On the Students For Liberty Blog, Cory Massimino wrote on why libertarians should be open to the idea of "safe spaces." As Cory explains, a safe space is an area "designed for marginalized people to feel free from the kinds of intolerant social norms, bigoted harassment, and general persecution that dominate mainstream culture." Personally, I feel that this is yet another topic that has been needed to be discussed within the libertarian movement. While I have no problems with the idea of a safe space, there is an aspect of those who advocate for such a thing that I do have a problem with.
More and more often, I have friends chiding me for not creating a safe space on my Facebook profile. I almost don't blame them. Because my profile is public, bigoted friends of friends (or even my friends) often comment on my posts with homophobic, misogynist, transphobic, racist, etc. content. Does it bother me that these people are saying these things? Of course. Am I offended? Very much so. Do I worry that my marginalized friends will become upset by reading those kinds of things? Yes. So why haven't I taken initiative to set up a safe space?
This is something I have definitely thought of. Not only could every sane person reading the thread be less exposed to the hate that is sometimes uttered by these horrid individuals, but I, and a few others, would have fewer headaches from having to look at the terrible comments and debating with these people. However, these feelings of relief are only short-term. Where else do these bigoted individuals go? They find equally hateful communities on Reddit and even Facebook where there is no one to challenge their views. Exposing themselves to these echo chambers, these people have no chance to grow, and if a naive wanderer was to stumble upon them, that wanderer may start to believe what these groups have to say.
I very much believe in the idea of free speech - not only should people be allowed to say what they want, but if there is "bad" speech, combat it with even more speech. (This is similar to what anti-MRA Facebook page MUH Men's Rights Activism does, although they do have standards on the kind of language used on the page.) By talking about and attempting to refute the "bad" speech, you may be giving more awareness to the "bad" speech itself, but trying to hide the fact that this "bad" speech exists only gives people an illusion that all is good and dandy when it isn't necessarily so. You may try to pretend all you want to, but just because you create a safe space, and want everyone around you to create one too, will not make racism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny go away.
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| MUH Men's Rights Activism taking an anti-feminist meme to engage followers in a discussion about the misogyny of AVFM. |
The main reason why I think I ought to make my profile a safe space is not necessarily what is mentioned above, but that because I am human, I am inconsistent. While I rarely ever block people or unfriend them, I am not completely able to brush some of these people aside, as Avens O'Brien does so well, and end up doing blocking or unfriending a few. The problem with this is that because of this inconsistency, it may seem I care more about some issues than others. I do not have a clear line in the sand for when I should unfriend or block someone. Sometimes I probably do so because I was in a bad mood and that person was not only saying hateful things, but doing so to an extent that it annoyed me more than usual.
If I blocked someone for posting racist comments, but not for someone who used homophobic slurs, does that mean I am tolerant of homophobia? I wouldn't like to think so. This day in age, it is really mainstream in the United States to be outright racist, versus there is a larger part of the population that is homophobic, and therefore needs work on. There have been a few people who were bigoted but I kept on my profile for a while because I knew I had to learn more about their individual circumstances. After probably the fifth incident of this one man making hateful comments, I had to unfriend him. I try to judge from situation to situation, even telling people that certain comments are not welcome. I generally ask people to refrain from specific kinds of hate speech, but of course, people who are inclined to do so don't listen. They are the ones who need help.
I feel that making comments against a group is "better" than attacking individuals. I will unfriend and/or block with less hesitation when a person is directly harassing me or others on my Facebook. Why I say that making comments against a group is "better" is because what happens is that the person thinks of these people as the "other" and has yet to humanize them. When they are able to see the hardships a transgender individual has to go through, they have a chance to empathize and gain perspective. Sometimes some of these people may not be aware that using words like "retarded" are hurtful. It's worth a shot to try to educate instead of relying on the ban hammer. Not only that, but realizing that you can't teach an entire subject in one lesson.
If people cannot deal with the bigotry that make itself known in the threads of my page, they have the options to unfollow or unfriend me, block the troublemakers, or just not look. This is not the Holy Grail of all options, but it is something. If you know you will be offended by what people are saying in a thread, why click on the option to see more comments? For those of you who identify within a marginalized identity or more, I know that this is not really the most fair thing of me to say and that you probably have to deal with bigots more than you would like to, but know that my profile is never guaranteed to be safe, and I apologize for that.
The funny thing is that most of the people who chastise me for not having a safe space don't even see themselves as these marginalized identities. It doesn't mean that they are wrong for pointing out lack of safe spaces, but they need to keep in mind who they are talking to. I identify as being several marginalized categories, but if you are a male, why are you mad at me when there is a man making sexist comments? I am glad you care about women's issues, however, despite how empathetic you may be, you are unlikely to know how it feels going through some of the things I and other women have had to go through. Sometimes it seems like people are trying to tell me and other marginalized groups how to think, and they have no right to do so. It could be that some of these groups or individuals have a hard time to speak up for themselves and that is understandable, but don't act like you speak for them, unless you've received permission to do so.
Maybe I'm part of the problem. I am one of the many people who won't provide a safe space. However, I believe if education about this topic is brought up to more people, many more will be glad to offer their physical property and social media pages as safe places. For the sake of professionalism and sensitivity to marginalized identities, prominent libertarian organizations should consider making their websites and social media accounts safe spaces. A move like this could make libertarianism appeal to a larger audience. Libertarians, think about how beneficial safe spaces can be. If you are a libertarian and believe in safe spaces, realize that individuals and organizations have the right to decide whether or not they should be able to provide one.
