Unite CV. Oh, what a wonderful idea! Let's mold some cheap green rubber and mold the world UNITY on them and find cheap Ghandi, MLK and Angelo quotes and the campus will become the racially equal oasis we all love to watch in Old Navy commercials. Ideally, what a great idea. We'll have the preppiest, but definitely most open student leaders parade around in decorated t-shirts and engage in fun workshops about unity. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely an ambitious plan sparked by a noble goal. However, reality has to come into this doesn't it? CV is enclosed by so many barriers. It has been safe and unified through these past years. Unified by its conformity to social standards. Now we've got kids who aren't gonna adapt to that standard. We have kids from poor families, black kids from Hayward, hispanics from San Leandro. Yes, they are different. Yes they will fuck you up when you front. Welcome to the world one caste level below us middle class folks. It's reality and reality doesn't tend to go away and it doesn't tend to change over short periods of time. Why do I write about this if we're gonna leave in half a year? Cause I can see the racism starting to surface out of people who I didn't think had it in them to be so hateful. Sure, I am racist myself. I have my pre-concieved notions that black people steal and mexicans fight. And yes, the tendencies do match with statistics and all that. So now you're saying if statistically these racist ideas are backed, then why try to get rid of them? I think it is because of the fact that there tends to be good people in every group. Whether it be gangs of church-goers, we have the good and the bad. We cannot let our ideas about race limit us in expanding our horizons. Difference is what changes us as human beings in society. We learn from the gap, and we cross it to find another one. We must search for these differences and learn from them. I know black people who smoke pot and talk ETREMELY LOUD. But they also are as loyal to their friends as anyone could imagine. I know asians who are the top students of their class but lack compassion and humility. I can't stand the rampant racism comming from some of you. Sure, at times we are racist, but the end result was never to hurt. It was never to be racist, it was to make fun of people we know. I can see why some of the black kids annoy all of you. After all, they can be loud and obnoxious. But that is their right and culture. It is not their fault you guys seem passive and quiet to them. We can't be nearly as expressive as the black man can. The violence is a sad counterpart to this entire racist issue. The violence is real, we all know it now. We know that people have been mugged and attacked. The muggings have nothing to do with race. DO NOT connect such actions with black people or mexican people. Violence is not a race related action until we make it one. Racism is such a sad part of the human experince. It is a plague that begins with fear and ignorance. Do not think that because you are racist and confrom the the majority of racist students that you are now safe in your little bubble of comfort. You will miss out on what the world has to offer and you will never change with it. I will no longer stand the racism anymore. My actions do not stem from a stupid green bracelet, remember that. I do not want to hear anymore utterances of fag, nigger, spick, chink, and all those other derogatory terms. CV will not change soon. But we will deal with this issue throughout our lives. Step up, grow up. Stop the racism not because its the thing sensible adults tell you to do, but its the thing you know you'll have to do to succeed.
"In order to survive we must change, but in order to change we must survive."
- A sign in my elementary school's cafeteria.
Stephenat10:59 PM
