There is no such thing as a safe space
Illustration by Alanna Secrest
Think of a safe space, like a daycare. It is a place where parents can drop off their children to ensure they are miles away from danger. There are toys for them to play with, pillows for them to nap on, soft voices to soothe their nerves and Play-Doh for them to sculpt their feelings into neon existence. Really, college safe spaces are not that different. Except instead of an eight-hour stay, it is eight semesters, and rather than children, it is undergraduates.
Created as a means of protecting students affected by sexual assault, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination, campus safe spaces have become somewhat of a controversial fad. Those who contribute to and participate in these safe spaces insist they are the only places they can go to protect themselves from the triggers and toxicity college campuses and the rest of the world garner. But what could potentially be a therapeutic outlet for these young victims, instead traps them in a pretense of protection with a soundtrack of massage parlor music and repressed memories.
The fact of the matter here is that no space is truly a safe one and feeding that idea to vulnerable students is benighted. Nuclear bombs can destroy even the most technologically enforced of panic rooms if the range is close enough, and the same goes for young minds and the world’s ugliness. A way of coping would not be to provide a crutch masked as a social justice war tactic, but to fight for those who deserve a life outside of a single space and show them it is possible to survive in it despite the inevitable resistance.
Not only has the safe space concept become convoluted and retroactive throughout its short life, it has since grown to be easily abused as well. When college campuses create an excuse for students to skip class, tattle when they disagree with something someone is saying and receive special, infantile treatment, it will be utilized by those who by no means have a need for it.
Excessive misuse of campus safe spaces by young adults and their various motives will gradually pollute what has the potential to be a helpful avenue for students. Presenting it in such a melodramatic way will turn the idea into a punchline for some and coddle others.
Edinburgh University Students’ Association vice president of academic affairs, Imogen Wilson, was nearly removed from a student council meeting after a safe space complaint in which a student claimed she was making inappropriate hand gestures. Wilson argued she was simply raising her hand in disagreement. Whether this was the case or not, unless someone was physically injured by Wilson or on the other end of her middle finger: nothing of malicious intent had occurred. Wilson just unfortunately ended up becoming one of the examples as to how abusers of safe space principles use them as an excuse whenever they do not like what they are hearing.
The idea behind campus safe spaces has good intentions, but there is a difference between actually being victimized and merely feeling as if victimization is occurring. Being at the business end of a racial slur, a sexist remark or a homophobic insult are all things students should never have to be subject to. These instances are far different than someone merely having a different perspective on how trade should be handled in Papua New Guinea. Expecting people to be considerate of the very obvious reality that one may hold a different viewpoint on something is narcissistic, not safe.
College is a place for activism and speaking one’s mind. Opinions are formed in those four years of being an undergraduate that never would have formed otherwise because of the fact that students are exposed to opposition. Debates naturally get heated, politics sometimes bring out the worst in us and people get away with saying disgusting things on a second to second basis. Campus safe spaces only condition young adults to run and tell on bad people instead of speaking up and fighting for change.
Read on jackcentral.org