While reviewing my files, I came across the following offering that addresses now Presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg. Considering his decision to join the pursuit for the Oval Office, I thought that it was appropriate to republish this article.  

I will be the first to acknowledge that my exposure to Michael R. Bloomberg is limited to frequent visits to Harlem during his tenure as New York City’s, Mayor. This period is particularly significant to me as it allowed me to witness significant portions of Harlem USA, the Mecca of Black America for much of the 20^th Century, being lost by Black New Yorkers. After interacting with many of the victims of this colossal gentrification, I surmised that Michael R. Bloomberg has been both an irritant and antagonistic toward African-Americans.

Consequently, I was not shocked when Bloomberg continued his well-worn pattern during his commencement address at the University of Michigan. The former Mayor used this occasion to display his staunch opposition to all policies that could potentially benefit African-Americans, particularly Black collegians. Bloomberg used this platform to attack the ‘safe spaces’ and ‘learning communities’ that are dotting American collegiate campuses. What follows is a portion of Bloomberg’s message.

The most useful knowledge that you leave here with today has nothing to do with your major. It’s about how to study, cooperate, listen carefully, think critically and resolve conflicts through reason. Those are the most important skills in the working world, and it’s why colleges have always exposed students to challenging and uncomfortable ideas.

The fact that some university boards and administrations now bow to pressure and shield students from these ideas through “safe spaces,” “code words” and “trigger warnings” is, in my view, a terrible mistake.

The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations — not run away from them…one of the most dangerous places on a college campus is a safe space, because it creates the false impression that we can insulate ourselves from those who hold different views.

We can’t do this, and we shouldn’t try — not in politics or in the workplace. In the global economy, and in a democratic society, an open mind is the most valuable asset you can possess.

I am unsurprised by Bloomberg’s view of safe spaces created to o aid African-American males during their pursuit of academic success on what are unfortunately hostile collegiate campuses.

To be honest, I expected Michael Bloomberg to be clueless regarding the utility of safe spaces. Such ignorance is predictable when one considers that the vast majority of whites, particularly upper-middle-class and wealthy whites such as Bloomberg, live lives where the entire world is a ‘safe space’ for not only them, but also their offspring.

Bloomberg’s contention that collegiate campuses provide an opportunity to “learn how to deal with difficult situations — not run away from them…the most dangerous place on a college campus is a safe space, because it creates the false impression that we can insulate ourselves from those who hold different views” reveals much about Class and White privilege, variables that are accessed so routinely by some that it is akin to the laws of gravity. Figures such as Bloomberg have never realized that their position and perspective is a unique one that most Americans, particularly Black males, cannot identify with it.

In light of the fact that individuals such as Michael R. Bloomberg will never be able to remove the blind spots that led them astray during moments such as this one. I am going to provide them a lesson what others here when persons of their ilk seek to delve into racial matters such as this one. Michael, this is what non-elite Black males took from your juvenile statement regarding safe spaces.

The whole purpose of college is for ‘minorities’ to learn how to deal with the difficult situations that they will eventually be placed within – and that lesson can never be to run away from them…one of the most dangerous places on a college campus is a safe space, because it creates the false impression for African-Americans that they can insulate themselves from powerful whites who hold views that they are powerless to affect. Views that will never be abandoned as it would mean powerful Whites working against their own interests; an occasion that never occurs; particularly for something that matters as little as racial equality.

Bloomberg’s statement reveals a deplorable spirit of refusing any refuge for the most abused and exploited populations within our midst. According to Bloomberg, a safe space for poor and working-class people is in a word, hilarious.

Make no mistake about it, predominantly White campuses are notorious for being hostile environments for African-American teenagers raised and protected by doting parents who have done their best to develop a moral compass within them. Many Black parents believe that basic values will serve them well on a path to success that will be filled with discrimination, racial bigotry, and institutional racism. For many of these optimistic Black youth, the inhospitable predominantly white institution is their initial full dose of unfairness. The safe space that Michael Bloomberg rails against serves as a much-needed shelter from an ancient storm that has broken several generations of Black America.

Michael Bloomberg either does not understand or does not care that the safe spaces that he criticizes as being useless to Black collegians on hostile white campuses reveal him and those of his ilk as being out of touch with the times. And why would they not be? They have never had to deal with such matters? Bloomberg and his contemporaries have never experienced the hellish existence that shadows the have not’s of America. They have no idea of what occurs during a typical day on a white campus to non-White students, nor do they care to learn. Sadly, elites are not feigning ignorance when they offer incredulous disbelief that a significant portion of the harassment that African-American male collegians experience comes at the hand of White professors and teaching assistants, more burdensome harassment than that issued by White students. Michael Bloomberg’s resistance to a moment of reprieve from such an existence is tantamount to “tough love” for Black collegians.

In many ways, Bloomberg’s statement is akin to a call for African-American collegians to simply “Eat Shit and Grin.” Unfortunately, this deplorable situation is the daily reality for far too many Black adults. To their credit, African-American collegians fight for a “safe space” that has been so strident that college administrators have been forced to take definitive steps to address the matter.

I guess that from his perspective that drips with every sort of privilege imaginable, Michael Bloomberg and his contemporaries by denying “safe spaces” are seeking to aid Black collegians by providing them a dose of reality. The message is that in “the real world” there is no reprieve from overreaching White elites who will seek to invade every portion of your existence, even your precious mental space. So, I guess it is through a warped sense of aiding Black collegians, a well-intentioned super-charged dose of benign neglect, that we must consider Bloomberg’s resistance to “safe spaces.” If Bloomberg had his way, African-American collegians on predominantly white campuses would be like the Black adults that they are training to join in “the real world” and manage to survive in a torturous isolation surrounded by White colleagues who are also attempting to carve out a space that allows for them to stomach the tyrannical reign of White elites whose fixation on Class mutes any consideration of racial solidarity that does not manifest itself in increased profits.

I guess that when viewed from this perspective, Bloomberg’s advice is kind in that it is attempting to tell Black collegians that they have much in common with their White classmates in that in this nation they both must learn to “eat shit and grin”. Unfortunately, neither of them realizes it yet; trust me when I say that if they live enough life in this Capitalist nation these non-elites will learn this lesson very well. 

Dr. James Thomas Jones III

© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2020.

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