Whether you're shopping around for colleges, in college or looking at grad school, 99.9 percent of schools brag about being diverse. First off, diversity is defined as: of a different kind, form, or character. Okay, so we're celebrating being different, nothing wrong with that. In fact, everyone has their own mannerisms, social skills and accents. Going to a college with diversity meant talking with some friends and all of the sudden I'm getting interrupted with "Say that again." At first we were all confused as of why these new friends couldn't understand a simple sentence. After I repeated it, I always knew why. "The way you say that makes you really sound like you're from New York." Nonetheless, in college I learned that I have a New York accent. But that's what diversity is all about, learning more about yourself and other people from other cultures. Diversity is the beauty of college. To those not in college yet, you will meet all kinds of people from all walks of life.
Now, let's talk about "Safe Spaces." These are places where a student can go if he or she is uncomfortable with another person's words or actions. Safe spaces have popped up in colleges all over the United States. Schools like University of Tampa, West Virginia University, Kent State University, University of Maryland and many others support this idea of safe spaces. Safe spaces are intended to provide an environment free from judgement.
The real issue is how we deal with adversity. When you are faced with words that hurt you, how do you react? Some get very defensive, very quickly and use their words as combat, while others are very quiet and do not say anything. What we need to do is learn how to deal with opinions and people that aren't always pleasant. Pushing young college students to run away from adversity instead of facing it is absurd.
Although some words of some people can be incredibly offensive, we shouldn't flee to a safe space for comfort. Fighting prejudiced and outright malicious people is never easy, and it never has been. What we need is not a "safe space" at a public university. We need to decrease the bystander effect and step in. If you see someone making rude or racist comments toward someone, you shouldn't need me to tell you to step in. So why aren't we doing just that? Creating safe zones is just hiding from the problems we face in America. Let's celebrate our diversity, not contradict it and silence opinions with "safe spaces." We need to step up as college students (AND HUMAN BEINGS) and make the environment more pleasant. Truthfully, if we do nothing, we are just as guilty.
