Why watch SNL, when you can have all your satire from the NYU White Student Union page... oh wait, that's not satire. That's actually how they feel.
It is unclear who this page was started by, and what their aim is. In fact the page might not have even been created by an NYU student, but the end point is that the page's existence has caused a lot problems, bigotry and online debates.
The resting case is that the majority of PoC's, Europeans and Asians that do not agree with the NYU White Student Union (WSU) are a bit fed up, and they are trying to voice their discomfort with the existence of this page. The biggest argument that we have is that NYU supporters of this group (be it a fake group or not, it still has its supporters) do not understand that if you are the majority of anything you don't need a union. Being that NYU is a predominately white institution, the whole school is their "union."
The main question is, what purpose do white student unions serve? What is it about themselves that they want to better. The purpose of a union is to bring awareness about the marginalization that minorities face and to build a community where they can combat the injustice that is directed towards them.
Students are inquisitive of the validity of this group, and their supposed progressive beliefs they are trying to promote.
The White Student Union is claiming to be "systematically vilified," and that minorities are the ones responsible for all the crime that exist. This is not synonymous with people of color highlighting the dichotomy between the social injustices that exist. There is a reason as to why people of color are more "susceptible" to getting caught committing criminal activities, and if you don't know what these reasons are (i.e. racial profiling, social inequalities, unequal job opportunities, gentrification, food inequality, unequal education, not enough affirmative action etc.), then use Bobst as your holy resource to understand because I am not here to serve you with the explanation. The point of this is to emphasize that you can't base your judgments solely on what you assume to be true, without knowing why these things are perceived to be "true."
In short, believing these claims about people of color ultimately goads you to engage in Sartre's concept of "bad faith." Supporters of this union are not taking ownership of the effect that white supremacy and white privilege have on people of color, yet they still blame minorities for the statistics of crime rates.
Now to resolve all these common misconceptions for those who are tired of the community only supporting black people.This is to address those who use memes to belittle and ridicule the struggle to fight for social equality people of color face, and to address those that believe that people of color are “uneducated, poor, thugs, and undeserving of help," the Black Lives Matter movement serves to include black folk into the community because they are undeniably targeted the most. It is not that black lives and black rights are the only rights that matter and should be thought of, it is that they matter too. Saying that #BlackLikesMatter doesn’t mean other lives don’t. Obviously every single life matters. Like people who say, "Save the Rain-forests" aren’t saying "Fuck all other types of forests."
Now that isn’t to say that white people are all racist or evil, that's definitely wrong. In fact that wouldn't be any different than WSU's that claim that all minorities are susceptible to crime.
What is being said is that, by default white people live a different life– with that said, just their presence is unsettling (for lack of better words) because you just have to worry about the dichotomy that exists, differences that you only realize as you get older. Now that there is this White Student Union, the coalition seems to pose a threat to people of color that feel as though their rights don't matter and that they are being ostracized.
The problem that exists, and that NYU students are circulating on the web, is that white people do not need more representation. The existence of this group seems as though white people are trying to emphasize their privilege. White people don't need more opportunities, or a forum where they need to have their voices heard. There is no reason to emphasize that "white lives matter" as much as everyone else. From everyone else's perspective it seems as though people only give importance to white lives. It seems as though you are trying to make the dominant power more dominant.
I have never seen a group of people so desperate for attention that they claim to be marginalized and silenced in a society that will listen to the white attacker before they listen to the black victim. How can you claim that the white voice is silenced and "systematically excluded from discussion," when this is a predominately white institution.
Affirmative action exists to give people of color equal education opportunities so that they actually have their voices heard. For the WSU to claim that they are silenced and excluded on campus is a vastly far fetched claim when they are 33% of the population and blacks (5%) and Latinos (13%) only make up a total of 18% of the student body.
It is a shame that NYU's Black Student Union held a forum that was open to everyone in which they discussed the social inequalities and the racial issues on campus, and then shortly after the White Student Union was created. This fermented whites that support this ideology to respond by emphasizing their dislike towards the black community on campus.
As students of all races are trying to combat and address the issue that the union poses, some decide to deviate from the subject of social and racial inequalities and ignore it's importance and decided that giving attention to "dank memes" is the best way to deal with the situation. The new form of racism is not acknowledging that there is racism.
The White Student Union claims that "European-American students on college campuses face unique and immediate challenges that are ignored or even actively denied in today's cultural climate." This seems to be mocking the BSU's attempt to cultural inclusion and it is making a joke of a very serious movement.
As if having the presence of the page wasn't enough to unsettle the community, supporters of the page are proposing that non-whites have privilege, an absurd postulate.
Because God forbid that you are assumed to be financially stable. But, you know, at least people of color are attributed with being prominent ball players.
People in support of this union page, have taken the initiative to ridicule non-white students.
Thank you, for enlightening me on my current citizenship status. I don't think any one person is illegal, how on earth can a person be illegal? What causes people to become "radicalized" is the fact that they do not agree with certain societal norms and they choose to combat those issues, Black Americans, White Americans, Latinos, Asians ans Europeans alike.
Of course, no one knows who the creator of this Facebook page is, and whether or not the creator is a student, but the message non-supporters of this union have still stands. White people don't need a union, especially not one that emphasizes their privilege over minorities, and not one that believes that because there are minorities in their PWI that they are now being "systematically silenced."
No comments