Savannah Hulsey Pointer, FISM News
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An off-campus, officially unaffiliated student co-op near the University of California Berkeley bans white people from the common areas, stating that the policy is an attempt to “avoid white violence and presence.”
The five-story, 30-room home is one of the accommodation houses associated with UC Berkley and is called “Person of Color Theme House,” as many of its members reportedly moved in to avoid “white violence,” according to a report by The Daily Mail. The home accommodates 56 students and is located close to UC Berkeley’s campus.
All visiting students are asked to sign in and declare their race, and members of the co-op have been asked to avoid bringing any family members who “express bigotry” as part of a rules and regulations charter so aggressive that it has caught the attention of the news media.
“Person of Color Theme House aims to provide housing to low-income, first-generation, immigrant, and marginalized students of color,” the Person of Color Theme House (Castro) website states.
“Originally known only as Andres Castro Arms, Person of Color Theme House was established in 2015 to better serve and empower students of color within the Berkeley Student Cooperative system. Person of Color Theme House exists to create a safe and welcoming space for its house members and build solidarity with communities of color in the Berkeley area and beyond,” the website states in its introduction.
In addition to claiming to be a safe space for those concerned with “white violence,” the home also holds “Queer Circle, movie nights, and house dinners” as well as other events for their household.
“We want to continue to acknowledge our POC house member’s intersecting identities so that we are able to create an inclusive and diverse environment within the house,” the website states.
The rules are so strict, however, that even some of the people of color who live in or have been associated with the house have complained about the aggressive culture in the house that makes many feel excluded and belittled, according to The Daily Mail.
The House garnered more attention when the “rules” were leaked on social media, with some calling the policies “racist” and others offering context via their own experiences living at the house.
One mixed-race social media user said that living in the house as a light-skinned person was “not received well.” The user said that members of the house called them slurs and that they were “not allowed to let my dad enter the house because he’s white.”
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UC Berkeley Senior Director of Strategic Communications Janet Gilmore told DailyMail.com that the house is “not campus operated” and that “it is not the role of the campus to comment.” Gilmore also said that while the university has Theme Programs, it has “’no such policies like the one alleged” regarding the co-op house.
“Cal Housing Theme Programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, consistent with UC and campus policy,” Gilmore said. “As this involves an off-campus non-affiliated landlord, the campus has no ability under the Code of Student Conduct to discipline the landlord.”