Bama protests demand segregated ‘safe space,’ mandatory ‘freshman diversity course’

As race-related protests swept college campuses nationwide late last year from the University of Missouri, Dartmouth, Yale, and Michigan — similar events at the University of Alabama flew under the radar.

Tuscaloosa was once a city plagued by segregation and tension. Many Alabama schools did not begin desegregating until 1964, roughly 10 years after the Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. In 1963, Governor George Wallace made his famous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door,” in a futile attempt to prevent two African-American students from becoming a part of the University of Alabama. Clearly, Governor Wallace failed, and so did segregation.

Currently, 12 percent of the student population at the University of Alabama are African-American. Last year, students came together to form “We Are Done UA,” a group of “concerned students and faculty demanding that The University of Alabama seek new ways to address issues of racism and discrimination.”

One of the leaders, Amanda Bennett, said that the formation of the group has been a gradual collection of stories and experiences, as opposed to others that sprung up in response to specific events. Similar to the student groups at other universities, “We Are Done UA” has made a list of demands ranging from “safe spaces” to the formation of an organization to effectively “report hate crimes and sexual assault on campus.”  Below is a list of the group’s demands, as promoted by their Twitter account.

Bennett said that “safe spaces” differ from the segregationist policies that plagued America until the 1960s.

“What we really wanted and what we have gotten now is called the intercultural diversity center,” she explained. “That’s a place where (a) students of color and (b) students and women can come during the day, get homework done, work on computers, technology, things like that, but also a place where, you know, a straight white man or a Christian can come in and ask questions of the staff or people there and say, ‘Hey, I don’t really know about Black Lives Matter; I don’t know about, you know, gay rights…How can I get some information about that?  And really talk in a way that is not confrontational, that’s respectful, that’s really casual, kind of spur-of-the-moment, and an organic environment.”

Bennett explained that “safe spaces” act as a kind of equalizer for the existing power structure that does not allow people of color or women to advance at the same rate as others.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted in November at the height of student protests across the nation, found that 40 percent of millennial Americans believe speech that is offensive to minorities should be limited. However, Bennett claimed that her group favors the right of free speech for all.

“You can say the N-word if you want to, but be ready to have a conversation about the history of that word and why that is problematic,” she said. “You can have the Confederate flag hanging up if you want, but be prepared to defend why and the history behind that.  So, do what you want; be prepared to be critiqued and asked questions about it.”

The University of Alabama group held a sizable protest last November that marched across the main quad with cries of “we shall overcome,” and a banner stating: “We are here. We are loved. We Are Done.” The group is planning more activism in conjunction with Black History Month in February. Bennett said that her wish, and that of the group, is for people “to come out and just hear us out so that we can engage in a dialogue respectfully.”

The effect of their cries has been limited, but not nonexistent. Due to the group’s outcry over portraits, statues, and buildings that depict or are named after individuals with a history of supporting racist ideals, the university has begun to take action to “make a more inclusive and welcoming campus,” according to emails sent to students by UA President Stuart Bell. The school has since removed a portrait of John Tyler Morgan, a former confederate general, U.S. Senator, and member of the Ku Klux Klan. The group has also petitioned to diversify the Strategic Planning Committee on campus, in order to make sure that the committee is being inclusive, and fulfilling its role of representing all groups on campus.

2015 was a year in which campus protests on the issues of race, gender, and equality really began to proliferate. Undoubtedly, “We Are Done UA” and others have more to come this year.