Last week outrage surged over the appearance of a White Student Union Facebook page associated with New York University. NYU later came out and said that the union was in no way associated with their university, but had been created by students on their own agenda. While many other WSU pages popped up, these had been determined to be hoaxes. The fake pages purposely posted racist comments and articles in order to spark outrage after the original NYU page has been released.
The original page did not post any of these racist comments, but despite this the validity is still up in the air due to the anonymity of the members. The union posted to their Facebook wall on November 22nd a message to derail any ideas that their group supported racism, "Just a reminder that this page does not support racialized hate of any kind. This page is about celebrating whiteness, not denigrating others. We hope that other groups can agree with this and come together to support all students of all colors celebrating their identity." Despite this, the outrage continues. But my question is, if the creators are not using their page to oppress other people, then why can't white students have a union?
As a caucasian college student, my first sighting of the Facebook page didn't even make me look twice. I had seen Black Student Unions, Asian Student Unions, African Student Unions—pretty much just about every student union you could think of. A White Student Union seemed normal: finally, a union I could join. But the amount of backlash was astronomical, and something that seemed perfectly fair in comparison to the other ethnic student unions was regarded as bad.
It is understood that the purpose of the ethnic student unions creation was to provide a safe place for people of a specific culture, and to create a community of students who can share and celebrate similar cultural identities. Back when many of these unions were founded, diversity on campus was an enormous issue. In colleges today, diversity is becoming more and more of a focus, and many colleges show a variety of cultures among their students. At a school like NYU, Caucasian students make up 35.8% of the student population (according to a 2013 report). White students may be the largest racial group, but that does not take away from the fact that the majority of student body as a whole are from different backgrounds or are international. If most of the whole population consisted of white students, the want for a white student union would not be valid, considering they would already be the majority of students attending the university. But in a day and age where diversity on campuses is considered very important, and the diversity of students continues to grow, the argument for a union for students of European descent gains more power as the percentage of Caucasian students on campus decreases.
The Tab conducted an interview with the alleged founder of the page, asking questions about his reason for creating the union and what some of the backlash has been like. The anonymous founder spoke to The Tab online after the page had been made public. A face-to-face meeting could not be scheduled because of the massive amount of death and violent threats that had been made to members, forcing them all into anonymity for fear of their safety.
The founder went on to say that the purpose of the group was to form a union that could be a safe place for white students with a European or American demographic. The union seeks to protect the rights of free speech, and to create equality on campuses.
Extreme forms of liberalism have taken place across most campuses and universities, and have begun to spark controversy because of the repression of conflicting views. Many students feel they can't properly voice their opinion because of political correctness. A video recently surfaced on the Internet dealing with this exact subject called "Modern Educayshun" by Neel Kolhatkar. The video mocks the bizarre forms of liberalism found in schools, and the lack of diversity in ideas due to it. Even President Obama, who is a large advocate of political activist movements, mentioned during in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa that college students are too "coddled" from opposing views, and expressed his ideas on diversity of speech with his words, "I've heard of some college campuses where they don’t want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative. Or they don’t want to read a book if it has language that is offensive to African-Americans, or somehow sends a demeaning signal towards women." He later went on to say, "I’ve got to tell you, I don’t agree with that either. I don’t agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of views."
Because of the modern political ideology, many students with European backgrounds are not given the same voice that students of other ethnic backgrounds are. If African, Asian, Hispanic or Arabic students can have a union, why can't white students? If it's racist for white students to tell black students they can't have a union, than why is it OK for ethnic students to tell white students they can't have an association? Seems hypocritical to me, and fairly ironic considering social justice activists campaign equality and the fight against oppressing a group by the color of their skin.
If social justice warriors truly want to create an equal country with no racial tension, undermining the views of anyone who does not agree with them is not the way. Silencing the views and voices of people who do not fit their agenda with the excuse of political justice is hypocritical and counterproductive. This is apparent with the shunning of the white student union, or other cases seen around the country that try to promote extreme forms of political correctness. A report last week done by the Daily Caller spoke of a student at Columbia University who claims to be traumatized by the amount of white literature they have to read, and many people agree with similar outlandish ideas such as this. Laws have been put into place to prevent police from using race as a way to help find and identify criminals, and many forms of media have been censored or dismantled because of political backlash. Apple has removed dozens of Civil War games from its app store that depict the confederate flag. A judge in North Carolina recently declared having a "choose life" license plate is considered unconstitutional and not allowed. To create equality we have to respect the views of all citizens, whether we agree with them or not. Not allowing students to assemble and create a club where they can feel safe and express their views because of the color of their skin is racism, and the idea that oppression and hardship can only affect students of color is racist as well.
I attend one of the most ethnically diverse colleges in America. The opportunity to be surrounded by different languages, cultures, and ideologies has been educational and rewarding. But when my own ethnicity is constantly receiving hate, or I am targeted as the source of racial oppression because of my skin color, or I am not allowed to freely express pride in my cultural background as a European white woman, I am not happy.
As a white student who is proud of their European ancestry, I advocate for a White Student Union.
