Debate Flares After Black College Students Seek A Non-White Roommate

[MrScorpio]

40. The problem is based in how white supremacy functions.

Last edited Sat Aug 13, 2016, 06:32 AM - Edit history (4)

Essentially, how it centers and standardizes whiteness in such a way that it relegates non-whiteness to an inferior position in the social hierarchy. Unfortunately, most white people are completely oblivious to any of that and I wouldn't expect most white college aged people know this first hand.

The problem here is that being oblivious to white supremacist thinking and exercising one's down white privileges keeps these certain whites from understanding what they're doing and saying wrong.

After all, they've been raised for the relatively short period of their lives to believe that they're the good people. Raised to believe that they embody the standard of beauty that everyone else should look up to. That they're the very definition of "All-American." Unfortunately, rather than taking the precious time and effort that they need to apply to getting an education, some of these black students would rather not take away any of that to deal with white roommates who happen to be clueless about what kind of country they've been living in.

Not I'm not saying that all whites are problematic in this way... But the majority most certainly are. And even the ones who retain some level of self-awareness of their own degree of white privilege in a white supremacist society are still bound to fall back into old habits. One key problem is the fact that many whites, even liberal, well-lntentioned ones undergo some level of race based stress and exhibit white fragility whenever they're confronted by racial matters.

That shit is really, really frustrating for people of color whenever we have to deal with it. The easy way to get out of that problem is to avoid white people who are prone to going that way.

I'm quite sure that there are some whites who understand how problematic endemic white supremacy is and do what they can to fight it... But we're really talking about whites who have been deeply immersed into and accepting of black people and black culture. Whites who have had no contact, or have only had negative ideas about and negative contact with black people and black culture are going to be the worst people for a black person to deal with.

So, I can see where these black students are coming from. Is it unfair? Yeah, sure. However, it's not like these black students are going to be isolated from the overall problems of a white supremacist society by not having white roommates. The world isn't going to change any time soon. I can see how they wish to have a respite from dealing with it while they're putting all of their energy into getting an education.

Considering all this, one can see what the advantage of attending a HBCU is for a black student. But those schools are not cut out for all black students.