“Why people of color need spaces without white people”

I stumbled across this article on FB and wanted to know what people thought of it. The title is: “Why people of color need spaces without white people”. It’s written in arrow-journal.org. It’s a long article, so I won’t post a hundred screenshots of it. But here are a few excerpts:

“We need places in which we can gather and be free from the mainstream stereotypes and marginalization that permeate every other societal space we occupy. We need spaces where we can be our authentic selves without white people’s judgment and insecurity muzzling that expression. We need spaces where we can simply be—where we can get off the treadmill of making white people comfortable and finally realize just how tired we are.”

“Valuing and protecting spaces for people of color (PoC) is not just a kind thing that white people can do to help us feel better; supporting these spaces is crucial to the resistance of oppression. When people of color are together, there can be healing. We can reclaim parts of ourselves that have been repressed. We can redefine ourselves and support one another in embracing who we are. The necessity of these spaces is obvious to me as a woman of color learning to embrace layers of my own identity by being in community with other Black and brown bodies.”

“In integrated spaces, patterns of white dominance are inevitable. These patterns include things like being legitimized for using academic language, an expectation of “getting it right” (i.e., perfectionism), fear of open conflict, scapegoating those who cause discomfort, and a sense of urgency that takes precedence over inclusion.”

“People of color are often so familiar with navigating white spaces that even when there’s a possibility of bringing more of ourselves into a room, we simply don’t know how. We’ve assimilated to white cultural conditioning, and that assimilation has become part of our identity. While this can help us “get ahead,” the compromise is that we forget what it feels like to be our whole selves.”

What do you think? I’m not a PoC, so maybe that’s why I don’t quite get this. And I’m inclined to think that third paragraph of quotes there (“in integrated spaces...”) would just further lead to negative stereotyping. But I am open to others opinions and thoughts about it, and maybe I’ll learn something new from reading the comments. Feel free to google for the entire article.

Also, I posted this here instead of the race room because I think this is quite a controversial subject and it would fit better here in order to have a large scale discussion about it.