Why Do So Many White People Get Upset by "Safe Spaces" for People of Color?
This article originated as a response to this Tumblr thread , where a lot of white people were upset by the idea of safe spaces for people of color, as described by this article by Aeman Ansari . A lot of white people who think safe spaces (and the like) are racist were raised with the idea that racism is resentment/bigotry against people of a different race than yourself. I know that I was. I believed that so deeply that when I attended my first anti-racist workshop in high school, I was incredibly defensive and didn’t listen. It took years to realize that what I’d been taught about racism was wrong. Not only wrong, but actually harmful. What we white people have been taught about racism in school and in our families is a lie that’s actually meant to stop progress in dismantling racism. - Imagine someone beats you and your friends up every day, and one day you say, “I can’t stand being beat up. I think me and my friends should get together and talk about how we feel about this an
