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| Diana Lalata Class of 2017 |
One of the things I love most about being a college student is knowing that I have the potential to make a change. College campuses are known to be hotspots for social change, as exemplified in the student-run organization SNCC’s leadership during the Civil Rights Movement. As the Diversity Chair for Student Activities Board, I am able to utilize my leadership wisely to continue the mission of full integration across racial barriers. In light of Black History Month, my committee and I planned an event to bring awareness to the ongoing racial stereotypes in the 21st century, respectively called “Omit the Silence.” My committee and I took greyscale photos of ourselves posed with a single piece of duct tape across our mouths with a single statement that defied a common stereotype based off personal experiences. The pictures were solely made as part of our promotion for the upcoming event, but they soon evolved into a sort of social movement, with students asking me left and right if they, too, could create their own picture to reject the stereotypes made against them. I was pleasantly surprised to find that so many people were interested in joining the movement. My passion for social justice definitely grew and continues to grow through the experience.
First, for those of you who don’t know me that well, I am going to let you in on my life. I want you to get to know me and what I stand for. So here’s a big part of my life. I am writing this to not only reiterate my passion for social justice, but to explain the meaning behind “Omit the Silence.”
First, I want to share my background with you. I grew up in Decatur, GA, which is located just east of Atlanta. The population was made up of mostly African Americans—I only had one Caucasian in my fifth grade class all throughout my elementary/middle school experience—and yup, you guessed it, that one white person was my teacher. I was raised to think that there was a never-ending racial battle between minorities and white people—that we were always to be seen as victims and Caucasians as victors.
In 8th grade, my life took a total turn. I moved to Liberty, MO, a small town right outside of Kansas City. The demographics of the community were suddenly devoid of the color I was used to—for the first time in my life, I felt scared of being a minority in a town marked as predominantly white. However, I learned to adjust to the cultural shock. Before I knew it, I blended in socially with the “white people” just as I had once been a part of the “black community.”
Moving to Louisville in the middle of my junior year, I was immersed in such a diverse community in which my school held a pretty even split between black and white races, as well as Hispanic and Asian representation. It was not until this point in my life that I realized there was a huge gap between the two communities I once lived in that Louisville seemed to blend so well.
My observations? In Atlanta, there was animosity from black people who felt victimized by white people. In Kansas City, there was an evident racial gap that the community seemed to disregard either because of their lack of knowledge of what minorities see as “white privilege” or deep-rooted beliefs in white supremacy that failed to fade away as we entered the 21st century.
Racially, I am not a member of either community and cannot take sides. I get to see both sides of the issue. I see the hurt and misunderstanding coming from both sides. I have lived it; I have friends that experience racial injustice on a daily basis, and even friends who unknowingly and unintentionally contribute to this injustice by supporting stereotypes.
It is unacceptable for my friend, a black male, to be stopped on the street and randomly checked for illegal substances by a white cop, solely because he looked “suspicious.” Did he look “suspicious” or did he just look “colored”? On the same note, it is unacceptable for my supervisor, a white male, and undoubtedly one of the most open-minded and tolerant people I know, to be accused of being racist simply because of his skin color. You cannot feed into the stereotypes of any group because it is this misjudgment that causes injustice and inequality.
It is evident that social stereotypes still play a huge role in sustaining injustice. Just take a look at your Twitter, maybe there’s a tweet from ThingsWhiteFolksLike about “getting fist bumped by your black friend” or even BlackTwitter using the hashtag #StopWhitePeople2k15. When can we overcome these racial barriers to fully live out Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream?
However, it is not enough for me to limit my focus on the racial barrier between black/white. I, too, have been discriminated against for my race in both settings. And this is where my passion for social change in order to meet ends across multiple racial barriers comes in.
Let us start the conversation to eliminate all of these stereotypes that inevitably allow us to hurt one another. This is the reason behind all the greyscale pictures you see on social media asking you to #OmitTheSilence. We are not asking you to simply “stop” the silence—we ask that you completely OMIT the silence, take it out of the equation. Speak up for yourself and others. Put an end to this vicious cycle of stereotyping individuals based on their physical appearance or based on perceived cultural stereotypes that may be inaccurate. It is ultimately up to us to change the judgmental and stereotypical culture that we live in today so that the world will not have to continue to experience the unnecessary animosity later in life.
Let us defy what does not define us—let us Omit the Silence.
Diana Lalata is a sophomore McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. She studies English and political science.