A radical leftwing organization called Native Movement is holding a racially segregated event at the publicly funded University of Alaska, Anchorage.
A notice for the Oct. 5 gathering at the UAA Native Student Services “safe space” states: “This space is open to indigenous identities only please.” In small print, however, the notice includes a disclaimer stating the University of Alaska “prohibits illegal discrimination against any individual.”
During the event, which runs 5-6 p.m. in Rasmuson Hall 108, students will take part in a “storytelling event and conversation about the impact censorship has on our intersecting identities and communities.”
According to the UAA website, Native Student Services provides a “safe, affirming space on campus for Alaska Native, Native American, and Indigenous students.”
The university program claims to be a space where certain ethnicities can “interact with people who share similar experiences as Indigenous peoples.”
The exclusion of non-indigenous people from the upcoming event is reflective of a wider belief popularized by those who ascribe to Critical Race Theory. A leading organization in this movement is the national BIPOC Project, which claims that America is “firmly entrenched in maintaining white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism” and that those who are black, indigenous or people color need “their own spaces without white people present, for our own safety and healing.”
Later next month, Native Movement is partnering with Ketchikan Pride Alliance on Oct. 14 for a “Decolonizing Gender Training.” The aim is to uplift “Indigenous worldviews of genders so we can heal from western colonial impositions of binary gender constricts,” while “unpacking the patriarchy, Indigenous feminisms, and Indigenous gender constructs” so that participants “walk away with a more fluid and expansive understanding of genders.”
9 Comments
I actually watched 2 hours of the 1619 project, which is the birth of the so-called critical race theory. In it, the author claimed that it was the African-Americans who actually taught about freedom in historical America. The utter twisting of events to match an attempt to re-write history has been used by so many groups down through centuries. It is the reason that we have no real idea of what has actually happened in our past and thereby seem doomed to repeat it.
You are incorrect about the genesis of critical race theory. Sociologists and other social scientists have been using ideas related to critical race theory since the early 1900s. W.E.B. DuBois is an early example.
What if a person identifies as indigenous but doesn’t present as indigenous? Will he be turned away from this event? Is there a safe space for him?
Some deeper thinking should be done to flesh out the paradoxical notion that segregation and “safe spaces” are necessary for “inclusion.”
The American Experiment grows more interesting by the day!
Another thought – when we cease to talk to each other and do not listen to one another we build artificial walls around ourselves and our groups. Civilizations have been destroyed in this manner. So when I see groups that advertise themselves as a haven for those who feel oppressed, whether they are native,or anything else, immediately I can see how these people are being used not to build bridges between fellow human beings, but to instead instill distrust to build fences and further divide us. We badly need dialogue instead and to build on the advances that have been made to bring us closer together.
In my life experiences it has been extremely apparent that as you start these new groups of individuals like women, indigenous, LGBTQ+, and all others it divides all people and tgere is no coming together as one. The worst part of it all is the PREJUDICE and hatred that come out against others that are not part of the group.
Shelia and Neil
Agree 100%
Indigenous to where? Technically we are all indigenous. Anyone should able to attend.
There are no indigenous humans in North or South America. We all came from somewhere else. Some appeared sooner than others, but the difference has no distinction. If the point is that some races came from different parts of the world, what is separation between them? We are all people. When I grew up on the east side of Anchorage, that’s what we knew. How did these supposedly education people forget that?
It pains me to know that people from outside Alaska are now witness to a public University promoting segregation. For years now we have had the phrase ‘systemic racism’ shoved down our throats. The claim is that everything is geared to favor Americans of European descent. What a crock. There have been numerous laws passed during the last few decades to prevent all kinds of discrimination. Discrimination takes place when laws are not enforced. And yet, here we are with institutions of learning actually promoting systemic racism. It is sad enough that ‘safe spaces’ have cropped up. I would hope that those who are part of the groups who have ‘safe spaces’ would take the time to really think about what it means when you are provided with ‘special’ facilities and laws. To me, it smacks of the belief that certain groups are not able to function and cope with everyday life without being coddled. That should be an insult to a person. Having a ‘safe space’ for indigenous people at UAA implies that those people are not capable of functioning as well as the rest of the population. These are the types of actions that divide our country and it needs to stop.