Clemson RAs Must Have a Commitment to Social Justice

Clemson RAs Must Have a Commitment to Social Justice

Clemson University has required future Resident Assistants (RA) to have a complete commitment to social justice. To make sure no one falters in that area, the school requires the RA to receive training in that area. From Campus Reform:

According to a job description for the position, the university asks its RAs to engage in “global citizenship” and as such are expected to remain committed to “social justice” while using “sustainable practices.”

Just to be certain, though, the school requires them to complete a nine-day RA training on issues such as microaggressions and common “defense mechanisms” used to fight “triggers.”

One RA, who recently completed the training but wished to remain anonymous, told Campus Reform that he and his peers were “encouraged to take note of microaggressions as RAs and confront the micro-aggressor about their use of language” during one training session.

According to the RA, participants discussed potentially microaggressive “phrases” such as “that’s so gay” and were encouraged to offer alternatives to their residents when such language is used.

“Sometimes we think about gay as a substitute for weird, silly, stupid, but is that really? And I apologize if using this word in this scenario is harmful to anybody in the audience. I should have clarified that, I apologize,” the proctor of the training session remarked, according to a recording obtained by Campus Reform.

“How long before this type of speech gets banned in the pursuit of banning all hate speech? I think this session was a front for a future endeavor to push a larger position of outlawing certain types of speech,” the anonymous RA remarked on his experiences.

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