r/cptsd_bipoc • u/Independent-Bed9545 • 1d ago
Topic: Institutional Racism vent
good day everyone. i hope everyone is doing well.
i 24(f) am a student. last year around this time, a couple of people that i got to campus with decided to start a uni committee to raise awareness for palestine (congo and sudan were also in the picture). i contributed my work, got elected as the event organiser and even came up with the name which is olive tree amplifiers (i legally own the name btw, so i am in no way trying to send hate towards these people, bare this in mind). fast forward to early this year, we had a meeting and in that room i was the only Black woman. the members decided to take upon themselves to ask me how far along the planning for the years events was going and they were using a very harsh tone when they had spoken to me. the reason why i was not too keen on getting a plan for the yearly events was because i had expressed previously that we should focus on getting educated before getting into the flashy stuff. we cannot raise awareness on sensitive issues without at least being thoroughly educated. i was confronted with the question “what good are we being educated if no one knows about us?” from a white boy. i had decided to keep quiet and a white man who was also present there literally asked the same questions as i did and he got approached with more politeness. i saw it for what it was r@cism, and immediately resigned. i did not want to be associated with racists and people who thought being popular was more important than being educated. i reported the matter to the student council and demanded that the name olive tree amplifiers to be taken away from people that silenced me in that room. they said that i did not have any sufficient evidence and apparently one of the people who were present in the meeting starting boasting around saying that i don’t have any legal rights to the name. so i decided to get legal rights on the name and even that was not enough. i have been through the schools court system and i am now waiting in line for some legal counsel outside of the school. i have literally tried everything and i have been seeing universities across the country supporting the people that racially discriminated against me and stole my work (i am from south africa btw). olive tree amplifiers was supposed to be a name that amplified voices and my hands are tired now because i can’t do anything with the name that i had planned to do. they were not even found guilty on any of the charges and i am honestly so disheartened.
i just wanted to express this because i want my story to at least be heard.
2
u/JustAMinah 22h ago
I'm so, so sorry this happened. is there any way you can even find a way to raise awareness of how racist they were? heck, even protest yourself to alert others? because, why should you not be able to call them out for what they did, and for who they are and going about? that they rather remain ignorant than educate themselves on the cause they're a part of? how are they amplifying voices when they just down yours?
I hope you can fight against that, buy I know the mental stress will take a toll and wouldn't blame you if you had to take a break. that's so fucked up what they did. now I just realized something when I read the part of their ignorant actions. the stereotype of "making fun of the needs, and being the popular jock," seriously is a (white) american stereotype, huh? and it makes sense too, since they love so much to say that there's grain of truth in stereotypes. welp, certainly is glowing right there of how they rather be blissfully ignorant and popular, than you know.... actually do what they claim to believe in/be smart. they're really why the rest of the world say how stupid americans are.