Columbia Student Says She Is Traumatized After Being Forced To Read About White People In Class
Columbia University held an open discussion on Wednesday night to discuss many topics. One of the topics involved the inclusion of more curriculum pertaining to colored students and for more centralization of resources towards them.
One of the students who spoke at the forum, Nissy Aya, talked about how she was traumatized from reading about white people in class.
From The Columbia Spectator:
“It’s traumatizing to sit in Core classes,” Aya said. “We are looking at history through the lens of these powerful, white men. I have no power or agency as a black woman, so where do I fit in?”
Aya mentioned that even in her most recent Art Humanities class, the word “primitive” was used five times to describe Congolese art—a label she did not speak up against because she was tired of already having worked that day to address so many other instances of racism and discrimination, she said.
So, from my knowledge, we know that primitive as an adjective has two meanings. The first means the early stage in the evolutionary or historical development of something. The second means not developed or derived from anything else. I assume that the teacher meant the first when describing Congolese art because it’s been around for so long and helped form modern day art. But even if the professor was going with the second definition, all they were saying was that the art was not derived or developed from any other form of art. How in the world is that racist?
I think this quote sums it up though:
“I was accepted as the class of 2014,” Nissy Aya, CC ’16, said. “I will not receive a degree until 2016, if that is any marker of how hard it has been for me to get through this institution.”
Let me get this straight. You go to a prestigious Ivy League school, and you are complaining that it is hard? Do you want Columbia to become easier because you’re not smart enough? I can understand graduating a year after you originally intended to – 5 years seems to be normal for some – but pushing it towards six or seven is on the verge of Texas Tech territory..
[via The Columbia Spectator]
Image via YouTube
I am a white male, upper middle class. My ancestors were part of the original Jamestown colony. At least one of my ancestors owned a slave. My ancestors fought in the civil war; one was in Forrest’s Cavalry. He lived in the area where the KKK originated. Might have been a member for all I know. Would it make everyone feel better if I just went outside and put a bullet through my head? Because short of that, I’m not sure there’s anything I can do to help people like this student.
9 years ago at 2:00 pmPainting with a broad brush. TLibtardM
9 years ago at 3:01 pmI think college should be preparation for the real world, where everything is given to you without having to earn it, no one will ever be mean to you or do anything that slightly irritates you, nothing is ever hard, and there are never obstacles in the way of getting what you want. Its such bullshit that sometimes its not like that in school! Let’s protest!
9 years ago at 3:04 pm2015: The year America got offended by fucking everything.
9 years ago at 3:14 pmI can’t even tell which articles are real and which are satire anymore.
9 years ago at 3:50 pm“We are looking at history through the lens of these powerful, white men.”
9 years ago at 5:14 pmI don’t want this to be racist or anything, but weren’t white men the ones in power for most of the time? She’s ‘traumatized’ by learning what history basically was?
It’s starting to become frustrating at how easily people get ‘offended’ by the stupidest shit. Keep it to yourself for Christ’s sake. If you don’t like looking at something, look away. Don’t want to hear it? Cover your ears. No one in this world enjoys everything that happens. It’s life, get used to it. These college students need to realize that after they graduate they will be listening to things they don’t like the rest of their lives from some shitty boss. Time to grow a pair and deal with things maturely.
9 years ago at 5:17 pmThat constitutes hiding from reality, and it is the reason we are having this problem, chief.
9 years ago at 7:22 pmI CANT BREATHE WHERE IS FAIL FRIDAY?
9 years ago at 5:49 pmHas it occurred to anybody that this person might actually be against political correctness, and is trying to highlight the stupidity of the pc movement by making this claim. I will follow her example, and, pretending to worship the greek pantheon, will force the University of Texas at Austin to build a temple to Zeus for me
9 years ago at 2:11 amShe was tired of adressing other instances of racism that day? Lets see if Lincoln was one the “white, powerful men” that changed history and bother her, erase him from history, then see what she’s tired of at the end of the day, and if “primitive” to describe art is still what she would consider racism. This is getting ridiculous. #WhiteMalePrivilegeMatters
9 years ago at 9:29 am