This topic has been on my mind for a while, so tonight I think it is an appropriate time to address it.
Over the course of the year, Black students have demonstrated their opposition to structural injustices imposed by the college and other systems. These demonstrations are almost always met by an influx of comments on Yik Yak, an anonymous media platform.
Because it's finals week, I really don't have the time to go into an in-depth diatribe regarding this issue. But, because this seems to be a common occurrence, I'm going to leave this here for now:
Using Yik Yak as a cowardly tool to veil internalized racism and prejudices against Black and other people of color is simple. In this application, it's a tool for a simpleminded person to ultimately express their simpleminded opinions.
When protests were held at the A-House dining hall, there was a whole community of people there willing to engage in dialogue about why we were demonstrating. Very few people engaged in any sort of in-person discourse, but many took to Yik Yak to ultimately vilify the Black community.
If you have a problem with something you hear, see, read, or otherwise experience coming from a community, it might be a decent idea to find a constructive way to voice that concern. Anonymously perpetuating violence against POC and attempting to silence historically silenced voices is not constructive; it's pathetic.
