Around a couple of weeks ago, I (well, all of us) received a very distressing email from UMBC reporting a hate crime. An unknown male ripped off the hijab of a female Muslim student in Commons. Not even a couple of days after that, we received ANOTHER email about hate crime on campus. Someone was saying racial slurs to another student online while in class/group discussion. IS THIS WHO WE ARE? IS THIS WHAT WE STAND BY??

I hate to make my last post in this class an angry one but I am VERY angry. I understand that a lot of us are under the stress of exams, assignments, and just an over-abundance of work. This is just another reason to be stressed. When I received those emails, I first had to pick up my jaw off the floor because I could not believe something like this could happen. I made sure to race to my Instagram page and go off to my followers as something like this is caused for attention. I had a lot of people who did care that this happened and I had a lot of people who didn’t care.

I have always been someone who is what we call ‘woke’, but in my defense, I think every one should be ‘woke’. I actually looked up the definition of ‘woke’ and people were bashing it. Internet people were ratio-ing others because apparently it just means ‘you find racism in everything’ or ‘fake awareness’. A WORD? REALLY?? People have got to get it out of their heads. If you have strong beliefs over something, then I think you should be able to express them in a healthy way. ‘Before you all come at me because I know some people like to tussle’, no, I am not talking to those people who think that the Earth is flat or people without uteruses who think they can have an opinion as to what happens with them. No, **** off, argue with a wall. The injustice and crimes committed against people is something to care about. The fact that there is subsequent research and evidence that they are being discriminated against is something to care about. Does everything have to be about politics? No, but it wouldn’t hurt anyone if you showed a little bit of compassion.

When the BLM march was happening last year, I made sure to assert myself and make sure that the news was spreading throughout my social media. I retweeted articles, made sure that people knew where to donate, etc. My cousin told me one day, “You know I see that you are posting a lot about BLM, that’s good. I would too but this one black person cut me off when I was driving one day so-“. I’ll save you the rest of that dreadful conversation. Needless to say, I don’t talk to that cousin anymore and I needed to stretch my efforts into helping everyone understand what BLM really means.

When Asian-American and Pacific Islander crimes were rising this year, I also made sure to get the word out about news and what is really happening with this situation. Again, someone had tried to get in the way of that and tell me: “There are Muslims being killed in China right now, I don’t want to address these Asians”. Um? Dude? What the ****? I don’t think they’re the same people? This said person also went to high school with me and did not, I REPEAT DID NOT care about Muslims. They were just doing it for clout and honestly, they were not the greatest person.

When the tensions between Palestine and Israel were rising, many people in my circle were not talking about it. Many people would ask me about what’s going on, what the real situation is and what they can do to help. Other people just thought that it was something that was happening miles away and that they didn’t need to take a stance. So, I blocked them. (hehe)

I am only covering the surface level of what has happened, there are many other things that need to be spoken up about. People tell me that I should just let it go and not worry about these issues. No, I don’t need to be ignorant. I actually went on a spree and unfollowed the racist people that I followed back in high school and I feel so clean.

Do you see why I am so angry? People, PLEASE! I’m sorry to break your little bubble of safety, but you need to see what is going on in the world. I understand that some people are just not into conflict or news like this, but please, it’s happening. Activism is something that all of us possess. Each and everyone of us have something that we are passionate about.

I really hope the people who had committed these crimes (and yes that is a hate-crime, therefore, it’s a CRIME) on our campus come across this post because I would like to say something to them; how DARE you. Who gave you the right to commit atrocities like this and make others feel unsafe on campus. Where did you get the balls. When I find the both of you, it’s OVER. I’m going to **** your ***** and *** **** the ******.

I’m out, peace.