Outside event

I went to the race talks in with Dr. Crutcher THC. They were really fascinating to hear everyone’s stories and different experiences. Though I  am personally a white student and these acts don’t immediately impact me, they still shook me to my core. The fact that people on this campus had the audacity to write those actually astounds and disgusts me. I was really moved while listening to all of the stories because I realized that I have so much to learn. As a white person, I need to be an ally, and that doesn’t mean just not committing racist acts myself but standing up and speaking out. I have to learn how to be a better ally to people of color and how to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. Hearing the anger and the disappointment in the stories really helped me realize that this is not just a person of color problem, this is a campus-wide problem that we all must do our part in because that is the only way that anything will ever change on this campus. All I can hope for at this moment in time is that I learn how to be better and that every other white person on this campus learns how to be better so that we can support the people on this campus who are fighting for change. 

This ties into what we are talking about in class not only because we talked about these events, but also because when we think of leaders we often think of white men. Throughout my leadership and the humanities course we often came back to the same issue of societal norms. As a country we have decided that the quintessential leader is a tall, white, goodlooking, man. Which is detrimental to everyone who does not fit that mold. I want to use the advantage that I was born with to learn about and try to support people who were not born with the same advantages. I’m not sure how to do that and I am just starting to learn but I believe that if everyone just tries to learn about different experiences and use that knowledge to become an ally, then the United States may become a better place for people of color because right now we are not doing good enough.