As a student of color at Georgetown, I support Mizzou

People have asked me why I shared this status on Facebook.

To what extent did I feel this way? How much emotion and thought was put into the status which was uniformly shared across Georgetown Students on Facebook?

Well, I shared the status because I was becoming frustrated with numerous posts suggesting our generation continuously whines when faced with adversity – in addition to being overly sensitive.

While these comments were made in reference to the banning of culturally insensitive costumes at Yale, there is a deeper meaning behind the ban.

The banning of insensitive costumes is a small battle relative to the greater purpose: uprooting oppression embedded in our institutions.

The deeper meaning of these statuses relates to wealth – wealth giving someone the ability to ignore the struggles of many people, rather than educating oneself on the crushing realities others face every day.

After spending four years at Georgetown, I realized wealth and social status go hand-in-hand. In other words, some students have the luxury to participate in clubs on campus and spend money with lenience, while other students have to work on-campus to support themselves, and may even have to support their families as well.

Let’s face it, poverty is polarizing. And wealth is polarizing.

The polarization of students at Georgetown is heightened when conversations of race and adversity of People of Color are introduced.

This is true across universities nationally.

As administrators of universities ignore the racism People of Color experience every day, these universities become implicated in institutionalized oppression. As universities ignore the polarization of students and struggle to provide constructive arenas for dialogue, college students today are described as “delicate little flowers” and “fragile.”

I agree universities should challenge preconceived notions and perceptions, and force students to think beyond their own experiences. However, it is hard for me to accept death threats and racism are a part of the learning experience universities in 2015 have to offer.

Universities serve as intellectual communities in which students are challenged to think critically and confront the boundaries of their comfort zones to explore a variety of perspectives. Can you say you’ve done this? Can you say you’ve done this, before formulating an opinion?

And education serves as a means to fight racism and hatred as it harbors understanding among people with conflicting views. How often do you, as a college student, reflect on the idea that almost everyday, someone on your campus experiences racism in their life?

Yet, it’s not just on campus, and it’s not just this one time, it happens to their families and friends just as frequently as it happens to them.

From consistently being subjected to suspicion by law enforcement, to receiving alternative treatment from equal peers during daily social interactions, People of Color unfortunately experience adversity throughout their college careers.

This adversity can be seen in the hatred experienced by fellow students of Color at Missouri and the lack of action from Missouri’s administration was shocking and alarming.

In publishing the status in support of Missouri students, I was thinking, what if this happened on the Hilltop? I wanted my friends and peers to ask themselves this question – what if this was happening on our own campus?

Then again, discrimination does happen on our own campus, every day.

People of Color at Georgetown do experience discrimination, especially those who must struggle economically. There are also those who will be stigmatized and discriminated against for other factors regardless of their relative wealth, as wealth is not always worn on one’s’ sleeves.

Yet, as a privileged Hoya, I acknowledge how fortunate I am to be a part of a community that stands by one another, through thick and thin.

I shared the status to increase awareness of racial inequality in universities, and to express my solidarity with the students at Mizzou who yearn to fight racism through improved cultural and racial understanding.

If you don’t want to fight it, would you want it to persist?

I urge those who fail to acknowledge systemic oppression in the United States to reflect on recent events and ask “Is it okay that people of Color are receiving death threats at their respective universities? And why is this happening?”

Before you formulate your opinions, I urge you to consult someone who continually experiences racism first hand. Step out of your comfort zone, as you are meant to do  at an intellectual institution, and try to look through the lens of someone whom you choose to not associate with due to their economic and social standing.

It’s not ignorance. It’s not idiocy. It’s not sensitivity.

It’s someone’s reality.