My first year of college was a culmination of various events and emotions. I was thrilled to be going to off to college, but could not help but be homesick. As a freshman, you're always encouraged to get involved and attend the different programs and activities on campus. Being the introvert that I am, I originally ignored this piece of advice and for the most part, kept to myself. As the year began unraveling, I found myself attending various programs on campus. This led me to realize the subculture that existed on my college campus.
Being raised in Gainesville, Ga., I wasn't exposed to much political diversity. It was clear that Republicans ruled the city. During the 2012 elections, my school's student parking lot was adorned with Mitt Romney bumper stickers. It was clear that most of my classmates were too blinded by their white privilege to even think about the social troubles plaguing minority communities. I often found myself questioning some of my hometown's conservative ways, but I could never work up the courage to voice them.
Once the fall of 2014 arrived, I had my bags packed and was getting ready to leave Gainesville, Ga., for Charlotte, N.C. Since I was only going from one southern state to another, I didn't think that the political makeup of my surroundings would change much. I, however, neglected to take into account the fact that I was attending an HBCU. Historically, Black Colleges and Universities have always been breeding grounds for change. During the Civil Rights movement, different organizations like SNCC were formed on the campuses of these fine institutions. After I started to actually attend school functions, I realized that unlike myself, so many of my fellow classmates had not only seen and experienced the injustices of our society, but had taken it upon themselves to voice their opinions. As the year progressed, I began meeting so many young people that were trying to enact some kind of change. All of a sudden, I became aware of so many social issues that had never even crossed my mind. This dramatic shift was both empowering and blinding.
At the start of my sophomore year, I began working as a hostess in a restaurant that is located in an area of Charlotte known as Southpark (no relation to the cartoon). This area is full of wealthy, conservative white people. It was in my job that I realized the subculture that existed on my campus was simply that, a subculture. Charlotte as a whole was not rallying behind the Black Lives Matter movement, nor was it trying to better the situation of undocumented immigrants, but rather bending over backward to please the Republican majority. After hearing patrons refer to Hillary Clinton as a lesbian who can't please her husband and having another customer tell me Donald Trump was looking for me because I was Mexican, my college bubble came crashing down. While I had left my hometown, I was still in the South and that meant that I could still not escape some of the backward ideals upheld by members of this community. Don't get me wrong, I love my hometown and Charlotte, but I have realized that these societies were not constructed to benefit me or people like me.
