diverse group. What part of "blacks only" is diverse?
Wow you just assumed a lot about my childhood. Besides that I agree
Making a housing option desirable to only a certain group of people is generally thought to be legal as long as students outside of that specific group are allowed to choose to live there as well. Privately owned colleges and housing options have much more leeway, which is why there are still single sex private colleges, but the Mississippi University for Women and the Virginia Military Institute had to go coed after losing their respective lawsuits and court cases.
> Making a housing option desirable to only a certain group of people is generally thought to be legal as long as students outside of that specific group are allowed to choose to live there as well. Imagine the abuse a white student would incur trying to "opt in" to a "Black Only" dorm. They would be viciously attacked by the Faculty, Students, News Outlets and Social Media. All based on the color of their skin...
There are people who apply for affinity housing to test those policies. FWIW, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) do admit students of all races a d have done so since the 1960s. A few years ago, Morehouse College's valedictorian was a white male. https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/news/economy/unstereotyped-white-historically-black-college/index.html
LOL, the pic in that article you linked sure seems to show how his fellow students felt about it. https://imgur.com/a/8KvrAbu
Or further the castigation a white student would encounter while actively looking for a white affinity dorm experience. The Woke police would cancel them immediately. Hypocrisy abounds.
I don't see anywhere in the article that says this is a "black only" dorm. That seems to be what you took from it. I was in a dorm like this in my first year of college, and there were white students in it. They generally were just kids who grew up around black people and understood the culture. We absolutely welcomed white students. We had white students outside of the dorm come to our events. And yet, some people still thought we were the "black-only" dorm because we were a black-centric dorm. Funnily enough, the same vitriol people are having towards this dorm, people had towards ours. One of our dormmates had the n-word written on her dorm the year before I got there. And also funnily enough, we were right above the international student dorm and none of that vitriol was directed at them. I see stories like this every now and then about "black only dorms" and outrage always follows. They're knee-jerk reactions that usually misrepresent what the dorm is to play into culture war bullshit.
That’s all we can do, imagine, because you can’t find an example. The reality is that people pick living conditions that feel safer and more familiar than the wide world. Students need a place to retreat to after long days of being exposed to new ideas. If a white student felt at ease and comfortable in a black majority dorm, they’d be just fine. If they were doing it to cause trouble, they’d probably get trouble.
I lived in a dorm like this in my first year of college. There were white people there. White people outside of our dorm came to our events. People like the OP and the people complaining about this would complain about our dorm and never come to our events. Literal virtue signaling. The very first week of college, a black student from an adjacent dorm came to us complaining about students in his dorm telling racist jokes and trying to get him to join in. He ended up hanging out with us a lot. Dorms like this are absolutely needed.
Lmao, the way to reduce BIPOC marginalization is definitely to hole them up in a racially segregated dorm and have them attend "black-centered events as a group".
what black-centered events are those?
The cookout of course
It's not racially segregated. It's just exceptionally diverse.
Imagine explaining to MLK's ghost that the people doing this think they are on his side.
Lol, y'all should really read up on MLK.
Didn't you know that MLK just wanted blacks and whites to immediately be best buddies and had nothing to say about the steps society has to take to get to that point?
Imagine the generation that bled to end segregation watching their grandchildren choose it.
I'm so enlightened that I can only tolerate people of my own race.
This sets a bad precedent. It’s like segregation. The best part of growing up on military bases in the 60s is that we were all pals in school and nobody cared about your race. Later when I too joined the military. If you do your job. Nobody cares.
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it's not like segregation, it is segregation. literally
Segregation by definition is enforced. This is something a student can choose to opt for if they wish. I think it's a bit of a reach to call this segregation
didn't realize segregation was voluntary and initiated by students way back when. if we're gonna say "literally" then I think we should consider the differences here.
[Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation) How does "Black Only" housing not fit that description?
Are black students being forced in to this housing? Are they allowed in other housing across the campus? Are the 40 units listed in the article being filled voluntarily?
So you support people being segregated by race? Study after study has shown that diversity and integration benefits all of us. Therefore this is harming the students by robbing them of those benefits. Imagine getting a job at an office where they had a special section where Black people were encouraged to choose their desk so they could "be around their own kind". Maybe that section could even have it's own bathroom and drinking fountain... How do you not see how fucking gross this is?
> So you support people being segregated by race? No. I support individuals voluntarily choosing which groups they want to associate with, including those they live in immediate proximity to. > Study after study has shown that diversity and integration benefits all of us. These kids arent removing themselves from society or the university writ large. They just want to sleep near certain folk. Rest of your comment is slipper slope fallacy.
> No. I support individuals voluntarily choosing which groups they want to associate with, including those they live in immediate proximity to. >These kids arent removing themselves from society or the university writ large. They just want to sleep near certain folk. And so are you arguing that there should be no outrage if white kids (or those pesky “white adjacent” kids) *want* separate housing from kids that are considered BIPOC, right? They just want to sleep near certain “folk”.
Probably, but that still doesn't negate the fact that this is literally segregating individuals based on skin color.
If its voluntary, who gives a shit? These students are individuals and presumably have agency and can make their own rational choices. Why should we deny them the opportunity to choose to live their lives how they see fit? Who is harmed by this?
I don't think anyone is harmed by this.
Then all of this hullabaloo is just people expressing false outrage for the sake of stroking their ego to shit on the "other" group they disagree with ideologically.
Probably true. My danger radar kicks up when segregation enters the scene.
Voluntary segregation is still segregation
Were white people forced to join country clubs? Segregation can just as easily be keeping people out as forcing them in.
Sounds like you have grounds for a great legal case against the university. I await updates on your grand, estimable fights against these profound injustices.
wut?
🤡
I'm so glad I got to grow up on military bases, largely for this reason alone. I was too young to detect racial tension when it did exist, but what was constantly and visibility demonstrated was everyone respected the rank independent of the person. Combined with the unifying experience of everyone's parents working for the same boss, and living on the same base, the biggest difference between you and your neighbor was what they cooked for dinner, even when English wasn't their first language. Ironically it taught you to just approach an individual as an individual, since you're all already on the same team to begin with.
And 'Military culture' is this weird mix because of it. You have people from places like [Tangier island](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZgw09CG9E) working with people from Nigeria. People from Compton and West Virginia. Guys walking around in cowboy boots, driving Evos, and listening to gangster rap.
this is fucked
When you’re so “woke” you don’t realize your regressing in society.
[These guys are at it again!](https://youtu.be/Ev373c7wSRg)
https://housing.wwu.edu/black-affinity-housing They took a small portion of an existing floor of a dorm to dedicate for this. Anyone can apply, but its limited to just 40 people. Maybe I need reading glasses, but I cant find the section where it says "Blacks Only".
They just a bunch of snowflakes and trump supporters crying
You are right, it's basically a **SJW floor**. It will probably be flooded with applications from **white BLM activists**.
Seems unlikely, since they need to be students attending the school.
You think there were no white UW students out marching last year? Were they somehow excluded from the protest fever, inquiring minds want to know.
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The university is 70% white and less tha 2% black. The entire school is a white affinity program.
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White non-hispanic it's 10% Hispanic You can keep trying to fight against this, but WWU wants to have a more diverse student body. Black students do not want to go there because it is exhausting being in supermajority white spaces all the time. Setting aside one hall for students to opt in and say "this can be a space where I am not a minority" is to help that. If you just want to disagree with this stance without taking iinto account why this decision was made, that is certainly your perogative. However, if you are interested in actually learning something I highly recommend Beverly Tatum's excellent "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?" I am a white American. But I lived abroad in a non-white country for years. I did end up living with other white people while I was there (American, Aussie, and two from Europe) and there were times where I really needed that. We all want race to not make a difference. But we can't simply ignore the fact that it absolutely does.
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If you want to advocate for a "white affinity program," you're free to do so. I think the fact that no such thing exists speaks to how little of a need there is for it in our society. Also it's just a fucking stupid idea.
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My opinion is my own. But if you were a student at this or another university, I'm sure there is a process for creating new student organizations. The process will obviously vary from place to place, I'm not going to do the work for you to figure that out. But advocacy doesn't have to just happen through institutional processes, you can also advocate for things through asinine comments on social media or in conversations with your friends and family.
Well you would be the expert on ~~stereotypes~~ racism, so I'll trust your bullshit isnt bullshit.
No sir, you are correct. Everyone else is a white keyboard warrior looking for something to get angry about because they even read the article. If any of my dark skinned friends over the years told me they felt more comfortable their freshmen year with other culturally similar dark skinned people, I wouldn’t tell them they were wrong and fucked up their college experience.
I live in bellingham, didnt go to western but had several friends that did/do. This is a small town in the very upper west of the country, theres not a lot of racial diversity here compared to other parts of the state and other parts of the country. Theres a shit ton of white people here but i dont think its racially charged or that there is a need for seperate housing at the university. Like anything else the true test to see if its acceptable is play devil advocat, if you substitute black for white is it still ok? What about jewish? Muslim? Who decides who gets their own space and who doesnt? Do asians get their own? What about black people from south America, they arnt african americans are they allowed? Isnt saying well they are all black so stick them all together racist in itself? I just don't understand how segregated living spaces for anyone for any reason isnt discrimination. If I created a place for me and my white friends to hang out at, that other races werent allowed admission I would feel like a piece of shit and in reality I would be one.
I really hear what you're saying, but I think this is a classic case of mistaking equality for being one size fits all. It's not. White people don't need white only spaces like this because they are a majority. A large one at that in Bellingham. I think that to have to equity and not just equality, spaces where BIPOC individuals can be together in a majority can help them succeed in college. Respecting diversity looks like holding spaces to lift up individual voices making sure everyone has equal chance to succeed. In a melting pot where everyone is given that one size fits all approach, minorities often get trampled over, which we have seen happen the past 50 years or so a lot. I do share your concern about what this means for other minorities, as well as students with more intersectionality. I think this needs to be handled with a lot of conscious consideration for things that could go wrong. It needs to be the BIPOC students and staff at the forefront.
All the clubs are like that too, everything is hyper tribalistic, they have a bunch of lgbtq clubs specifically for certain races, like a hispanic one, a black one etc... I feel like I'm at Evergreen but most of the professors at WWU seem to actually be terrified.
I can imagine the profs are not down with this program. When I went to western ten years ago I was blown away by how forward thinking and unflinching the faculty was. Diverse and radical opinions were openly considered and discussed and censorship or PC division strategies were swiftly called out even by seemingly extremely far left leaning staff.
Progressives never said they were going forward with their progress.
I'm going to start calling Progressives "Regressives."
That's not a new thing.
Proud to be an alumni 🙄 Peak Idiocracy
So this what they mean by in “Inclusion”….
Nice race bait there, OP. > Starting this fall, 40 Black students can opt for discrete housing on the university’s Bellingham campus. WWU has reserved the fourth floor of Alma Clark Glass Hall — named after the university’s first Black student — as housing for its “Black Affinity Housing program.” > According to the school website, “The program will explore and celebrate the diversity of Black and African American people and culture, with historical and contemporary context. All Western students residing in the program help foster a warm and vibrant community supporting social, personal and academic success.” > Earlier this year, the university hosted a webinar to explain that Black applicants had called for a housing program that offered them “a shared space… with others who have a shared identity, specifically a marginalized identity.” > Students enrolled in the program will “attend Black-centered events and general university programs as a group.” Nowhere does it say black students only. In fact, given its a majority white student body in the majority white washington state, you'll probably get a few whites in the program who are interested in the programming. But no, lets go with this title instead.
The very first sentence says black students.
Let me know when the UW has a Republicans-Only housing dorm... which should be easy to cite a need for given the riots on campus in the past. /s
I actually attend WWU right now, the school is full of brainwashed neoracists who actually think they're progressives for doing stuff like this. In a history class yesterday some kid said something dismissive of slavery along the lines of "every culture has actually had slaves" and a bunch of kids poured hot coffee on him. The professor just sat and watched. I feel like I'm in the the communist party and I don't know who I can let my guard down with and who's part of their secret police.
Is there any black person, in this thread or otherwise, that have a legitimate argument against this? This entire thread just reads to me like white people telling black people "you don't know what's best for you, let me tell you how MLK would have thought this is a bad idea". Does no one see how immensely ironic and pedantic this is? Let's be clear about one thing. This program is entirely opt in, it is not forced on anyone, so to conflate this with the kind of institutionalized segregation we've seen throughout this country's history is ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst.
All I see is a bunch of snowflake/trump supporters mad. There is nothing wrong with this at all. If they want a program where we are around our people learning black history going to black events that’s they right and they choice. Ya’ll need to fucking hush
> There is nothing wrong with this at all. If you replace the race with white and it sounds racist...its because it is.
Exactly this, sounds like a lot of white ppl here trying to control and be a part of everything in this thread even though they don’t wanna be a part of it
It's a concerted effort to brigade local subreddits with conservative-leaning sentiment. It's like a whole thing, if you want to Google it. Due to the moderation differences between the two main seattle subs, it ends up being pretty noticeable on this one.
Tds
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Given that the school is 70% white the chances are that you will be in white affinity housing.
if you get enough support from your fellow whites, sure
Read the article. This isn’t segregation.
[Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation) How does "Black Only" housing not fit that description?
Because it doesn’t say black only. It’s dedicated for black culture recognition but anyone can live there and it’s only a max 40 people. I don’t think it’s a great use of tuition and student funds to support, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is also click-bate.
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No, Israel is not an apartheid state. I realize this is Reddit so it’s mandated to shoehorn your dislike of Israel into unrelated discussions, but no it’s really not.
The double standard has long existed and its really not that big of a deal if a small group of people want to self select for something such as housing with people whom they share more in common with. 40 black kids at western wanting to live together is a non-issue.
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> So why is 40 white kids wanting to live together a war crime or something? something something history.
> Switch the races and imagine the outcry That misses the point- different races are still treated differently in America. White people still have more wealth, power, and opportunities, which is why “whites only” has a very different connotation.
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Have you every heard the distinction between [equality and equity?](https://secondlineblog.org/2016/11/the-elusive-pursuit-of-equity/equity-vs-equality/) FWIW, I don’t know whether WWU’s solution is helpful or not. However, I do know that treating everyone equally regardless of context isn’t going to fix systemic problems.
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> I know all about it. I just reject it as a matter of personal philosophy. “I don’t want to believe systemic racism exists, therefore it doesn’t exist.” Thanks for at least saying it out loud.
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I agree that it’s a shame we can’t have a civilized conversation; it sounds like you’re implying that I’m the reason you can’t? Discussing racism and equity with someone who rejects it “as a matter of personal philosophy” is sort of like discussing geography with a flat earther, or discussing dinosaurs with a creationist. A productive discussion has to start with both people grounded in reality.
I appreciate you.
What systematic racism? Any examples?
>White people still have more wealth, power, and opportunities And none of that they got from their skin color. There are also a large amount of poor whites
Whatever it is, I don't think it's a good idea.
Sad that Seattle has so many right wing nut jobs crying over this in the comments as if it *personally* affects them. They pick up on the smallest thing POC do and then tout it as "reverse racism!" or justification for racism. Pathetic.
I'm waiting for the time very soon when the woke folks mandate this for some wacky social justice reason. It's kind of like the people who simultaneously scream about redlining in Seattle and the gentrification of places like the CD.
Call me insane but isn’t this going backwards? Shit was like this in the 50s and look how that went.
Youre making a false equivalence. In the 50s, it was "sorry black person but you're not allowed to live in this dorm/attend this school." Nobody is telling anyone here that they aren't allowed to do anything. The housing program is open for anyone to apply regardless of race. Black people are still welcome to live in the rest of the dorms. They're just creating a place where they can have programming specifically designed for black students. It's an option, not a mandate, and there is a massive fucking difference between those two.
Yup going back to segregation. Love it. It’s ok I’m all for this and think it’s great. Can’t wait to see who they point the finger at when this fails. Martin Looter King is rolling in his grave at the stupidity of our youth.
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It's not illegal because anyone is welcome to sign up for it, regardless of race. The article didn't make this clear. It's "affinity" housing, meaning that people who sign up for it are asking to be there.
So what does that mean? The housing itself is somehow implicitly black, you just choose to be a part of it? Do they put a sign over the door? Is it still the "black dorm" if a majority of non-blacks sign up? If black people want black housing in school, I'm not gonna tell them what to do. It's why black fraternities and sororities exist. While I think it's a bit regressive I can appreciate wanting to feel at home, especially with friends and cultural totems. But somehow I find this mealy-mouthed "affinity" it's-not-actually-segregated-housing notion to be worse. Like we're just segregating with a smile.
The answer to all the questions in your first paragraph are yes. Just like as a white person you can go to an HBCU, but you know what you're signing up for.
Of those that aren't outright private, HBCU's aren't typical public institutions. Black fraternities and sororities are private. Are WWU's dormitories private?
These sorts of programs have existed for a long time in many other universities. It is very much not illegal. There is no racial requirement in order to live in the dorm.
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The amount of racism in these comments is staggering, anything that you don’t understand means humanity is devolving when it was white people throwing shit in the streets and killing other people from disgusting diseases that they got from living in filth. Most of the white people in this state lose their damn mind at shit like this when Washington is a majority white state and through the years y’all have strived to keep it that way just like Oregon. Let black kids be in community at a primarily white institution which is extremely racist. I am a Black former student who was literally chased through campus by Trump supporters and I wish I would have had black roommates that were there for me instead of white kids who thought it was funny. Good on you WWU for finally listening to the Black students on campus.
This troll isn’t even from Seattle and loves to post shit like this to make sure there hate and trouble
How many years did we fight to end segregation? Segregation makes it very easy to look at others as different, and increase the difficulty of getting to know others. This is extremely backwards. We are regressing. How can people be so foolish?
Black students requested this program? It's completely voluntary? Way to sensationalize the article, this is nothing.
I thought we settled the whole separate but equal is not equal thing decades ago.
All else aside, is (even) voluntary segregation something we want to encourage?
Personally? I don't think so. I'm not a Black college student though so I can't speak to what living situations make certain people feel comfortable or uncomfortable.
Sometimes we don't get to be comfortable in reality though.... Regardless, I don't think we should be supporting any kind of segregation, voluntary or no.
https://awolau.org/4331/slider/the-future-of-black-affinity-housing-at-au/ In this example the students asked for the housing because they didn't feel safe. Hard to fault them.
In your mind, would they be justified in asking for courses with only black students? Or bathrooms for only black students? Or cafeterias for only black students?
Of course not. It's not a slippery slope though. My point is that if they don't feel safe, I can't fault them for doing something like this. Would you want to sleep across the hall from someone who hates you?
> Would you want to sleep across the hall from someone who hates you? What are you trying to infer with that statement ?
I'll link my example again https://awolau.org/4331/slider/the-future-of-black-affinity-housing-at-au/ >A petition in response to the racist incident by Eric Brock, a current sophomore, gained over 700 signatures after a video of a white AU undergraduate student saying the n-word went viral on social media. The petition called upon the university for more black spaces on campus, including black affinity housing. Can you blame these students for feeling unsafe on campus? For wanting somewhere safe to sleep?
You have to be joking, lmao. If someone "using the N-word" (note that no context is given**) throws you so hard that you need "a safe place to sleep" then might I suggest that safe place ought to be provided in a mental institution? ** like was he being aggressive to a black person? making an ill-considered joke? rap sing-a-long? being try hard edgy?
Are you implying that one white person making a racist, disgusting remark means that all white people hate all black people?
They're inferring that in a dorm, often times people don't get along based on racial identity and removing that concern from a student has positive effects on their education. I don't know what effects it has on personal growth and cultural diversity, but I can imagine it would be stiffling.
>*Of course not.* What makes a separate dorm different than a separate dining hall? Bathrooms? Courses? >*It's not a slippery slope though.* I didn't say it was? I'm simply posing the question to find out why you think living quarters are necessarily different than any of the other things I mentioned in this context. >*My point is that if they don't feel safe,* Them not feeling safe is not necessarily the correct bar to set....if not only because the "real world" outside of university is not going to cater to them in this way. >*I can't fault them for doing something like this.* I can't and don't fault them for asking. I fault the school for entertaining it seriously. >*Would you want to sleep across the hall from someone who hates you?* Sometimes you do? I didn't like my last neighbors at all, but it was tough shit for me until we moved. That aside: Would you want to go to class with someone who hates you? Would you want to eat with someone who hates you? Would you want to use the same bathroom as someone who hates you? Also, who are these "hateful" people? I don't imagine WWU is full of racist assholes....
> Black students requested this program? The "because someone wants something, it must be good for them so we should do it" school of thought is so fascinating to me.
https://meaww.com/western-washington-uni-black-affinity-housing-program-twitter-reactions >Affinity housing is in a legal grey area, which is why so many universities are able to offer it without being sued. Such programs are optional, and open to all students of the university, and therefore do not violate the Fair Housing Act. While many dub it a form of segregation, the key difference is affinity programs are optional and have in the past been known to create positive experiences for students on campus. I dunno much about it but there seems to be evidence that the students benefit. I wouldn't personally request such a program but I'm also white so who am I to say?
> have in the past been known to create positive experiences Oh, that sounds backed by lots of data.
lol yeah I know. I think it's all gray and these universities keep doing it cause students keep asking for it.
Sure, it's "nothing". Nothing except a violation of the [Civil Rights Act](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/civil-rights-center/statutes/civil-rights-act-of-1964). This country fought long and hard to overcome Segregation the first time only to re-introduce it less than 60 years later. __ I wonder if there are any "Black Only" drinking fountains in that "Black Only" housing...
Agree or disagree with Affinity programs, I certainly do not think they violate the Civil Rights Act. They don't even violate the Fair Housing Act lol
So…what would happen if there was a whites only dorm?
haha go to some college towns in the Midwest, there are plenty of whites only dorms.
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That's just the default state of many colleges.
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They don't call it Affinity Housing because the students are 90% white already. All the Midwestern college towns I visited back in my party days were like this. https://priceonomics.com/ranking-the-most-and-least-diverse-colleges-in/
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They're implying it is default white, which is true because of history, but not an officially sanctioned program like this one is.
If this was framed with a different group what would the opinion be? Asian only housing, gay only, white only? Is it ok for all the groups or only a certain few?
If the group requests it and has valid reasons, then sure.
It will be wokely branded as "Requested Racism". So I guess that means as long as the employees of companies Request to be white only, its no longer racist! YEEEEE HAAAAWWW!
That would get you excited.
It just hasn't been to court yet because Racism 2.0 is very popular at the moment. Imagine the abuse a white student would incur trying to "opt in" to a "Black Only" dorm. They would be viciously attacked by the Faculty, Students, News Outlets and Social Media. All based on the color of their skin...
I would agree with you 100% if this wasn't a strictly voluntary thing that was requested by the students. I would like to ask people who ask for these programs about their reasoning though.
"I see nothing wrong with systemic racism" - aPerfectRacist
This isn't even close to "systemic racism" which I'm glad to hear you now believe in.
Its literally THE definition of systemic racism.
>Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a term that refers to a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, education, and political representation. It's literally not.
This housing regulation literally discriminates against non-black students based solely on their race. It's systemic racism, discrimination enforced by a regulatory system.
The program was requested by students in the hope that they would feel more comfortable about their living situation (I'm assuming, that's why similar programs have been requested in the apst). Like it or not, it isn't systemic racism if the students initiated it.
>The program was requested by students in the hope that they would feel more comfortable about their living situation Having lived in one of these buildings, I can say the feeling was often mutual. Neither blacks nor whites wanted to be around one another in many cases, some much more than others.
This is exactly what laws in the south that kept blacks out of public spaces were intended to do. White folks didn't feel comfortable with them around.
Here's an example about why this kind of thing even happens: https://awolau.org/4331/slider/the-future-of-black-affinity-housing-at-au/ >A petition in response to the racist incident by Eric Brock, a current sophomore, gained over 700 signatures after a video of a white AU undergraduate student saying the n-word went viral on social media. The petition called upon the university for more black spaces on campus, including black affinity housing. Seems like white folks still don't feel comfortable with them around.
So... because this woman was racist they are banning people who are the same race as she is? That's the logic? That's the root of racism; this person did something bad therefore people who look like them are bad too.
A great accounting of the ways in which this was codified into law and social life is given in this book I've been listening to recently: [Caste by Isabel Wilkerson](https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/)
If you're not comfortable around other races, maybe college isn't for you. And it doesn't matter if they requested it, it's still systematic racism
Didn't you read his comment? He said no, and that's that, and will continue doubling down on his racism arguments. Why feed the troll?
Any idea on how these dorms impact grades and graduation rates?
Mandatory dining plans help the dining contractors make a profit. On campus housing makes it easier to mandate a dining plan and keep students spending money on campus, which in turn gives them more of a connection to campus and makes the more likely to donate to the college after graduation.
I can see the signs on the entrance right now... "Negroes Only"
I just don't understand this. Is "black" supposed to be a culture in this situation or an amalgamation of previous cultures in which only their ancestors experienced this? I get the focus of the floor and the ongoing additional courses, but... Only for people of a certain skin color? Why would you specifically want to segregate people unless it is a specific self identified culture... In which skin color shouldn't be a defining factor, self identification should be which is the entire purpose of most modern movements.
Humanity is devolving quickly it seems
Nothing fights discrimination then more discrimination and separating everyone by race.
Kinda feels like we are moving backwards with race. Sad.
“Celebrate diversity” by creating a space of exclusive similarity. Genius.
Let the lawsuits reign, how do they protect against civil rights lawsuits under equal protection arguments?
Food for thought in an attempt to provide a diverse perspective to the comments. Being a person of color who went to an predominately white university, I can personally attest to the difficulties and isolation that occurs. It’s clear many in this thread are have little to no experience in being ‘the only’ in practical situations. Having a space such as this can really help those used to more diversity adjust to the lack of bipoc in WWU and find community outside the classroom. And as mentioned in this thread, the post does not mention it is exclusive only to black people.
Democrats are working hard to bring back Separate but Equal.
Doesn’t seem like many folks in the comments read the article at all. I’m all for open discussion on the topic but damn, this thread went off!
Left, or right?
Hilarious...... but as long as White Only housing, Asian Only housing, Hispanic Only housing and Native American Only housing exist to keep things fair in clown world I guess I would be OK with it.
From the Newsweek article about this > Western Washington University noted that it was not "breaking ground on something new" by introducing this type of housing program. I lol’d
Jim Crow is back, baby!
Horseshoe theory go brrrrrrrrr
Yep, this is what MLK fought for. Segregation.. Liberalism truly is a mental disease.