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Student Activists at Syracuse U. Demand Right to Choose ‘Same Race’ Roommates

Student Activists at Syracuse U. Demand Right to Choose ‘Same Race’ Roommates

“Agree to offer a ‘Same Race’ option for roommate selection on the housing application for all students.”

These are left wing students who are supposedly fighting racism. Is irony still a thing?

The College Fix reports:

Syracuse activists demand right to exclude potential roommates because of their race

Diversity and inclusion isn’t going so well at Syracuse University.

In response to anti-black and anti-Asian graffiti found in a bathroom and bulletin board in a campus dorm last week, students are holding a sit-in and making several demands of the administration, according to The Daily Orange.

One of those demands: the ability to deny roommates based on their race.

It shows up as No. 6 on a poster in the Arch building where the sit-in is taking place, as documented by Daily staffer Casey Darnell, and No. 1 on the protester’s “long-term” demand list: “Agree to offer a ‘Same Race’ option for roommate selection on the housing application for all students.”

Other long-term demands: hiring more counseling to “represent all marginalized identities” (not defined), “a building for multicultural offices, organizations and programs,” and $1 million for a “unified, required” curriculum on “anti-racism” and other diversity issues.

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Comments

I am so very proud of my alma mater. /sarc

So they are asking for segregated room assignments? Do they realize they are asking for that?

Morning Sunshine | November 14, 2019 at 3:59 pm

so if a white student checks “same race” are they going to be called out for being racist? And what if 2 white kids are placed together who did not pick “same race”, are they going to be accused of being racist anyway?

Are they also going to push for vandalism expulsion when one of their own turns out to be involved?

One of those demands: the ability to deny roommates based on their race.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. They should be allowed to pick their roommates on any basis whatsoever. It’s called “freedom of assembly”. And the fight against that by the “civil rights icons” was one of the elements that allowed tyranny to stick its toe in the door.

(I don’t condone racism as a practice or an attitude, but I also don’t think the gov’t has any business telling you (pro OR con!) who you can and cannot do business with or any other sort of mandatory bean-counting. Not in a free republic. “Public accommodation” is baloney.
(Gov’t, OTOH, should never be allowed to discriminate at all, neither race nor any other factor, in terms of the law.)

    Milhouse in reply to GWB. | November 14, 2019 at 8:14 pm

    Freedom of assembly doesn’t seem relevant here. I think you mean freedom of association. You have that when it’s your apartment, not when you’re living in a government dorm.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to GWB. | November 15, 2019 at 8:35 am

    Freedom of assembly officially died with the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

    ConradCA in reply to GWB. | November 15, 2019 at 12:02 pm

    The school should ignore race when assigning roommates. If 2 students request to be roommates the school should allow it.

    This gives freedom of association and doesn’t have the school facilitating racism.

Well, let’s take that to its logical next steps – an option to live in a “same race” dormitory, to attend “same race” classes, have “same race” teachers and instructors, and finally, “same race” entertainment and campus events. Heck, let’s go whole hog and revert back to the ’50’s and “same sex” campuses. Whose idea was it to call these idiots “progressive”?

    RRRR in reply to txvet2. | November 14, 2019 at 8:13 pm

    Sorry, txvet, the situations are not the same. In classrooms and entertainment venues, you are not sharing close quarters with another individual, sleeping and dressing in the same room, sharing a bathroom, etc. But certainly, men and women should be allowed to specify “same sex roommate” (if not same sex floor or dorm), and any two students (or more for larger rooms) should be allowed to specify that they have chosen each other as roommates. Arguably, students should also be allowed to specify roommates of the same religion to minimize friction that arises from observances. But no other limiting choice should be allowed.

      Morning Sunshine in reply to RRRR. | November 15, 2019 at 10:07 am

      and what if a young woman is assigned to a genetic male who thinks he is female – will she have the right to refuse that roommate?

      Morning Sunshine in reply to RRRR. | November 15, 2019 at 10:09 am

      as to choosing roommates by religion – my college assigned two young ladies from India to be freshmen roommates, after all they have a lot in common, right? One was Muslim and the other Hindi, both straight from India. oh boy. That was worse than putting the daughter of a Methodist minister with a Mormon girl fresh from Utah LOL

      txvet2 in reply to RRRR. | November 15, 2019 at 8:29 pm

      During my Freshman year in college, my next door neighbors, a couple of seemingly nice guys with whom I never formed a particularly close relationship, were subject to an incredible amount of harassment from other students on our floor, mostly anonymous stuff like gluing a matchstick or toothpick in their doorlock. It took me forever to figure out what they’d done to deserve such nasty treatment. I finally figured it out: they were Jewish. Bet you can’t guess the defining characteristic of the fraternity they joined. I think there’s a pretty good chance that they would disagree with you that it’s a different situation.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to txvet2. | November 15, 2019 at 5:30 pm

    It seems that all worked just fine. Where are the problems?

    Ummm, they already have segregated dorms. Self segregated, but segregated all the same. Brewster/Boland are “heritage” dorms. If you walk into the lobby and you are white, you’ll stand out quite a bit. I did a web search to figure out when that started, as I recall it was in response to AfAm student activists’ demands, but apparently they keep it on the down low because I couldn’t find any official acknowledgement on their web sites.

    Attended SU in late 70s – it wasn’t the case back then. Worked at a pizza place in the 90s that delivered to the campus, it was definitely in place then. Drivers would groan if they got deliveries to those two dorms. I once worked a driver shift and found out why – stiffs happen even at at a university like SU where the annual tuition exceeds a drivers annual income – but that’s the only time I ever recall going to a dorm with six deliveries at once and making less than a dollar in tips total. “Keep the change” isn’t usually quite that literal – as in “keep the change from a quarter”….

I assume this will be offered until they notice white students checking the box, whereupon it will be rescinded.

The group has a list of demands to SU administration, including to expel any student involved in the vandalism and racist graffiti at Day Hall.

For once I agree with them. The administration should promise now that if and when the vandals are caught they will be expelled, no matter who they are. I’m just surprised these people are demanding it.

And of course this policy must apply to other vandals as well, or it would be viewpoint discrimination.

    Agreed. Totally down with expelling any student found responsible for the described graffiti. As long as it includes liberal or minority students who did it themselves “to bring attention to racism on campus”. If fake “hate crime” is discouraged it also discourages actual cases, if you need a reason to discourage “he/she MEANT well” incidents…..

Do they have a Gibsons Bakery there, because this is pretty much Oberlin about 5 years ago. I want them to be able to take it to the next level.

Hhhhhhmmmmm separate, but equal. pretty sure that has been out of fashion for a while now. Also, why are these students so obsessed with reinstating jim crow?

Hhhhhhmmmmm separate, but equal. pretty sure that has been out of fashion for a while now. Also, why are these students so obsessed with reinstating jim crow?