L.A. Times Asks Students for ‘Safe Space’ Stories

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times asked students to submit stories in response to the question: “Is your campus a safe place?”

At the University of Missouri, students and faculty excluded journalists from a “safe space”–a group of tents on public property on campus–despite the protections of the Constitution and Missouri state law.

But the Times wants to understand.

To help students better describe their oppression, the Times‘ Dexter Thomas offered some examples of “micro aggression”:

Maybe it’s a professor asking you if you speak English – even though you were born and raised here.

Or logging on to Facebook only to see pictures of fellow students dressed up like insensitive parodies of your culture. Or being told that you only got into school because of Affirmative Action.

Or hearing a woman on a different campus being blamed for her own sexual assault.

The Times advised students: “These are the thousand tiny paper cuts that, over time, can feel like a much deeper wound.”

Some, it noted, tell students to “toughen up.” However, it reassured youngsters, “everyone’s experience is different.”

The Times quoted its interview with Jonathan Butler, the millionaire’s son who went on a hunger strike to protest supposed racism at the University of Missouri, to flagellate itself for failing to report on “the hostile campus climate.”

The Times concluded, “So, we’d like to have a conversation about your campus climate. What has your experience been? We want to hear your story.”

Between April and September 2013, the Times’ print circulation registered at 398,202. In the same period in 2014, that number fell to 370,990, a 7% drop.