#iwasmad

Like I’m honestly so tired of people not understanding that what we see on a daily basis impacts the way we interact with each other. Especially when it comes to race.

It wasn’t until I was “woke” (I really do hate using that word because I feel like it’s lost its meaning and some people are just saying it because they think it’s the right thing to say but I digress) that I began seeing the realities of being black in America. I went from a high school full of minorities and then went to a predominantly white university that had a history of slavery. There are practically no black faculty and most of the time that you see a black person they are cleaning up after you or serving the food in the dining halls.

At first, I was heartbroken at the fact that my people only had worth when something needed to be disinfected or mopped up. Now, I really just makes me mad. It doesn’t make me excited to be at a school that doesn’t have more people like me walking around but insists on creating a more “diverse” community. (And don’t get me started on the word “diverse”. It’s a political move and that’s my opinion soooo) And that’s just what I see at my University. I never realized that my university is just a small example compared to the way that America operates.

Representation in society and especially in media shapes the way that we see ourselves in terms of beauty, potential, intelligence and other aspects of life.