Nothing says “multi-culturalism” quite like singling out people of one race and telling them that they don’t belong in a common area. Such was the case in a video that has been making its rounds on Reddit.
The video, called “Black girl tells whites to leave multicultural student center”, shows a student at the University of Virginia asking white people to leave what appears to be a University common area, where they are sitting and working.
“Public service announcement,” she starts by saying. “If y’all didn’t know this is the MSC. And frankly there’s just too many white people in here and this is a space for people of color. So just be really cognizant of the space that you’re taking up because it does make some of us POCs [people of color] feel uncomfortable when you see too many white people in here.”
She continues: “It’s only been open for four days. And frankly there’s the whole University for a lot of ya’ll to be at. And there’s very few spaces for us.”
There doesn’t seem to be any reaction from other students in in the video, one of whom appears to be an Asian student working on a laptop in the background. The person taking the video then applauds.
As one blogger noted, the video was originally tweeted by a student with the username WUF (@WafaFlofa_Flame), who referred to white students as “a bunch of infiltrators” before deleting her Twitter account.
The University issued a statement shortly thereafter, stating that the centers “are open to all members of the University community.”
UVA this month introduced four new and expanded student centers in Newcomb Hall. Since the opening, some questions have been raised regarding the scope or inclusivity of these centers and their missions. UVA provided the following statement on Feb. 12 to address these questions: pic.twitter.com/BJ3LZCvIrE
— UVA (@UVA) February 12, 2020