A group of international students fought for lower rent, and racists are co-opting it.

In a now-viral story, a group of primarily South Asian international students at Canadore College found themselves paying 700-1200 a month for rent in housing provided by the school. This is on top of international student fees, which are more than double what domestic students pay. Feeling taken advantage of, these students decided to stage their democratic right to protest. They pitched tents on campus and camped out until, recently, their college made a deal with them. Now, while they do still have to pay more than double domestic tuition, they have achieved cheaper rent through the school.

So what's the problem?

Firstly, people are accusing the students of being spoiled. As many online claims, the rest of us pay much more than the pre-protest figured for housing, it seems, and yet these students are complaining about $700? Secondly, many 'news' outlets that exist purely to gain attention and reactions, like 6ixbuzz, have pushed a "Them vs. us" agenda with the story. Implying in posts that just because this group of students got what they wanted, the rest of us are stuck with high rent. This is not true, and in fact the opposite of the truth. Tenant organizing is founded in solidarity. Tenants only have power when working together, not just tenants with the same landlord but tenants across buildings, cities, and provinces. This us v.s. them idea promotes the landlord agenda by dividing tenants so they are too busy inter-fighting to organize against landlords. Then, there is the racism. It's no secret that 6ixbuzz promotes racism and right-wing values, but by being at least slightly subtle, they are conditioning many online to normalize racism.

None of this is true. Yes, those students were paying less initially than average, but even casting aside that they are paying high tuition fees to the same institution housing them, $700, $800, $1200 are all too much for housing. Because landlords have created a system where being gouged insane amounts is normalized, there has been a mass desensitization to rent payment. The idea of paying even the rent the students were is ridiculous, but we forget that due to us collectively being gaslit into thinking $1200 is a good deal, and $700 is unheard of.

There should only be solidarity between tenants at a time like this.