It’s Not Your Space — And That’s Okay
By RU Student Life storyteller Scott Walsh
Imagine there is a support group for women who have been victims of sexism, harassment, abuse. In notices for the group meetings, there is an intentionally vague description by whoever is running the group, so that no matter the problem any self-identified woman has faced, they are made to feel like this is a safe space.
And then imagine two male journalists show up, making every woman there feel like they are participants at a freak show. They want to document and publicize and monetize your tragedy, and when you turn them away because they are not here to discuss making the world a safer space, they turn the conversation around and make it look like they are the victims here.
This sounds completely unreasonable; but, unfortunately, it’s a very real example of when safe spaces are taken from those who use them. Recently, two Ryerson journalism students, both white, showed up to a meeting of the Racialised Students Collective, and were shocked when they were asked to leave. The two students themselves disclosed that they were not victims of racialization, but they were there to cover the meeting for a story for a class. In the aftermath of their being asked to leave, Ryersonian journalists covering the issue neglected to mention that this was a support meeting, and portrayed the Racialized Students Collective as trying to exclude people from their event for no reason other than because they could. The story was subsequently discussed in this Blog TO article, which described some of the issues that were missed in the Ryersonian’s account of events.
I know I’m not crazy, per se, but I might be a tad reactionary. After thinking this through, I still don’t think my example above about a women’s support group is an unfair comparison. White journalists coming into a safe space for students that have been victims of racism leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I thought I wouldn’t be alone in that, but the comments left on other articles and all over the social media-sphere say things like “This is serious. They should be expelled immediately. There’s no room for this kind of hatred and ignorance in our society.”
This is not “reverse racism”, as so many others are inclined to believe. I’d even question if this was a matter of race. If I tried to take notes on an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and wasn’t allowed, would I be a victim of sober-shaming? No. I would be an asshole. Because other people’s struggles are not mine to exploit for something as, at the end of the day, unimportant as a grade.
What’s far more significant is that people have a safe place to discuss their struggles. Sometimes, just sometimes, you want to discuss problems that affect YOU without talking about how they might affect others — for example, being able to talk about violence against women without having the subject derailed into violence against everyone.
Think about your reaction to this idea of a safe space; a place where you are not welcome, either explicitly or implicitly, because your presence disrupts the goals of that space. That feels hurtful, doesn’t it? Now imagine that that place was society, and you had to carve out your own safe place everywhere you went. Don’t you feel more empathetic to the idea that some people might want three hours where they don’t have to worry about being victims of racialization?
Instead of taking this as a chance to learn about the concept of a “safe space”, many readers seem to be making conclusions about how difficult it must be to be white... Completely ignoring that there exists a group that regularly meets to discuss times they have been victims of racism, and the barriers they experience on and off campus, and that people who are white have thus far not needed such a group.
In response, The Racialised Students Collective has decided to have a night dedicated to exploring the idea of “reverse racism”. I think that that’s fantastic of them, but I thought we had gotten to a point in our lives where people understood that treating people equally did not mean treating everyone the same — that’s the difference between equality and equity. Apparently we have not, but for those of you who read this and were immediately appalled at the idea that white students couldn’t go into an area on campus, you might want to attend this night — you’re more than welcome to.
Updated: GlobalNews covered the story, and one of the students involved has described how though she initially felt confused and upset when asked to leave, she’s since thought more about how safe spaces are important. Read more, here.
