January Blog Post

Throughout the semester so far, the line that stuck out to me most came from a reading called Between Speech and Silence: Reflections on Accountability by an author named Ann Russo. To be completely honest, as I started to read this article I knew I wasn't going to like it nor understand it. I'm a visual learner and when I have to read things, I prefer the sentences to be spaced out because I often get sidetracked. I found myself reading the same sentences over and over for this article. Furthermore, the line I enjoyed the most out of this reading stated in the conclusion, "I believe strongly that white people need to step up and speak out in the face of injustices, and yet do so without making ourselves the center of power and knowledge" (Russo, p. 47). 

This particular line stood out to me because as a person of color, unfortunately I know what it's like to be racially discriminated against which falls into the injustice category. Now I could interpret this line from two different perspectives; it could either be that white people stand up for themselves for whatever injustices they put up with which I personally feel isn't much because they are the superiority, but that's just me. And then I could also interpret is as white people standing up for the injustices that occur for us minorities who maybe don't have a voice in the world because we are looked at as inferior. I take topics that have to do with race and injustices very personally because I am a victim as are many of my loved ones. It isn't fair but we live in a cold world and that's just the way it is. We can't get rid of it completely but we can reduce the likelihood of it to happen so often.

There have been a few incidents where I have been racially profiled but there is one that happened recently. For those who don't know, I am on the BSU volleyball team. This past fall while we were in pre-season, we traveled to Cleveland for a tournament. We had the opportunity to compete against Kent State, Wright State, and Cleveland State. Fast forwarding a little bit, following one of our matches we had the opportunity to say hello to a few of the BSU fans that were able to travel and watch us play. As we were finishing up, an elderly Caucasian man came up to me and a few other teammates asking to take pictures. He didn't ask me so I offered to take the picture, however I didn't think he heard me so I said it again. The man looked at me and gave the camera to another teammate who was specifically white as there are only two of us that are colored. I was a bit taken back by it but kind of brushed it off because I wasn't exactly sure if he was just old of age or hard of hearing. But later on, I had noticed that he took an individual picture with every single one of the starters except for me and my other teammate who is colored. This definitely made me mad because I had done nothing to possibly offend this man but because of my skin color, he had treated me the way he did. However, I overcame this obstacle and it has helped me grow as a person and become more outspoken. I am aware that I may not be the same color skin as majority of this country but that doesn't make me any less of a person. This incident and the many incidents that occur like this helped strengthen my belief to stand up and speak out when situations like this happen. I just hope more individuals can join me whether they are white or colored.