Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Event Analysis 12/2/08

On the night of November 17th I attended a talk about Loyola College’s Unity Pledge. Omani Guy is a friend of mind and he let me know about it and that I should attend. There were several people who talked about different kind of racism and prejudices that they had faced. To hear that such nasty things had occurred on our campus was mind boggling.

I have two opinions about this talk. One being that racism and being prejudice towards certain people should simply not be tolerated anywhere not just only at Loyola. There was a website that was brought up during the talk that I have heard about and actually read the horrible comments left. Things such as this website just create more drama and conflicts and there are a lot of more productive things people could be doing on campus rather than writing nasty anonymous comments on a website. The stories of being spoken down to and treated differently were upsetting however at a certain point I thought to myself that we are all adults and we need to face the real world.

If we were at a larger school no one would think or look twice at someone who talked about racism, gossip, or conflicts throughout the school. Although the campus should be a nice place to live and interact with others, the real world is a harsh place. The speakers ranged in age from 18-21 and in my opinion at some point they need to realize that the world is not as pretty or nice as Loyola’s campus. Should they have to put up with being treated differently or having comments written about them on a website? Of course not. However Loyola’s meetings and speeches regarding nasty comments about the election and now its Unity Pledge are becoming over done. Loyola’s Unity Pledge won’t be able to protect us forever and we need to be able to handle ourselves once we graduate.

It’s a tough topic because I feel so differently about it. Once side of me knows what it feels like to be victimized and see other people be bullied and treated poorly. However the other side of me wonders when twenty year olds are going to stand up for themselves and teach people how to be respectful, rather than talking about it during SGA talks across campus. As seen in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” the world is not always as nice and respectful as the students across the Loyola Campus. Viola is dressed up in a disguise and involved in a love triangle, there are drunk’s and people who are only concerned with themselves (such as Malvolio). As Shakespeare’s play unravels it reveals to the reader how screwed up people’s lives can become. It’s not an ideal situation that all the characters are in but that’s how reality is. So for me to completely agree with the speech that I went to is difficult because we are now young adults and should be making people respect us for who we are.

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