The Politics of White Students' Unions

Not everything is so black and white

Black students’ unions started in the ‘60s as a way to bring struggling students and people together during hard times. Other groups followed not long after. Fast-forward a few decades and each of these groups is now much more inclusive, allowing anybody to join as they share the culture and values with everyone, not just those who share the heritage. Recently there’s been an instances of a white students’ union at the University of Toronto, Ryerson and York.

Calls of racism, oppression, and a general consensus of “shock” is going around as people discuss the circumstances and consequences of putting up posters promoting the group. However, the group does not exclude any particular group or demographic, they only encourage young people to contact them. The group isn’t without its faults though. Ties with professors who have been linked to racist comments and a hard right political lean don’t do them any favors, but the question is still there: should this be allowed in university?

So far, it seems to be an isolated incident, only appearing in three Toronto universities, but the group, Students for Western Civilization, calls for people across Canada to join in and start thinking about more than what we learn in our classes. From their own site, they make the claim that, “when it comes to cultural and ethnic politics, we have been exposed to nothing other than leftist perspectives. If it wasn’t for the Internet, we wouldn’t be aware that scholarly rightist perspectives on these issues even exist.” So again, should this be allowed in university? Is there anything inherently racist or oppressive about exploring opposing views?

If the group was excluding people of a certain race, or promoting discrimination, then there would be an issue. As it stands, most of the initial responses are simply to get rid of the posters. Not to investigate or talk to people involved, but simply to remove the pieces of paper because students may find it offensive. Fraser Macpherson, one of the first people to come across a poster, was quoted in various news sources as saying, “I was not expecting to see something like this.” He had ripped down the poster when he found it and looked up the website associated with the group, but took it upon himself to remove the supposedly offensive material. Because he didn’t expect it… at a university… but I’ll get to this later.

Now, on the surface, this group seems to be nothing more than a place for people to discuss right-leaning politics. There’s a chance it could go deeper and have race-motivated goals, but so far I haven’t come across anything that would point towards that. People are simply assuming it’s racist based solely on the fact that the posters had “White Students’ Union” written on them. There’s something else that’s been popping up around Canadian universities lately as well though: the near-overwhelming influence of a movement obsessed with “political correctness.” Can’t say “%!@#”, it might trigger some people. Can’t do this or that, it might upset or offend other people. There are some legitimate cases where hate speech or other truly offensive material has been taken down and dealt with, but the extent to which people and ideas are now being policed in universities is worrying. For example, Dalhousie University was throwing around an idea that minorities and women ought to speak before any person who is white or male be allowed to speak. And no, that’s not a joke.

Universities are supposed to be a safe haven for free speech. We get coddled in pre-school, where the monsters are under our beds or in our closets, but not in university. You should come across ideas that make you uncomfortable as you question what you believe. You should be exposed to opposing views, and you should definitely not be protected by the institution that’s supposed to be teaching you how to deal with these opposing views. By limiting these ideas the universities are undercutting the education we pay for. It isn’t just in the classroom that we learn, it’s the mixture of life experiences, ideas, beliefs, and views that make it a truly worthwhile education that can carry us through the rest of our lives. Don’t turn your back on that because something is “offensive.”