This year’s University of California Students of Color Conference unproductively devolved into something of an “oppression Olympics” between different minority groups, prompting arguments between participants and ultimately leading to some canceled sessions at the annual event.
The College Fix reports that UCLA student Jacqueline Alvarez described the conference not only as an “oppression Olympics” but also “a safe space gone wrong” in her opinion piece about it for the Daily Bruin campus newspaper.
The conference was organized and hosted by Ralph Washington, president of UC Student Association, who confirmed that there were “tensions” at the mid-November event.
“The Students of Color Conference is always a space when tensions get a little high,” he told The College Fix,
“This mirrors that nature of our lived experiences. But this year there was a lot of harm thrown around to the various organizers, and some people came into the conference without understanding what the theme of the conference was. There are constructive things that we can do to prevent this happening in the future.”
The controversial theme in question was “Fighting Anti-Blackness.” When it became known that the conference would focus almost exclusively on discrimination against African Americans, this raised the hackles of other groups.
In one of the workshops, for example, a student questioned why only anti-blackness issues were being discussed. This prompted a black student to assert that black students are the most oppressed. This prompted a Muslim student to claim the greater victimhood, and things went downhill from there.
The disputes resulted in the cancellation of several sessions on the second day of the conference. Participants all wanted to focus on their own particular minority issue, said Alvarez.
A frustrated participant, UCLA student Robert Gardner, posted about it on Facebook:
“I am very unhappy about how this conference was ran [sic]. There needs to be accountability for the trauma some of the organizers made. And I didn’t appreciate my workshop being cancelled. It was really hurtful to have other marginalized identities silenced because a small fringe of organizers decided that their oppressions are more important (talk about Oppression Olympics. And yes, I am black and the majority of black folkx [sic] disagreed with the notion that the rally was anti-black. So the organizers were in the minority and did not represent the views of most of us).”
In response, the UC Student Association stated: “We acknowledge your disappointment and anger. You are not alone. We hear you and we sincerely apologize. In the future, we will be thoughtful and proactive in considering these issues at conferences.”
The conference typically ends with a demonstration and protest in the community surrounding the school where it takes place, said Alvarez; this time, however, students felt conflicted about participating.
“Students of other minority groups felt less inclined to protest for the causes of ‘Fighting anti-blackness’ and ‘Black Lives Matter,’” Alvarez said. “They did not think that these issues applied to them and therefore had no reason to protest for them.”
This is the inevitable result of identity politics -- not unity or "intersectionality" but fragmentation and victimhood competition. Left to its own designs without the common enemy of the right to attack, the left ultimately begins to eat itself.
