Recently, I was able to attend a celebration of Hispanic culture through music as well as a slam poetry session at my college campus. I've always considered myself an activist, but it took these events to really open my eyes to the beauty that we as a nation are missing. As soon as we allow prejudice to cloud our judgement, we reject something greater than ourselves.

Slam poetry was held in a conference room in our Student Union. Organized and produced by the Black Student Alliance on campus, viewers were encouraged to either share poems from famous authors or to present slam poetry of their own. Time and time again, I watched people who had experienced a different world from me use beautiful prose to demonstrate their pain. It created new thoughts, and shared two poems that stemmed from them, and was met only with praise. It was an exhilarating experience, and we all came out of it with a better understanding of and respect for each other.

A lot of my friends just organized a Hispanic Culture Celebration in response to racial tension across the nation. At promptly 6 o'clock, people of all different backgrounds gathered to watch an amazing performance. The introductions to each piece were announced in both Spanish and English, but every single piece celebrated a culture that time and time again had been erased from history. Families and friends collaborated on stage to sing, dance, and honor the solidarity of the people in the room. The songs were spectacular, and yet there was a raw emotion behind them that could never be replicated. Every breath resonated in the heartbeats of young and old, bringing together a group of people like never before. Afterwards, it felt less like a divided world, and more like a united one.

Here is my plea: campuses, across the nation and beyond, celebrate and acknowledge those people who are being silenced. Dance and laugh and sing with each other, even if only for a night. Show that we, as a people, as a nation, will never be divided against each other. Stand with friends, relatives, classmates, teachers, strangers. Find that common ground through music, or literature, or dance, or whatever you're passionate about. Educate yourself on a personal level, and let your heart connect to the person next to you. What you learn may be painful, but it will inevitably be worth it.