unbothered which only made things worse because that’ s when she began to feel comfortable, turning her slick comments up a notch as the weeks went by.
In the matter of a semester, I went from building what I thought was a friendship that MLK would be proud of to becoming a human exhibit and being made a mockery of. From comments on my“ typical” black features, to ignorant stereotypical ideologies displayed in the media, to even having the audacity to question my“ blackness.” She crossed the line, but I still kept the peace and stayed silent only because I didn’ t want to live up to the“ angry black woman” stereotype and show out. Not to mention I had previously been sent out of class for“ causing a disruption” when in reality I only addressed the racist comments from another classmate so instead of going off like I really wanted to do, I ended up isolating myself from her and the situation as a whole; but of course life didn’ t want me to be great.
A few weeks later we ended up being paired for a group project which made ignoring her existence quite a difficult task. During a heated conversation, completely irrelevant to the assignment, one thing led to another and the next thing I heard was“ my uncle is in the KKK, I’ ll send him to your house.” I don’ t really remember what happened next but I know it was not of the Lord. She got the ugliest, most educated, yet semi ratchet READ( before anyone even knew what a read was) she has ever received in her life. Enough was enough. And that day... I had time.
I say all of this to say, don’ t ever let anyone silence you, especially when you know something is wrong and just downright ignorant. Here I was letting someone not only disrespect me, but disrespect my race and my culture all because society has a way of making black people seem like we’ re making a big deal out of what they consider minuscule( i. e slavery, oppression, the daily struggles of being black in America and pretty much everything else that doesn’ t affect their everyday life). I really wish I was the person I am today back then because none of the tolerance would have occurred. But then again, maybe it was situations like this that made me who I am today: black, proud, and unapologetic.
So if you take anything from this article, it’ s not about“ catching fades,” or being violent, or fighting ignorance with ignorance but instead it’ s about me reclaiming my silence by doing now what I didn’ t do then which is taking a stand for me and my people despite how they feel. We’ ve come to a time in society where silence is just as detrimental as the injustice that is taking place no matter the offense. So speak out and be heard!