Tensions are rising at UT Austin because of a Facebook page that began activity several days ago – UT Austin White Student Union.
Racial tensions seem to only be getting worse because no one will talk, and no one will listen.
Everyone is afraid of not being politically correct, and white people — including myself — are often too afraid to discuss race and often afraid of being seen as racist.
Facebook pages, much like this one, have been created at universities all over the country, including at Princeton, Loyola Chicago and FIU.
According to its Facebook page, FIU’s white student union is “A safe space to support and promote the interests of students of European descent at FIU! We are a minority at FIU (10%), we need a voice!”
According to Collegedata.com, 10.2 percent of FIU students are white while 70.4 percent are Hispanic/Latino and 12.9 percent are black/African-American.
Many of the comments to the page accuse the group of racism, while some express support. Many pages showing support are European Student Alliance’s from schools such as Yale and Virginia Commonwealth University.
A huge topic of discussion in the millennials and Generation Z — those born after 1995 — children is political correctness.
One side on the grounds of racism, sexist, homophobic and other offensive mindsets. The other side argues that our generation is becoming too soft, and everyone gets offended by something nowadays.
I’ve struggled with where I stand on this. I like to think I am a strong young woman with a backbone. I’m lucky to have been born into a middle class family. As I’ve written in previous articles, I am not sorry for being white, female, politically-incorrect, middle-middle class or whatever other labels you have for me.
Because of my fortune, I am expected to take no part in the racial and class wars going on around me. I am excepted to stray from things deemed politically incorrect.
I can’t and won’t keep silent about this because I need to know one thing: where is this fight going? When will real conversations begin about race begin? When can I be proud of my race and my heritage without making others feel offended or hurt?
Our generation is too worried about hurting each other’s feeling that we have turned every label into something to be afraid of or ashamed of. There is nothing left to be proud of.
There is racism, and I recognize that for those of you who are thinking I am ignorant and/or racist. There are groups out there who still believe in white supremacy, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. Not everyone is ever going to be right. If we all agreed, we’d still think the earth was the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
What I’m addressing, what I’m calling for, is for the educated and young generations to understand that people of all races and backgrounds could and can be proud of who they are. No one gets to choose where they are born, only how they live.
Political correctness was a term that became actively used in the 1990’s as to not put any group at a disadvantage. It was never meant to be integrated into our society socially.
Things are messy and may get worse before they get better. Intentions may not be the purest behind some of these groups or comments, but we need to see the bigger picture. If one group gets to be proud of their heritage, every group should be.
I’m proud to be of Polish-Irish-Swedish decent. The Irish created color photography and the cure for Leprosy. The Swedes created the pacemaker and the zipper. I’m proud of these things, and so should you. Germans can be proud of creating the computer, and Africans invented mathematics. Together as a civilization we keep moving forward. We would not be where we are today without each other. No one made us enemies, we made each other enemies.