 |
Safe Space vs. Segregation: Perceptions of Race/Ethnic-Specific Law Student Organizations
| |
| | Unformatted Document Text:
woman who is involved in both BLSA and Student Government; she talks about how her
involvement in Student Government is colored by other students’ challenges to funding for
race/ethnic-specific student groups:
I’m in the Student Government, SGA. The experience there, just different political things: raising money, sometimes different organizations, and also [addressing] the question of why the Black Association on campus gets so much money. [Some people question] why certain groups, like maybe the Latino students [get funding]. And so it’s good that I’m on there so I can also say the reasons why that’s for that organization.
Maya, a Latina student member of LLSA, recounts conversations she had with white peers about
the issue of the campus climate generally and race/ethnic-specific student groups specifically:
Well, there’s definitely a typical theme. A typical scenario is, “So, you don’t feel comfortable at this law school? So, you’re just saying that you feel like people are racist? Well I don’t think I’m a racist, so you should feel comfortable. Don’t be calling us all racist,” which nobody has said. “You just want a place where you can all sit with people that look like you.” Then the response is, “We don’t all look alike.” So it’s just a general [debate] of, “You just want to self-segregate,” which is also offensive to us because segregation provides power to divide people up and not just having a safe place where everyone is welcome. Anyway, there’s just been a lot of anger, that’s what it is, flat out anger that students of color would feel unhappy here and it’s been tons of e-mails; finally there was an open forum, and even at that, the Deans that I meet with every couple of weeks are really upset about some things that were said there. Just the way race and gender and class were brought up was really insensitive. It’s just like always, you would think lawyers would think before they speak, one would hope that. But I don’t think they do. It’s just very easy for them. Then they’ll just say, “You’re being overly sensitive.” Like we shouldn’t feel bad.
Thus, white students and students of color alike struggle with the problem of characterizing
race/ethnic-specific student groups as pockets of safe space vs. areas of self-segregation. While
the tone of the white students’ narratives indicates that many have an understanding of why
race/ethnic-specific student organizations may be important for students of color, some see the
existence of these groups as potentially problematic, exclusive, and/or promoting segregation.
Conclusion & Implications
17
|
| |
| |
|
|
woman who is involved in both BLSA and Student Government; she talks about how her
involvement in Student Government is colored by other students’ challenges to funding for
race/ethnic-specific student groups:
I’m in the Student Government, SGA. The experience there, just different political
things: raising money, sometimes different organizations, and also [addressing] the
question of why the Black Association on campus gets so much money. [Some people
question] why certain groups, like maybe the Latino students [get funding]. And so it’s
good that I’m on there so I can also say the reasons why that’s for that organization.
Maya, a Latina student member of LLSA, recounts conversations she had with white peers about
the issue of the campus climate generally and race/ethnic-specific student groups specifically:
Well, there’s definitely a typical theme. A typical scenario is, “So, you don’t feel
comfortable at this law school? So, you’re just saying that you feel like people are racist?
Well I don’t think I’m a racist, so you should feel comfortable. Don’t be calling us all
racist,” which nobody has said. “You just want a place where you can all sit with people
that look like you.” Then the response is, “We don’t all look alike.” So it’s just a general
[debate] of, “You just want to self-segregate,” which is also offensive to us because
segregation provides power to divide people up and not just having a safe place where
everyone is welcome. Anyway, there’s just been a lot of anger, that’s what it is, flat out
anger that students of color would feel unhappy here and it’s been tons of e-mails; finally
there was an open forum, and even at that, the Deans that I meet with every couple of
weeks are really upset about some things that were said there. Just the way race and
gender and class were brought up was really insensitive. It’s just like always, you would
think lawyers would think before they speak, one would hope that. But I don’t think they
do. It’s just very easy for them. Then they’ll just say, “You’re being overly sensitive.”
Like we shouldn’t feel bad.
Thus, white students and students of color alike struggle with the problem of characterizing
race/ethnic-specific student groups as pockets of safe space vs. areas of self-segregation. While
the tone of the white students’ narratives indicates that many have an understanding of why
race/ethnic-specific student organizations may be important for students of color, some see the
existence of these groups as potentially problematic, exclusive, and/or promoting segregation.
Conclusion & Implications
17
|
|
 Convention | | All Academic Convention makes running your annual conference simple and cost effective. It is your online solution for abstract management, peer review, and scheduling for your annual meeting or convention. | | Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. | | Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! | | Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! | | Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. | | Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! | | Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! | | Click here for more information. |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
