Smith College Brings Back Racial Segregation
This is so sick.
Jeremiah Poff writes at The College Fix that Smith College has rolled out racially segregated housing:
A Massachusetts women's liberal arts college started offering students racially exclusive housing this year, following recommendations from the Residential Experience Working Group.Students don't have to be a member of that race to live there, however, according to a spokesperson. In fact, the college doesn't even ask what race applicants are.
Smith College appears to be trying to have its cake and eat it too, offering race-based "affinity housing" options without explicitly keeping out students who do not match the listed race of the housing community.
The board of trustees approved the working group's recommendations a year ago. One of them said Smith should expand beyond the "limited" affinity housing it already offers, which is not based on protected traits such as race.
Other recommendations included a formal student mentorship program for upperclassmen to mentor underclassmen, and improved conflict resolution.
The affinity-housing recommendation was based on survey responses, which showed that 86 percent of students supported "the idea of Smith offering expanded affinity housing as an option for some students, especially students of color." The first two houses are for black students and "students of color."
...The new affinity housing options were publicized last month by an anonymous Twitter account purporting to be a Smith College "insider."
"The message is loud and clear: skin color dictates common attitudes, likes, interests and culture," said the account. "Most people call this racism. Smith College calls it 'progress.'"
...When the working group suggested race-based affinity housing, it cited several existing houses offered to students, including the "French speaking community" and "substance-free housing."
Shared-interest housing is "NOT the same as race-based housing, where the college designates rooms or sections of dorms or entire dorms for students 'of color,'" the NYCRC's Meyers told The Fix.
When schools set up race-based housing, they'll add a caveat that it's open to all students regardless of race, said the former longtime NAACP official.
"Then the college sits back and HOPES no students of the 'wrong' race or skin color applies for race-based houses/dorms," he said.
I'm reminded of brave little 6-year-old Ruby Bridges who, in 1960, walked past racists into her elementary school, a one-girl desegregation force. She put up with some tough stuff: ostracism, vicious hatred. Tough for any adult.
Ruby Bridges today?
I spent so much of my time, the last 25 years, in schools all across the country, speaking to kids about my experience and trying to get them to understand that racism really has no place in the hearts and minds of our children. I believe that if we are to get past our racial differences, it's definitely going to come from our young people.
There are some, including the grossly misinformed President of the soi-disant Prager U, who think that integration is the liberal position.
Now hear this: forced integration is not a liberal position. The liberal position is to allow individuals to choose for themselves if they wish to segregate or integrate.
That said, I think Smith College is wrong here. The job of the college is to provide an intellectual space and teach the students a skill. Preferably something marketable, but that is no longer a criteria.
With this in mind, college campuses should be integrated communities. Students can decide for themselves when they are no longer students and living off campus.
Patrick at November 3, 2020 2:40 AM
Smith may as well be the capital of Lapland. It's lilly white.
I don't know if there are enough non-white students combined to fill a housing unit, and at Smith that includes Italians!
monkey man at November 3, 2020 2:56 AM
When I was at Smith in the 90s, there was this student retreat for incoming first year students. We went to campground and did camp type things.
There was also a retreat for women of color so they could get to know each.
Which happened to be at the same time as the main retreat. So you couldn't go to both.
This ain't new.
NicoleK at November 3, 2020 4:14 AM
Patrick, Smith students can't live off campus unless there are special circumstances (like you're an older student or married or something). Living on campus is part of the experience, part of the deal. There are apartments available for seniors not wanting to live in dorms.
Students wanting an off campus experience don't go to Smith.
NicoleK at November 3, 2020 4:16 AM
@NicoleK: "There was also a retreat for women of color so they could get to know each."
I think they had the same sort of thing a few years ago. My middle daughter, being half Asian, was invited to a special women of color orientation, where, she said, lots of young Asian students with very expensive handbags were complaining about oppression.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at November 3, 2020 4:44 AM
Lemme guess, you can reject living with other races, but you can not reject having trans-women occupying your living space?
Oh: https://www.smith.edu/about-smith/equity-inclusion/gender-identity-expression
There are some ... who think that integration is the liberal position.
The people in the 60s and 70s who championed forced integration, including spending money on busing K-12 students all over creation to achieve racial balance in local schools, called themselves liberals.
I think that was a bit of lie. I think they were the hidden progressives. Only until fairly recently they ripped the mask off and came full circle to embrace their roots and Woodrow Wilson and retake the progressive mantle.
I R A Darth Aggie at November 3, 2020 7:26 AM
How likely is this to solve anything, given that communities expressly populated, educated and governed by blacks still blame others for their failures?
Money doesn’t fix it. Lowering standards everywhere doesn’t fix it.
Radwaste at November 3, 2020 7:27 AM
So what's new?
Ultra woke University of California Berkeley has had segregated (theme) dorms for years. Strangely, it has no living spaces that accommodate white males who just want an education and the piece of paper that opens up job opportunities.
The UC Berkeley administration, during janet napolitano's regime, instructed the campus police to support the self appointed POC's who barricaded the campus entrances and refuse entry to the white males who were enrolled in classes there.
Unlike other groups, whites do not enjoy the use of officially mandated safe spaces on University of California campuses.
University of California offers advisors and intensive free tutoring to anyone who is implicitly disadvantaged (not a white male or cis gendered white female).
Smith is only beginning to catch up with the policies of more woke institution of higher indoctrination.
Jack Nystrom at November 3, 2020 11:21 AM
Not to be outdone,
"The State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) is planning to hold segregated “listening sessions” Wednesday following the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
The sessions, the school advertised on its Instagram story, will divide students into two groups between the “People of Color Affinity Group” and “White Affinity Group.”
Spiderfall at November 3, 2020 12:53 PM
This just in: The KKK press office announced today that the organization has officially disbanded as academia has made their attempts at racial divisions irrelevant.
In a magnanimous show of diversity and inclusion, Universities have offered all KKK members with paid up dues positions as "Campus Segregation Specialists."
Jay at November 3, 2020 1:30 PM
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