Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania recently came under fire after their Gender and Sexuality Resource Center tried to host an event centered around being “Tired of White Cis Men.”
The senior project encouraged people to “come paint and write” about how they are tired of straight white men, with the intention of displaying the art in the school’s dining hall for all students to view.
Originally scheduled for November 12th, it has since been postponed after the flyer was shared on Instagram, drawing the attention and criticism of almost 2 million people.
I recently went to UT Austin to ask students what their thoughts were on the event.
I wanted to get a vast array of opinions to understand the difference in opinion between the white men targeted by these types of events, versus the minorities who were encouraged to join them.
“Well I’m a cis-white man myself,” my first interviewee shared, “I think I’d be kind of offended but I’ll be okay,” he shared after hearing about the event.
The next students I walked up to were two female minorities, and their view was vastly different.
“Honestly slay, I agree” the masked student began, “I think it’s kind of funny hating on white cis-men,” she continued. She went on to share how art is a healthy way to relieve aggression and express one’s emotions. Her friend then jumped in sharing that, “I think the problem is just the name…I think if they just changed the name and did it more sneakily, I guess it would be better,” she finished.
While interviewing female students, the majority of them ended up bringing “white privilege” into the conversation. However, many of the students who espoused this view, couldn’t seem to back up their claims.
“We’re tired of straight white men having the power in everything…we as women of color, as students at this university, we are very much capable of certain things and we don’t have the same privileges that are offered to straight white men,” one female student declared.
After being asked to provide examples of the privileges white men have that she doesn’t, she responded with, “I don’t really know” before walking away.
