Premium

University of Washington to Adopt Racially Segregated 'Affinity Housing'

AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson

The University of Washington’s Seattle campus is coming under fire for its embrace of racial segregation. The university is reportedly sectioning off housing specifically for Black students by the fall of 2024.

This practice, oddly known as “affinity housing,” is ostensibly intended to create a more welcoming environment for Black students who find themselves wanting to avoid White people.

In other words, the government educational institution is enforcing racial segregation in the name of something woke. In an email, Director of Residential Life Vicki Vanderwerf indicated that “the idea was first proposed last academic year,” and explained that it was “requested by students with the goal of building community and a sense of belonging for UW students":

Housing & Food Services created partnerships with the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D), the Black Student Commission (BSC) and the Black Student Union (BSU) to ensure they could collaborate to create a welcoming space for Black students.  

Magdalena Fonseca, director of the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center, was invited to represent OMA&D, which supports students who are first-generation college students, or who come from historically marginalized communities. OMA&D provides academic counseling and constructive support for students.

“It was a natural idea to invite the OMA&D staff to help inform what college students are going through, specifically Black students on campus,” Fonseca said. “That’s how I got invited to be a part of the conversation, so that I can add a perspective from a professional, educational standpoint.”

Fonseca said then-undergraduate Calen Garrett, who had experience as a resident adviser in campus dorms for a year and an assistant resident director for two years, first brought up the idea of Black affinity housing. Garrett was also the BSC director of ASUW from 2022 to 2023.

Fonseca says that BSU and BSC were very involved in the process for the Black affinity housing. “The voices of students, particularly Black students, were always considered and at the forefront when creating the space.

“As an assisted resident director as well as the BSC director last year, I think Calen got a really good perspective of the experience of Black students on campus, in a variety of different spaces, and, in particular, the residential halls,” Fonseca explained.

So, in essence, some Black students requested that the school provide segregated housing and the university basically decided, “Well, sure it directly goes against the Constitution, but a little segregation never hurt anyone, right?”

Fonseca argued that “There aren’t a lot of spaces where Black students can feel safe and feel like they can find others that look like them or share similar cultural experiences and backgrounds.”

She also acknowledged that some “have a perspective that creating a special affinity housing group might be seen as segregation” but stressed that the housing isn’t something to fear, “but something to embrace.”

It has been quite some years since I attended college. But even without social media and other technology to connect people, there was never any difficulty meeting up with people of all backgrounds. The notion that a university would need to enforce segregated housing to help Black students hang out with one another is ludicrous on its face – and goes against what the Constitution says about using government to facilitate or enforce racial segregation.

What is truly ridiculous about this idea is that if Black students, or those of any other race, want to hang out solely, or mostly, with people who come from the same background, they can simply do so outside the purview of a government school. There is nothing stopping these individuals from voluntarily segregating themselves in other areas without the school being involved.

The reality is that initiatives like “affinity housing” are merely ploys used by White progressives with a savior complex who believe that by establishing segregated housing, they are somehow helping the downtrodden put-upon melanated students. In reality, they are only breeding more division. Of course, that seems to be the point, does it not?

Recommended

Trending on RedState Videos