The brave space idea sounds great. Like Erin said, I think there is definitely a benefit to having “safe spaces” somewhere but I don’t think classrooms or even public spaces on campus are those places. We need classrooms to be places for open discussion and places to come together and learn, even from opinions we don’t like. We don’t learn from hearing only things that are comfortable. That doesn’t mean classrooms should become “rude” spaces or “hateful” spaces, but it does mean that we need to be brave enough to express our opinions and then to be quiet and listen when others express theirs. I still think it’s great that several professors have offered their offices as safe spaces and I think that you can do things to make the places you’re in be safe spaces. I just think that we should truly be pushing for inclusivity and diversity for all voices, not just for kicking out the voices we don’t like until we’re comfortable with the voices that are left. We’ll never progress that way.

Interesting post and comment. I think it’s good to recognize bias but if all we do is say, “wow, I sure am biased,” or even, “wow, those people are all biased,” we are only doing half the exercise. We need to accept that ALL people (including ourselves) have biases. Frankly, having them doesn’t necessarily mean we are evil. No matter how or where you were raised, you end up thinking certain ways about certain things. The trick is to recognize bias and overcome it anyway. Like Erin said, you respect people in spite of bias and then you do your best to keep an open mind and allow your opinions to change or at least allow yourself to accept there may be things you don’t know or may have misunderstood. And hopefully, as we all change together we can truly be more inclusive. Thanks for the post. Glad to know the Stormtroopers figured it out eventually.