Hi,
I know you're probably already rolling your eyes at this post and, please don't let me stop you but imagine how hard you would roll your eyes if you were always greeted with the response "racism isn't real" whenever you spoke out on your experiences. Stop telling me racism isn't real when in kindergarten I was punished for being shy by being placed in an ESL ( English second language) classroom for 2 days a week despite my mother being heavily involved with my class and the teacher knowing full good and well that English was the only language I spoke. Stop telling me racism isn't real when I tried to color myself blue around the age of 7 because a friend at the time told me the only way to stop people from telling me my skin looked like poop was to change my skin color. Stop telling me racism isn't real when other children in Junior High told me the only reason I was getting to play sports is because there was a severe lack of color being represented in athletics- and a part of me still believes they might have been right. Stop telling me racism isn't real when I begged and pleaded my parents to let me get blowouts every six months out of fear that my cheer coaches would not want me to compete with my natural hair because the coils were too curly. Stop telling me racism isn't real when I moved into college and a "friend" told me she was relieved that I was "not actually black" when she realized I was adopted and continued to explain that rap music scared her and that her hometown school was "basically segregated" Stop telling me racism isn't real when I sat in my government and politics class and a white male asked me in front of the whole class when the professor wasn't in the room "is your life as a colored woman really that difficult" Stop telling me racism isn't real when Americans are acting like having brown or black skin is a crime and when people I know have made comments referring to protesters as thugs. Stop telling me racism isn't real when SO MANY PEOPLE OF COLOR HAVE SUFFERED UNIMAGINABLE PAIN. Stop telling me Blue Lives Matter, Stop comparing our experiences. Police officers CHOSE to be police officers. I did not choose to have brown skin and coily hair - but I love it. Due to racist remarks and treatment it took me YEARS to learn how to love myself in the skin I am in and I am angry that other people are treating darker skin as a crime. Dont tell me racism isn't real, learn how to work with others to end what is happening in all of our backyards. Stop being complacent. Remember, if you choose to be silent in times of social injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
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AuthorHi there, just your not so average 20-something-year- old Journalism major living life on the sunny side and documenting it! Archives
April 2020
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