Also want ‘fewer white tears’
The student group behind Barnard College’s “trigger warning wall” is back with a new art exhibit that invites student to write their thoughts about the election on Post-it notes.
The project, called “Reacting to the Election,” asks students to answer the questions “How are you?” “What do you need?” and “Where do we go from here?” on notes and post them on the wall. About 200 have been posted since the exhibit went up last month.
The exhibit was conceived by the Collective Advocacy Project, a subgroup of the Barnard Speaking and Writing Fellows, a peer-to-peer student tutoring program.
On the notes, students have overwhelmingly expressed dismay with the election results.
“White liberals should stop acting as though these problems will just go away without taking actions,” wrote one.
To the question of “What do you need?” one student replied “fewer white tears & more allyship.” That refers to a complaint among some people of color that they can’t express themselves because it might hurt the feelings of white people.
Another student simply remarked that she needed a “safe space and acknowledgement.”
Referring to outgoing Barnard College President Debora Spar, another note asked “DSpar to make a direct pledge to Barnard students” – about what, it’s not clear – and urged her “[please] don’t hide behind white corporate feminism.” (Spar, a former business school professor, is leaving Barnard this spring to lead Lincoln Center.)
For the question of “Where do we go from here?” one student simply wrote “FULL COMMUNISM NOW!!”
The art project “aims to make student voices heard on campus by designating spaces that encourage discussion of social justice issues, both on and off campus,” according to a banner posted adjacent to the notes.
“The intention of this installation is to encourage all members of our community to reflect on the November 9th election by reading responses written by others and engaging in dialogue.”
MORE: ‘Trigger warnings are REAL and should be RESPECTED’
The banner cites inspiration from the Subway Therapy exhibit posted in the Union Square subway station, “which gave thousands of New Yorkers a small outlet to express their post-election grief, confusion, and fears,” according to Gothamist.
Last year, the Collective Advocacy Project created a “Trigger Warning Wall” that appeared to celebrate trigger warnings. At the time it was co-managed by Skyler Samuelson, who considered herself a “radical democrat.”
Samelson, who helped organize the post-election wall, declined to comment on it. She managed the project with Zoe Ehrenberg, who did not respond.
The Barnard administration declined to comment on the politicized nature of the project, just one of many ways that groups on campus have reacted to the election.
Students and faculty formed a group called Columbia Against Trump, President Spar signed a letter urging Trump to condemn violence, and Columbia President Lee Bollinger gave a speech calling Trump’s pending presidency “a challenge to what we stand for.”
MORE: Students demand ‘woman of color’ as new president, decry ‘white feminism’
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