Student ‘Traumatized’ by Reading About Whites

A Columbia University student can pay $51,000 in annual tuition, but she can no longer bear the burden of fictional white characters.

Nissy Aya was a panelist during the university’s “Race, Ethnicity, and University Life” discussion on Wednesday. She told attendees should would not be able to graduate in four years because learning about white historical figures and characters has been too psychologically taxing.

“It’s traumatizing to sit in core classes,” Aya said, the Columbia Spectator reported Thursday. “We are looking at history through the lens of these powerful, white men. I have no power or agency as a black woman, so where do I fit in?”

Aya alleges that Columbia’s core curriculum has been so racially stressful that she will graduate in 2016 instead of 2014.

“Aya mentioned that even in her most recent art humanities class, the word ‘primitive’ was used five times to describe Congolese art–a label she did not speak up against because she was tired of already having worked that day to address so many other instances of racism and discrimination,” the Spectator reported.

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The Daily Caller noted Friday that Columbia has one of the highest four-year graduation rates in the country. Aya will be part of the 10 percent of students who do not graduate within four years.

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