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That's a separate argument, however. We can disambiguate the "Safe places are necessary for non-privileged groups to have an area where they are predominant me

That's a separate argument, however. We can disambiguate the "Safe places are necessary for non-privileged groups to have an area where they are predominant members and the space is catered to them rather than the predominant culture" - examples would include a place like a gay bar or youth group, or a club that is only of one ethnicity - and "we should expect a college to be a safe space." A college that is governed by the predominant culture cannot be a "safe space." The redefiniton, then, is that college spaces should be a place where one's group should be default be treated with respect. That is, we make it "more safe" to exist without prejudice. If we want to argue that a college space isn't a place where people are by default treated with respect, that's an argument that can be made, but it's not germane to the original argument that people expect to have private, safe, spaces to communicate via the web. The "friends" or friends-subset restriction that Facebook makes is that private/semi-private "safe" space. The open web does not have a great equivalent. (Password-protecting is insufficient - we would need some sort of Mozilla Persona system and for various reasons, that never caught on.)

goatlover 9y ago
> A college that is governed by the predominant culture cannot be a "safe space." I disagree with this line of thinking. College shouldn't culturally be a "safe place". It should be physically safe, but culturally? You should be challenged when you go to college. This "safe place" idea could apply to anyone. Should the highly religious, sheltered home schooler feel culturally safe at college from the predominate culture that went to schools with other kids and were exposed to different views? Of course not. > If we want to argue that a college space isn't a place where people are by default treated with respect Treating people with respect is different from exposing them to ideas that might challenge their beliefs, or might be culturally different.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  "You should be challenged when you go to college." Challenged is an entirely different beast than being told that you don't deserve to be there, that you don't deserve the same basic human rights of others, or being told that you shouldn't exist. THOSE are the things that "safe spaces" are meant to provide respite from.

goatlover 9y ago

> A college that is governed by the predominant culture cannot be a "safe space." I disagree with this line of thinking. College shouldn't culturally be a "safe place". It should be physically safe, but culturally? You should be challenged when you go to college. This "safe place" idea could apply to anyone. Should the highly religious, sheltered home schooler feel culturally safe at college from the predominate culture that went to schools with other kids and were exposed to different views? Of course not. > If we want to argue that a college space isn't a place where people are by default treated with respect Treating people with respect is different from exposing them to ideas that might challenge their beliefs, or might be culturally different.

s73v3r_ 9y ago
"You should be challenged when you go to college." Challenged is an entirely different beast than being told that you don't deserve to be there, that you don't deserve the same basic human rights of others, or being told that you shouldn't exist. THOSE are the things that "safe spaces" are meant to provide respite from.