Group of Pitzer College Students Refuse to Live With Whites: ‘Don’t See How This Is Racist’

A group of Pitzer College students are looking for students to share off-campus housing — but whites need not apply.

According to the Claremont Independent, Pitzer College student Karé Ureña posted on Facebook that she and some friends were in search of an additional roommate. She added that all potential roommates must be “POC [people of color] only.”

Pitzer College student Dalia Zada replied, “POC only?”

“Maybe I’m missing something or misunderstanding your post, but how is that not a racist thing to say?” Zada wrote.

AJ León, another Pitzer College student, replied, “This is directed to protect POC, not white people. Don’t see how this is racist at all…”

Sara Roschdi concurred with León, arguing, “People of color are allowed to create safe POC only spaces. It is not reverse racism or discriminatory, it is self preservation.”

Another student, Nina Lee, wrote that she doesn’t want to “have to tiptoe around fragile white feelings in a space where we just want to relax and be comfortable.”

“I could live with white people, but I would be far more comfortable living with other poc,” Lee added.

Student Jessica Saint-Fleur wrote that white students are a source of “trauma” for her.

“[W]hy in the world would I want to live with that? Bring that into my home? A place that is supposed to be safe for me?”

According to the Mission and Values section of Pitzer College’s website, the school aims for its students “to comprehend issues and events from cultural lenses beyond their own.”

It notes that the school “supports the thoughtful exchange of ideas to increase understanding and awareness, and to work across difference without intimidation. We have the right to be heard and the responsibility to listen. Communication, even at its most vigorous, should be respectful and without intent to harm.”

(H/T: Campus Reform)

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