Dear Estrella,
Thank you for your well thought out Wespeak. Upon reading it, however, I could not help but notice that you graduated over a year ago. Are you still on campus to observe Wesleyan’s current dynamics? About two weeks ago a Wesleyan student yelled racial slurs at my friend. I confronted him and he pushed me several times and spat in my face.
Is that your definition of a bubble, Estrella? I do not think my problem is that I need to “grow a thicker skin.” How exactly would one do that, anyway? Simply ignoring the hatred and biases that permeate so much of this campus and the outside world won’t make it simply go away. I will confront the racism, sexism, transphobia, classism, and heterosexism I see here just as I would confront it anywhere else. And I know I am not alone in that.
So many people do not feel safe on this campus, and for very good reason. Students like the one who assaulted my friends and me two weeks ago are as much a part of the “real world,” as are the people standing up to them. Instead, people like Estrella turn these acts onto the students and people confronted with hatred and biases. It is not my job or anyone else’s to “grow a thicker skin.” If people do not stand up to oppression, to hate, it will not simply go away. These words do not simply apply to Wesleyan, but also to the world in which Wesleyan is very much a part of.
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