White students get the boot for not being ‘racialized’
Organizers of Ryerson University anti-racism event spark controversy
Organizers of an on-campus meeting at Toronto’s Ryerson University have sparked comment worldwide after two students were barred because they were not “racialized.”
First-year journalism students Julia Knope and Trevor Hewitt were trying to attend a meeting hosted by the Racialised Students’ Collective when they were approached by an organizer.
“She asked them if they had been marginalized or racialized, and when they both responded ‘no,’ that’s when she said the meeting was only for those who felt they had been,” said Anne McNeilly, an associate professor at the Ryerson School of Journalism.
The students, who are both white, had been attempting to attend the gathering as part of an assignment by McNeilly to sit in on a public meeting.
“It seemed really ironic to me that the meeting was about racialization and they were prohibiting certain people from entering,” Knope told the student newspaper, the Ryersonian.
The Wednesday event, held in a small meeting room at the Ryerson Students’ Centre, was advertised as “a space to voice concerns and barriers affecting students of colour.”
The Racialised Students’ Collective is part of the university’s students’ union and states it “opposes all forms of racism” and aims for “an anti-racist environment” on campus. Posters for the event said it was intended for racialized students, a term that generally refers to non-whites, such as blacks, Indo-Canadians and aboriginals.
The posters did not spell out white students were not welcome.
“We’ve had six or seven meetings this year ... people have done a really good job of respecting the space and we haven’t had an issue like this,” said Rajean Hoilett, president of the Ryerson Students’ Union and a member of the Racialised Students Collective.
Like many university campuses, Ryerson routinely hosts events that are restricted to specific groups to create what is often referred to as a “safe space.”
The university’s recreation and athletic centre, for instance, offers women-only gym times.
The key difference with the Racialised Students’ Collective meeting, says McNeilly, is the gathering was advertised as being open to the public.
“The poster didn’t suggest that it was anything other than a public meeting, so that’s my concern when you start being selective about who can come and who can’t come in a public space,” she said, adding she was mostly concerned journalists had been barred from a public meeting.
Hoilett defended the measure, saying it was necessary to keep group members comfortable.
“Speaking as a racialized student, as a black student, the conversation looks very different for folks that are looking to talk about racism when they’re talking about racism among other folks that also experience racism,” he said.
The episode came to public attention last week when an article appeared in the Ryersonian.
By Monday, the story had attracted 100,000 views online and sparked heated exchanges on web forums around the world.
One top-rated comment on Reddit Canada noted wryly after the students had been asked to leave because they had never been marginalized, “they could have changed their answer to ‘yes, just now.’ ”
The high-profile incident also drove a trickle of comments to the Racialised Students’ Collective Facebook page accusing the group of being guilty of racism.
Speaking to the National Post on Monday, Hoilett rejected the criticism.
“To be clear, racism is a system of oppression. There aren’t broad examples in our society that speak to white folks being excluded from spaces ... because of their race,” he said.
“Really, what we’re talking about is a group of students who wanted to create a space for themselves that they don’t see widely on campus.”
People have done a really good job of respecting the space and we haven’t had an issue like this.