Before Yesterday, I Had Never Personally Experienced Racism
Friday night February 6th, 9:06 PM, my roommate called me frantically. I didn’t pick up. I was out enjoying myself with some friends. Then, she sent me this photo:
Someone had apparently written “Niggers” on our dry erase board on the door of our dorm room. Senselessly. Neither of us had so much as even told someone to be quiet in the hallway late at night. We were on good terms with everyone on our floor. Why us?
My roommate immediately snapped the picture and took down the dry erase board and erased what it said. She contacted the RA, the Residence Head, the Police, the Deans and NAACP as well as our parents and everyone in between. She posted it on Twitter and Facebook. The post garnered so many replies and our mentions blew up with mostly support from the school spackled with a few ignorant comments here and there.
The photo was flipped, but the responses were still there. When I finally came back to my dorm late last night, I LOST IT. I was angry, confused, scared and incredulous. It happened when the both of us were gone and our original worries included the fact that in a 45 minute window (8:15-9:00) someone who loved in our key-card dorm would have known we were out, known we were black and targeted us. That thought was terrifying and honestly kept me up last night. I almost wished I had angered someone so I would have some closure in the situation. There was none. Until this morning. We found this anonymous letter slipped under our door after Facebook and Twitter had basically blown up:
It brought some closure to be honest, but the fact remains that it happened and all authorities, campus and otherwise had been notified by that point. I, myself have personally forgiven that person in my heart, but the by no means signifies the end of this issue. The fact is that I go to a PWI (predominantly White Institution) and this person is not the first person to have their ignorant, racist actions manifested in such a way. We hope he is the last. The perpetrator still remains unidentified, but we hope to find out who it is. While an apology is great, it does not fix the problem because there are many other cases like this that go unresolved. We will not be one of them.
As disheartening as this issue is, I still love my school. I still feel safe and I’m not about to blame the entire white race for this incident or anything of that sort. We, of all people, know how the actions of a few can be blamed on the majority and how wrong that is. I will treat everyone in my hall exactly as I did before as everyone is innocent until proven guilty. It is so hard not to try to speculate just for personal closure, but at the end of the day, God knows who it was and it’s in His Hands right now. The school has released a statement and the administration will be working with us.
I want everyone to know that forgiveness does not negate consequences. You should never lay down and die or brush something off an expect change. Be heard and you’ll be surprised at who you find will rally behind you and the impact you have the power to make. Share this with as many people as you need to and unless I get an influx of aggressively ignorant comments, my ask box is open.
germansingergirl
dailybridgerton
titsay
izzy806
snowghoul
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
annaxmalina
areudirty
