College Reinstates Segregated Housing ‘To Counter Oppression’

Move-in day for the fall semester is just around the corner, but for students at Hampshire College, it might feel like they’re taking a step back in time to the pre-integration era. The private Massachusetts school’s housing segregation program, according to its website, is intended for students whose identities have been “historically marginalized.”

The college’s website justifies its initiative to establish separate housing for students based on their racial and sexual identities by stating, “We recognize that our society — through its laws, institutional structures, and customs — has privileged some social groups while systematically disadvantaging and disenfranchising others. Even as we struggle to end these practices, we recognize that day-to-day life for members of these disadvantaged groups can be hurtful and exhausting.”

But how exactly does segregated housing help counter “oppression?” The college claims that it helps to create “an added level of psychological comfort and safety for those who choose to live in those spaces.”

Hampshire also asserts that establishing these segregated spaces will benefit the entire community by more fully engaging “those whose experiences, ideas, and perspectives differ from the college’s mainstream population.” However, if the aim is to genuinely engage these students, separating them based on skin tone and sexuality seems extremely counterproductive.

Instead of encouraging true diversity, by which students of all races, ethnicities, beliefs, and religions would be integrated in a unified college community, this program will inevitably separate and divide the student body. 

The range of segregated housing options at Hampshire College is extensive, and some seem to be repetitive or obscure. Among the options are:

• Students of Color Hall: This residence hall is designed to house 247 freshmen and returning “students of color.” The school will create “structured opportunities” for students to “counter oppression” and develop “healthy and liberatory ways of living on campus.”
• Women of Color Mod: This segregated housing option is intended for “women of color” to have a “safe home” where they can “speak, be heard, and have a meaningful presence” on campus.
• Black Femme Survivors Mod: This option caters to “those who are femme/womxn (including agender/genderqueer/non-binary) people and of African descent. 
• Queer Identifying People of Color Mod: Students who identify as LGBTQ+ and are also “of color” are welcome to live in this segregated housing option.
• Queer Mod: For white LGBTQ+ students, or students of other races who wish to segregate themselves only by sexuality, this option exists “as a break from the outside world.”
• Neurodiverse Mod: Autistic and “neuroqueer” students who want to “challenge actively traditional concepts of normal, sane, and acceptable” are allowed to live in this community.

The sheer number of options, with many overlapping one another, clearly demonstrates that division, rather than inclusion, is the end goal of this leftist initiative.

Shouldn’t the school’s focus be on creating an environment where all students, regardless of their background, can interact, live, and learn together? 

Not only is this program immoral – it may also be illegal. Young America’s Foundation’s legal team is currently working with a Civil Rights expert to determine whether this segregated housing program’s rules and restrictions on who can participate constitute a federal violation.