On Tuesday I woke up at 8 a.m., got dressed and went to Arabic class, just like I do every morning. I didn't cower in my room, afraid of what might happen to me during the day. I heard about the threats made at Hocking College but they did not make me change anything about my daily routine. I am aware that some people stayed in their rooms and skipped class out of fear and concern, but I feel that by doing this you are giving these ignorant people who made the threats exactly what they want. They want you to be afraid and to run and hide. They want to hold all the power.
As Black people in America, we cannot falter every time someone makes a threat toward us because we know it happens all too often. By taking the day off Tuesday, we are sending a message that we will allow these kinds of racist actions to persist. Because it is Black History Month, we should take a lesson from great civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, who in the face of oppression, did not stay in their respective dorm rooms. I'm not saying we need to become martyrs to the cause, but we should not let these faceless threats affect us.
Whoever wrote those words on the bathroom wall is a coward and I genuinely feel sorry for them. I feel sorry that they had to stoop so low and target a whole race out of anger that probably came after a drunken altercation. This action is a testimony to their character. As Black people, I feel it should take more than a blind, childish bathroom threat to rile our community.
Whitney Clayton is a sophomore studying journalism.
4 Opinion
Letter to the Editor
