Editor:

Alicia Williams’ column (“”Safe zones’ would create false danger perceptions,” April 14), is full of false perceptions. Privilege shields the writer from the reality that not all campus areas are safe, even where diversity is supposedly valued. It engenders her to determine an area’s safety, which cannot be her decision, unless she has encountered such threats to her identity. Respect and consideration are not substitutes for education and are not the only requisites for safety. Just as non-queers are automatically entitled to humanity, we should not have to demand ours.

She does not realize safe zones are a means of proactively expecting equal rights everywhere on campus. Because discrimination is still very real, and often silent, designation of safe zones is natural and necessary. The prevalence of privilege, as evidenced in the editorial, shows the necessity of safe zones. Being proactive, however, is not a one-way street. Without adequate publicity, obscure protection policies are merely ploys to silence the marginalized. Rather than excusing ignorance with claims of segregation, people truly concerned about inclusion should step outside their privilege.

Sherry Li,
Junior, Political Science