Students can afford to refuse only with institutional backing

Evidence

Institutional support can go a long way toward allowing individuals to “afford” to refuse. During the sit-ins, faculty at black colleges offered advice, the NAACP provided legal support, and other organizations offered nonviolence training workshops. Perhaps just as important, the Bennett administration made it clear to their students that they wouldn’t be penalized for their participation in the sit-ins. Dr. Willa B. Player, the president of Bennett, said at the time that “the students were carrying out the tenets of what a liberal arts education was all about, so they should be allowed to continue.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 304

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s stated purpose of defending Odell against the ‘withdrawal requires privilege’ critique — institutional support, not individual margin, makes refusal affordable.

Related

• Collective refusal depends on institutional support that shields participants from penalties (similarity 0.95)
• Refusal requires a margin from economic vulnerability (similarity 0.84)
• Students repeatedly lead mass refusals because of reduced economic vulnerability (similarity 0.83)
• Refusal requires a margin of individual and social latitude (similarity 0.79)