#HispanicLivesMatter?
Last week, one of the girls in my dorm building stumbled upon a Black Lives Matter poster, advertising a speaker coming to give a presentation here at Duke University, which had been defaced with racist graffiti.
The N word was of course thrown somewhere in there, along with the scratching out of the “Black” in Black Lives Matter and the replacing of it with “White.” My friend took a picture of the poster and posted it in our All Duke Facebook page, along with a very well-written paragraph about the constant need for awareness, and received almost 1K likes.
A chain of events followed, and a large group of students posed for a picture in front of our iconic Chapel with the poster ripped in half. I didn’t find out about the gathering until later, when I was catching up with all the events via social media.
I was about to like a picture of the group and their torn up poster, when a comment made by the girl who’d posted it caught my attention: “For those of you continuing to like this picture, yet done nothing else to aide this struggle, please stop. I don’t have time for fake allies.”
Alright. First of all, if you’re going to be sassy over social media, do so with appropriate grammar, please. Yet done nothing else? C’mon, sister.
Secondly, discouraging people from supporting your movement via social media is a form of slow but eventual suicide for what you’re trying to accomplish. I completely back the actions of the students that spoke out against the defacing of the poster, and I think the gathering in front of the Chapel was beautiful and witty. These students acted quickly to make a powerful statement out of what would have been just another ignored injustice.
Why shouldn’t I be allowed to support them online, even if I didn’t do so in person? I understand that it’s frustrating to have tremendous support on Facebook, and then have to suffer these sorts of things alone in the real world, but the reason this happens is because people generally have their own battles to face on a daily basis. Of course I can sympathize and support with movements that don’t directly pertain to me, but believe it or not, I am actively working towards my own version of freedom and justice.
Just last night at dinner, I sat with a group of friends who all have their own distinct stories, but the reason we can all closely identify with each other is because we’re all from different parts of Latin America. My friend from Mexico spoke about a girl he had just met the other night, who asked him if he was, “like really Mexican or Mexican from Spain.” We all laughed externally and cried on the inside. I know I’ve been there, having gotten set up at a party with a guy who was from Peru. The girl who introduced us to each other just knew that we’d hit it off and have tons to talk about, because he was from Peru, and I’m from, you know, Venezuela. Same thing, right?
Granted, these funny but disheartening little misunderstandings aren’t outright racism, but they do prove that there’s enough ignorance to go around in some parts of the world. Even here at Duke University, people just let you down with how little they know about where you come from and what your people have gone through.
Funny as it is, ignorance makes you want to choke these people to death and yell, “Don’t you know that I’d rather be over there than here? That the reason my family fled is because the city I was born in is falling apart? That there’s dictatorship? And corruption? Mass murder and kidnappings? The worst inflation rates in the world? Don’t you know that I have to fear for my family’s well-being every goddamn day, because they weren’t as lucky as I was to get away?”
No, they don’t know. And if you get involved in some kind of social movement, like I have done with Venezuela, you realize that very few people will take the time to learn about the situation, and even fewer will care about it for more than a day or so.
So when people like your stuff on Facebook, or comment something pleasant, or share it, or even take the time to look at it at all, be grateful. It’s hard for anyone to care very much about something that doesn’t directly affect them and the way they live, and it’s for an understandable reason. Everyone is coping with their own demons. I may not have the time to devote myself to every organization that needs supporters, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sympathize and help share information.
Case in point, camaraderie has many different forms. When I’m fighting for democracy and human rights in Venezuela, I don’t expect non-Hispanics to paint their faces in red, yellow and blue (that’s the flag of Venezuela, by the way) and spend their weekends protesting by my side. I do expect them to respect my movement, inform themselves, and then do as much or as little for us as they feel like doing. Even if it’s just taking the time to like a picture or read an article, that’s good enough for me. Thank you for the support.
When it’s you protesting against the dictators, racists, sexists, or evildoers of the universe, I promise to give you the same backing. We’re in this together, random stranger on Facebook. We’re part of a bigger community fighting for what is right.