We have to start thinking about spaces different. In the article “Everyday Racism in Integrated Spaces: Mapping the Experiences of Students of Color at a Diversifying Predominantly White Institution” it talks about fortified space and contradictory spaces.

Fortified spaces are ones that are obviously anti Black and anti Brown. The spaces that are both vocally and visually situating Whiteness. The ones with the signs, the White folks yelling racial epithets and so on are the ones people think the most about.

Contradictory spaces are the ones that aren’t obvious. They are the ones that BIPOC complain about but nothing is done about those complaints because the aggressions aren’t obvious. These are the spaces that talk about inclusion but don’t actually include, they push out.

These contradictory spaces are the ones where folks can’t understand why BIPOC a folks keep leaving, but say it must be for better jobs because we have an inclusive space. I think these are the most violent and harmful spaces because niceness overrides the trauma.

It’s the “are you sure they said that”, “they didn’t mean it that way”, “they are good people I don’t think it was meant that way”, “they are always nice to me”, “but they work a lot with BIPOC people”, “she is married to a Black man”, “it was an honest mistake spaces.

The spaces where BIPOC spend so much time and effort trying to get White folks to believe what happened that they just get worn down and traumatized.

So I say all this to start getting you to understand your space. Just because it is fortified and obvious doesnt mean it isn’t traumatized and violent.