Although we wear our skin literally, if you think about it, it’s kind of part of our fashion sense. We know what colors best compliment our skin tones. We know when to show more skin and when not to. And like the clothes we wear, in terms of our skin, there are times when others don’t like what we’re wearing. They’ll say negative things about what you’re wearing and maybe discourage you from wearing it. When this happens, I encourage you to not fear those who are against what you’re wearing. Not even to get angry. Well, maybe a little. But at the end of the day, embrace what you’re wearing.
I’ll stop beating around the bush. If you can read above a sixth grade reading level, you understand that the whole wearing your clothes and wearing your skin metaphor a paragraph earlier was about what’s been going on around campus. White people have been acting out since that cheeto puff got in office, huh? But I’ll save that for my Prindle Post article (check it out sometime next week). But we all know about the writing at the Inn that looks like it was written by a fourth grader. The poor attempt at a Stonehenge at the Nature Park. The little Hitlers meddling in campus bathrooms. And, of course, the student wearing blackface who’s been living under a rock and hasn’t seemed to take a PPD course during their time at DePauw. I could’ve sworn those were a requirement. With the two courses that I got after schedules came out, you’d think that everybody wants a PPD.
But I digress. What I’m trying to say is that students of colors’ identities have been bombarded with attacks this past weekend and it’s hard to thrive on campus when you constantly feel attacked for the color of your skin. If you can’t understand what I’m saying, I hope that your whack email to a professor for a SPAC for a class that you won’t even participate in gets aggressively declined.
So, to the students of colors who feel unsafe on campus, I feel for you, since after all, I am one of you. You shouldn’t have to be weary of wearing your skin on campus, PWI or not. But this isn’t just for all POC and the goofy white supremacist(s) on campus. It’s for the black girls who’ve been told they’re too dark to be attractive. It’s for the students of Middle Eastern descent who are seen as terrorists and the black men that are seen as thugs.
I can understand how you feel. I can understand being angry at the administration and afraid for your safety, unsure of how you’ll continue your education here at DePauw. Perhaps this thought will at least help you get through the next few days. These people who are attacking our identity, whoever they are, are seriously lacking in courage. They write obscenities here and there with the hopes of breaking you down. Prove them wrong. Use their cowardice as an opportunity to embrace who you are and the skin that you’re in. *drops mic*
