Word Count: 548
The Collegiate Ethic
“‘We don’t feel safe here,”[...]“It feels like we’re not wanted here because of those threatening messages.’”’ Jamil Charles shared his thoughts on the most recent undertaking of offensive graffiti at Salisbury University that read “Sandy Hook comes to SU kill [racial slur].” November 5, 2019, is when Susan Svrluga published an article for the Washington Post about this racial graffiti incident that happened at Salisbury University. This is just the most recent in a long laundry list of the latest incidents to happen at colleges/universities.
“You matter.” “You belong here.” “You are beautiful, loved, accepted, wanted.” Messages like these written in an article by Rose Velazquez have covered the walls of Salisbury after their incident and as nice and good as that is this shouldn’t have needed to happen. You always remember the bad thoughts and not the good ones. Like I said it’s a nice thought but in the end, the memory of “Sandy Hook comes to SU kill [racial slur]” isn’t just going to disappear as if nothing happened. Notes on a wall won't fix the problem rather, sweep it under the rug a little bit. There needs to be something done to make everyone feel accepted and safe with more than just words put into it.
It’s crazy to me this is even a problem. I don’t understand why these issues even happen. We’re all people, we all bleed the same color, we all have hopes and dreams. You shouldn’t be treated differently because of what you look like or what you wear. Especially at a place, you’re paying to attend. You’re supposed to feel welcome and secure at college. You shouldn’t be worrying about looking over your shoulder out of fear. I wouldn’t want to be at a place like that. I wouldn’t want to be the student forced to look over their shoulder and I wouldn’t want to be somewhere that students feel the need to do that. It’s such a simple idea to treat everyone equal yet it just doesn’t seem to happen.
Why can’t people try and look through a veil of ignorance when they look at people of any size, shape, or color and understand that they should be treated the same as everyone else in both social and working situations. It doesn’t happen though everyone is stereotyped or worse. Lauren Jade Arnold had this to say about a racial slur incident at CU Boulder. “Calm down, we say, because this stuff happens every day to us. This isn’t news or a headline to us. We are used to it; both the microaggressions of “nice,” “everyday” racism and the more apparent, ugly face of blatant racism. But we are angry, and we are tired.” It’s appalling that students can say that they are subject to “everyday” racism in a “nice” manner or the less friendly “blatant racism” people will say. You wouldn’t want someone to talk to you like this or do something that would make you feel the way they feel so why does it happen so much? How is it so hard to treat others the way we want to be treated? We’re long past the point from exterminating this issue and just leaving it in the past, to be remembered and know to do better.
“You matter.” “You belong here.” “You are beautiful, loved, accepted, wanted.” Messages like these written in an article by Rose Velazquez have covered the walls of Salisbury after their incident and as nice and good as that is this shouldn’t have needed to happen. You always remember the bad thoughts and not the good ones. Like I said it’s a nice thought but in the end, the memory of “Sandy Hook comes to SU kill [racial slur]” isn’t just going to disappear as if nothing happened. Notes on a wall won't fix the problem rather, sweep it under the rug a little bit. There needs to be something done to make everyone feel accepted and safe with more than just words put into it.
It’s crazy to me this is even a problem. I don’t understand why these issues even happen. We’re all people, we all bleed the same color, we all have hopes and dreams. You shouldn’t be treated differently because of what you look like or what you wear. Especially at a place, you’re paying to attend. You’re supposed to feel welcome and secure at college. You shouldn’t be worrying about looking over your shoulder out of fear. I wouldn’t want to be at a place like that. I wouldn’t want to be the student forced to look over their shoulder and I wouldn’t want to be somewhere that students feel the need to do that. It’s such a simple idea to treat everyone equal yet it just doesn’t seem to happen.
Why can’t people try and look through a veil of ignorance when they look at people of any size, shape, or color and understand that they should be treated the same as everyone else in both social and working situations. It doesn’t happen though everyone is stereotyped or worse. Lauren Jade Arnold had this to say about a racial slur incident at CU Boulder. “Calm down, we say, because this stuff happens every day to us. This isn’t news or a headline to us. We are used to it; both the microaggressions of “nice,” “everyday” racism and the more apparent, ugly face of blatant racism. But we are angry, and we are tired.” It’s appalling that students can say that they are subject to “everyday” racism in a “nice” manner or the less friendly “blatant racism” people will say. You wouldn’t want someone to talk to you like this or do something that would make you feel the way they feel so why does it happen so much? How is it so hard to treat others the way we want to be treated? We’re long past the point from exterminating this issue and just leaving it in the past, to be remembered and know to do better.