Say it to my face next time

There have been some instances where I've caught myself getting into a heated argument over social media. The most recent one I can account for was over Instagram, where there were many people that had strong opinions about this one particular post. Let me tell you what happened. 

The post of "controversy", which it wasn't, was a video of this African American teacher getting told by one of her students, who was also African American", that she had gotten accepted in to Princeton. Obviously, the teacher was over the moon about it. She went over to give the girl a hug saying how proud she was and things like that, and commented "and you're a black girl" and gave her another hug after she said that.

The line, "and you're a black girl", was what caused the backlash on social media. All of the people who commented on that line saying they had an issue with it were White people. The arguments they were saying were things like, "Why mention her race? That was very inappropriate", or "What is that supposed to mean? That's racist". 

Of course, I'm reading all these comments and I am rolling my eyes and shaking my head the entire time.

Gif via Tenor

The whole reason why this teacher mentioned the race of the student was because she knew how big of a deal it was for to get into a school like Princeton. Any minority will understand that the struggle to match White Americans and be on the same level has been anything but easy. This teacher, who is Black, knows the struggles of being a Black person in America. Seeing her student get this opportunity of a lifetime is an accomplishment, not only for the student, but for the Black community. It runs so much deeper than people realize, and it was clear that the ignorance of these individuals commenting showed their clear misunderstanding about it. 

There was one individual who had the audacity to say that this comment of the teacher was totally unnecessary because he said systematic racism does not exist anymore, and that Black people do not struggle in America anymore. Of course, I chimed in saying how wrong that was. Long story short, I gave him my two-sense and basically said he's ignorant and stupid. He came back at me, of course, saying that I was an idiot and had no idea what I was talking about. 

I was getting very heated in the conversation, because what he was saying was so wrong and idiotic. If I had this conversation in real life...it could have escalated. 

Gif via Tenor

I don't think I would have done anything differently in this situation. Who knows if this guy would have said those things in real life. I can say this, though, that I am a passionate person and can get emotional. When topics such as race and equality come up, I am always an advocate for minorities because being Latino, I know the struggles in which minorities have to go through. I may not have had to struggle in life myself, and I am grateful for that, but I know many who have and know that color and ethnicity still play a big part in that today. 

At the end of the day, if this was something that were to happen in real life, I would not hold my tongue to such blasphemy. I'll always fight for what I feel is right, and I won't shy away from it, regardless of who it is coming from.