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from the whatever-happened-to-DEsegregation? dept.
The Washington Times reports a story about protesters on the UC Berkeley campus physically blocking white students from accessing a bridge while police stand by and watch:
Students at the University of California, Berkeley held a day of protest on Friday to demand the creation of additional “safe spaces” for transgender and nonwhite students, during which a human chain was formed on a main campus artery to prevent white students from getting to class.
The demonstrators were caught on video blocking Berkeley’s Sather Gate, holding large banners advocating the creation of physical spaces segregated by race and gender identity, including one that read “Fight 4 Spaces of Color.”
Protesters can be heard shouting “Go around!” to white students who attempt to go through the blockade, while students of color are greeted with calls of “Let him through!”
Students turned away by the mob are later shown filing through trees and ducking under branches in order to cross Strawberry Creek, which runs underneath the bridge.
The protests were a response to a Safe Space being moved from the fifth floor of a building down to the basement.
[Original version of this story had "UCLA"; corrected to: "UC Berkeley" -Ed.]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday October 29 2016, @03:12PM
What exactly is a transgender safe space? What do people, er, do there? I assume this is different from support group? And wouldn't there be like a grand total of 2 people tops there at any given time anyway?
Ugh… GO TO HELL PROTESTERS! YOU AREN'T HELPING ANYBODY!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @03:31PM
In a safe space there is a hall of mirrors, and people can freely masturbate to their own reflections.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @05:00PM
Hall of mirrors reminds me of the waiting room in the office of a child psychiatrist. I only went in once to pick up my teen aged younger brother -- one or two walls were covered in 2" wide vertical strips of mirror with about 1" gaps between. The reflection that you saw was all chopped up, could even call it shattered. When the shrink came out I told him something along the lines of, "If you walked in whole, those mirrors might just fragment your self-image." His comment was that he'd never thought about his office decor at all.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:12PM
I remember that "decor" from someplace. I mildly disliked it. Why not just put a whole mirror up, so people might use it?
But, putting it in a shrink's waiting room? That sounds crazy. And, the shrink didn't even think about it? Crazier still.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @03:59PM
The Supreme Court restrooms [cbslocal.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @04:15PM
> I assume this is different from support group?
It is not. "Support group" is a name that doesn't fully describe all the functions. Safe space is closer. But its one of those names that assholes love to mock because of what they imagine it means.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Saturday October 29 2016, @05:35PM
It seems to be a pretty mock-able concept [reason.com]:
My mother is a nursery school teacher. Her classroom is a place for children between one and two years of age—adorable little tykes who are learning how to crawl, how to walk, and eventually, how to talk. Coloring materials, Play-Doh, playful tunes, bubbles, and nap time are a few of the components of her room: a veritable "safe space" for the kids entrusted to her expert care….
The safe space she created, as described by Shulevitz, sounds familiar to me [nytimes.com]:
The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma. Emma Hall, a junior, rape survivor and “sexual assault peer educator” who helped set up the room and worked in it during the debate, estimates that a couple of dozen people used it. At one point she went to the lecture hall — it was packed — but after a while, she had to return to the safe space. “I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs,” Ms. Hall said.
It's my mother's classroom!
(Emphasis is Soave's.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @05:41PM
Surprise! You found somebody mocking it for an article specifically about denigrating the idea.
You think that's meaningful? Really? How many times have you been mocked? Does the fact that someone set out to mock you mean you deserved to be mocked?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Saturday October 29 2016, @09:19PM
This instills a controllable amount of fury in me. If someone can't stand that the entire world doesn't revolve around them, they really should log out of reality, they'll have a hell of time here.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @09:41PM
>> “I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs,
>
> This instills a controllable amount of fury in me.
Doesn't that phrasing sound weird?
I mean, really? Who talks like that?
Its like a script. A script written by someone trying to caricature the ideas they disagree with.
Maybe that should give you pause.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:35PM
So you can't accept the existence of people who believe idiotic things if they take concepts such as safe spaces to a level you wouldn't take them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:06PM
Oh I am sure there are people who take them to crazy places.
I just don't believe that people speak the way that woman was quoted.
I mean what a coincidence that the author of the article just happened to interview someone with such a weird speech pattern who is also crazypants.
Right?
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Saturday October 29 2016, @05:20PM
Looking up this new-fangled term, it does seem to have a definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space [wikipedia.org] but it still doesn't make much sense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @06:24PM
> Ugh… GO TO HELL PROTESTERS! YOU AREN'T HELPING ANYBODY!
That's funny. You are advocating for a safe-space for people who prefer the status quo.
Keep them safe from having to deal with people who want to protest the status quo.
Irony much?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @08:24PM
And by "protest", you mean "bar access to public property based on skin color", right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @08:42PM
And by "protest", you mean "bar access to public property based on skin color", right?
Lets assume that was what actually happened there. It isn't, but lets go with it anyway:
That would still be a space safe from bigotry.
Either you buy into the idea of safe spaces or you don't. But once you start picking and choosing which safe spaces are legitimate and which aren't, you've given up any standing to criticize the concept of safe spaces.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @09:27PM
Yes, let's, because that appears to be exactly what happened.
"Safe space" is a collectivist code word for so-called moral theft; if you want space that you control, pay for it out of your own pocket.
Incidentally, since the maximum authority government has is limited to no more than the maximum authority a single random person inherently possesses, the taxation funds used to "buy" these fought-over public spaces were almost entirely stolen. Tragedy of the Commons is more the foundational issue here than people of various skin colors behaving like selfish idiots.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @09:43PM
Ok, you're a whacko. Thanks for clearing that up, but next time just lead with the craziness, ok? Save us all a lot of wasted effort.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:09PM
Trying to kick, scream, and beguile your way into controlling the "magic club" of government with which to strike your foes has worked so well in the past. Why not examine the premises and let the ones that pass muster govern your viewpoints rather than trying to warp reality to suit your fantasy?
Much easier to simply dismiss as crazy the messenger whose message challenges your safe space. Whatever lets you sleep at night...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 29 2016, @10:22PM
I do NOT believe in "safe spaces". Once you've left kindergarden, it is up to you to adjust to the world around you.
If you want "safe spaces" then you have to understand and forgive the dominant white people in the early 1900's for barring black people from white society.
Or, to be more blunt, you're just trying to justify racism because it's the "other race" being racist this time. Racism is racism. As a little boy, I was taught racism. It didn't take real firmly, but I was taught it. "Those people" just weren't "as good as us". My years in the service taught me that skin color don't mean diddly - I've been screwed over by all races, and people of all races have had my back when the crap hit the fan. Color means NOTHING. It's the man or woman inside that skin that counts.
I would thank you if you would stop justifying modern racism. This shit is likely to lead to a race war.
Ask yourself - which race probably has the most guns? Do you REALLY want to see that kind of thing happen? All it takes is backing the modern-day pariah into a corner. He'll start shooting in fear and self defense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:27PM
> I do NOT believe in "safe spaces".
Why does whatever you believe matter in the least?
What makes your opinion worthy of citation?
The rest of your post is apparently a violent fantasy that you hope to act out. So... not doing much for your credentials I'm afraid.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 29 2016, @11:37PM
You are racist, so your opinion doesn't matter. credentials? WTF does AC know of credentials?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @06:23AM
The line from the 2nd Ghostbusters: "He is Runaway! You are like the buzzing of flies to him! The scourge of Arkansaws, the sorrow of Texarkana, the Prince of Fox News! Bow down before him, and weep! For Runaway has an opinion!!!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 30 2016, @07:03PM
I hereby dub thee Adhominem Coward.
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Sunday October 30 2016, @09:45AM
From what I understand, it's a place where the norm is assumed to be inverted. Apparently, the ur-example is the gay bar. Or a place dedicated for a minority to eb the presumed majority. And you know, that doesn't sound horrible. People need to associate with likeminded people, even if going too far leads to a pure echo-chamber. Like everything, there's a balance between "Jack having to deal with Greg (who's an asshole 'casue 1st amendment) 24/7" and "Jack has to deal with Greg in the class they share",