After Donald Trump was elected president, people across the country began donning safety pins to express solidarity with anyone who has experienced discrimination. The following month, the University of Kansas handed out free “preferred gender pronouns” buttons to ensure every student, including transgender students, felt welcome on its campus.
Well, now liberals can add a new pin to their collection.
A group of students at a Pennsylvania college are encouraging their peers to wear white puzzle piece pins in hopes of sparking conversation about racial identity and what it means to live with “white privilege.”
Aileen Ida, President of the Elizabethtown College Democrats and leader of the project, adopted the idea from a Wisconsin pastor who wore the pin everyday "to force herself to think about her white privilege and the impact white privilege has on people of color."
Ida believes conversations about race and white privilege are needed in the predominately-white Pennsylvania community; Lancaster County is 83-percent white, 10-percent Hispanic, 4-percent black and 2-percent Asian.
“This project will encourage people to have conversations about race and how their inherent white privilege has a part in the systematic oppression of minorities — whether or not they purposefully participate in the system,” she told Lancaster Online.
While Ida has received quite a bit of support from her peers, some students are still skeptical of the idea.
Sawa Albasi worries students will wear the pin simply because everyone else is, not because they feel strongly about the issue.
“I feel like a lot of people don’t necessarily know or do any research into certain issues,” she told Local 21 News. “And they’re kind of like, ‘Oh, my friends have this side, so I’m going to pick that side.’”
And while Ida said the campaign is not meant to attack white people, some Facebook users have criticized the project for stirring up "white guilt" and shaming people of a certain race.
Others have called out the group for using a puzzle piece, the symbol for autism awareness.
Despite all the backlash, the College Democrats are still hopeful. Their goal: to have 100 people modeling the pins by February 17, one week after the campaign was launched. On Tuesday, the group announced that over 50 students, alumni, and members of community had pledged to wear the pins.
In two weeks, the group will have participating students share the conversations they’ve had as a result of the pin on a large white puzzle piece, which will then be put on display.
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