The day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I went on to social media and saw the story about the altercation between students from Covington Catholic and the Native American man. I was disappointed, to say the very least. What has our country come to?

I was consistently annoyed about the way media was interacting with descriptions of Nathan Phillips, the elder man in the altercation. Every article I read placed the words "vietnam war veteran" after his name, as if the fact that he was indeed a veteran made the situation much more wrong than it would've if he wasn't a veteran.

In the wake of some very interesting, disheartening times in the government today, I find that more and more privilege is literally spilling out of the mouths of those who're clearly lit up and encouraged by who is in office as POTUS.

As a product of many years of Catholic education, I am disappointed in the way Catholic schools handle racial relations.

In my Catholic grade school, I was "dating" a guy who was of different race than myself, and teachers intentionally and consistently separated us because of a phone call that "people like me shouldn't be interacting with people like him." Couples of the same race were never separated and the racist nature of the phone call was never confronted but instead was encouraged. At 12 years old I was told to only date white.

In my Catholic high school I was sent a video of someone stating how much they "f-cking hated black people". I took that video straight into administration and somehow I was the one with a heavier punishment than those in the video. At 17 years old I was told to ignore racism because "that's just how it is."

In my Catholic college, I walked around with a hat that said "got privilege?" and I was confronted with many racist comments telling me that if I didn't like it then I could just leave. At 19 years old I was forced to confront the hell out of racism, and this is not a challenge I have any issue confronting.

I've been ridiculed my entire life for my interactions I choose to have, especially with those of different races. People at my places of work called me the "black white girl" while others were "scared" because I went to school with all different races. I was named "the inside-out oreo" most of my childhood and early adulthood.

Personally, I hold a strong belief that many private Catholic institutions, whether that be college or high school, care more about money and their position in society before they care about increasing diversity and the way people within those institutions are treated. I believe that many institutions that are predominantly white, bask in their whiteness and create completely ignorant supposedly "functioning" members of society.

Catholic educational atmospheres can tell everyone that they care about the whole person and about their experiences, but when it comes to reported situations, that is never the focus. It's always about money and the way the school is portrayed in the media. When will the focus become the people?

The disregard of racial experiences perpetuates the problem. People who have those experiences feel like nothing matters to those in positions of power and that racism is okay, or accepted, in that given environment. Confrontation of problems, especially when that involves having those difficult conversations, is the only way that solutions can possibly come about.

Take the difference between Harvey Weinstein and R.Kelly as an example. Victims of Weinstein were listened to and at least given some kind of justice, but they were also white. Victims of R.Kelly are all young black girls, who're still waiting on receiving their justice. Is it because they're black, and the justice system doesn't care about them? I'd like to think not, but I hate to say that's the situation we're in.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the good that these educational environments have done about racial conflicts and comments. At my college, I am a part of a scholarship program focused on increasing diversity. This program, Flyer Promise, also handles situations quickly and with nothing but pure respect for all people.

Additionally, also at my college, the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) has done an amazing job of not only welcoming every single individual on this campus but also of making sure that regardless of their racial identity, they know that they have a home here. As different things come up around campus surrounding race, there is always a home for you in OMA. I've learned that throughout my time here. The President of my University is also very dedicated to change on campus, and there are many other people here working for that change as well.

Empathy seems like such a foreign subject to just about every privileged human being in the United States. It seems like those in positions of privilege see their own identities as most important while they're consistently disregarding and discounting others' just because they don't care.

Listen. Open your ears and your hearts to the conversations that are happening and to the conversations that need to be happening around the world. When the inevitable discomfort comes about, stay in it. Don't ignore a situation because it makes you uncomfortable--conversations in that discomfort is what will bring about true change.

Courtney Milan once stated, "When someone else's safety and acceptance in society is on the line, your personal discomfort comes in a very distant second."

Take your racism somewhere else. We don't want it here.