Alright, here it is.
There is no beating around the bush and there is no sugar coating whatsoever. There are many things that have to be addressed by me, a black female.
When I attended MSU, I did so because I knew I would be in a safe environment and I knew nothing bad would happen to me. Wishful thinking, right? I am on a campus with many other people of color and I just want it to be known that we deserve the same respect just as any other person does (and yes this needs to be said).
Recently though, there have been some issues pertaining to this subject matter. People (and yes, I’m sorry I do mean the white people) fail to realize we – people of color – are also human beings and their words and actions are not something that go hand in hand. I have been friends with white people for so long and their comments about certain things in my life are the shadiest that I’ve ever heard, but they laugh it off like it was a joke I should have taken lightly.
This school year, this year in general, has been a lot to handle if you’re a person of a different color/culture. There are many shootings on minorities that have been dismissed, there are killings that are being overlooked and then there are campus crises when it comes to being a person who isn’t of a “dominant species.”
Now, don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not all white people, but it is a majority. White people will never understand how high on a pedestal they are and that’s what bothers me. Most white people don’t understand what white supremacy is because they don’t think it pertains to them or if it really even exists, but I’ll break it down in words my 7-year-old cousin could understand.
To be white in this society gets you brownie points already for whatever you do in life. To be white guarantees you to be looked at as if you were the best thing since sliced bread. You can get any job you want, you can walk into a store and people smile at you because they don’t peg you as the type to want to steal anything. Those are perks of being white. There are more, but if I had to continue to list the opportunities white people have over minorities then we would be here forever.
For example, at TCU there was an incident with a white male named Harry Vincent. He posted many offensive tweets and Facebook posts about things that he doesn’t even understand towards different races and religions. Now there’s one thing to be ignorant about such things, but there’s another thing to be ignorant and not want to seek out the truth, and that’s basically what he did. If you would like to see the offensive tweets or the articles written about him, they are here and here.
To be a person of color in this society means that you don’t come out of the womb with brownie points, you have to earn those and even when you think you do such a great job, it’s nothing compared to what a white person is born with. We have to work twice as hard to get a job. Even if we are highly capable of handling said job or if we are more qualified than the white person, guess who gets the job indefinitely? It’s not a hard question and the answer is obvious.
To be supreme in this country means you have the utmost power. Let me repeat that because I don’t think the people in the back heard me. White supremacy means you have the most power, you are more important and you are the greatest. You are superior to any minority and you are considered the dominant species. You don’t think this exists? Oh, OK that’s fine.
White people can get away with anything. Anything.
A black person can be jamming to rap that has a lot of curse words in it or start twerking and we are labeled as “ratchet” or “loud” or “ghetto.” But if a white person were to listen to the same kind of music, or do our same "ratchet" dances, they would be labeled as ethnically diverse. That’s a problem. I remember listening to Taylor Swift a lot when I was younger or Avril Lavigne and one of my white friends told me, “Wow I listen to more rap than you. I’m blacker than you.” I was young so I didn’t have much of an opinion and I didn’t think so much of it then, but I do now.
I don’t understand how you can be “blacker” than someone else. When has that ever been a thing, especially when you’re… OK.
Recently on the MSU campus, there has been a rumor that’s been going around that on Halloween some people did blackface. Blackface, if you don't know, is a form of theatrical makeup used by performers to represent a black person. Many white people do this and think it is OK when in reality, it is not. It's not OK whatsoever. Some people, on our campus, were turned away from parties just because of who they are and more recently, they have been going to anonymous social media sites to spill their feelings about their hatred of minorities.
If you don’t believe me, believe the picture that’s posted above.
Recently, we had a Campus Climate meeting to discuss the issues on campus that related to Islamophobia, religion, race, gender, etc. and the next day, these were being posted around school. Some people don’t feel safe with these things on campus and I think that it’s rude that it is continuing on like this. No one should be demeaned. It should never go this far just because you’re upset about issues that need to be brought up.
Let me tell you something right now. This is an article and nothing about this article is anonymous. I wrote it and I didn’t have to go on Yik Yak or Yeti to put my two cents in on a situation so if you have a problem with me, I don’t mind hearing your opinion. My name is at the bottom of the article and so is my Twitter/Facebook page, so you can come to me with your opinion. I don’t need to hide behind anonymous apps.
