San Francisco State University is taking steps to provide an “inclusive” space for its African-American students, by offering them an “Afro-themed” segregated dorm floor.
The program comes in response to requests from SFSU’s Black Student Union, who wanted a “safe space” where they could talk about issues like those brought up by the Black Lives Matter movement. The University already has designated dorm space for STEM students, business students, and political activists, but this is the first dorm space segregated by race or national origin (though SFSU still says anyone is welcome to apply to live there).
SFSU is still reeling from a racially charged encounter that saw a white student with dreadlocks angrily confronted by an African-American student. The incident was captured on video and shows the African-American student yelling at the white student about his hair, and when he refuses to stop wearing the hairstyle, she reaches out and tries to grab him by the arm.
The African American student reportedly received credible rape and death threats, and racist messages when the video went viral. She also claimed, on her Facebook page, that she was “triggered” by the white student’s appearance and was trying to get him to “think critically” about the inspiration for his hairstyle, and what wearing dreadlocks might mean to other students.
The Black Student Union, who requested the segregated dorm area, responded to the incident by making a public declaration against “mass publication.”
Several other schools in the California university system already have interest- and minority-specific dorms, including the University of California at Berkeley and Cal State Los Angeles.
