It was when I was attending college at Fresno City College when I was a freshman, barely seeing the real world as what people call it, and all I can say was that I was ashamed. There was another freshman like me, but unfortunately, he was bullied. He was 17 years old just like me, being pushed around by a bunch of white older men who seemed to be in their 20’s at the time. They said that he can't get anywhere because he’s ugly and he looks ugly. It made me disgusted because that's when I knew RACIAL DISCRIMINATION would never go away. I just remember I was so mad that I went up to one of those guys and shoved them. I told them that it’s not so funny being pushed by a girl now is it. That's probably how he feels, thinking I was going to make a big difference but they left him alone. All I can remember were the tears rolling down his face because all he could say was thank you, that those guys had been bothering him since he started the class which was English 1A. And it was just him in a class of white men. He felt instantly left out and no one did anything at all until I did that one day. To this day he is a really good friend of mine, it makes me sad if I didn't do anything, what would have happened. I'm just happy that God put me there at the right time and the right place because it was clear if I didn't stand up for him, no one else was.

 

When it comes to making a change to support racial equality, I think it just takes experience, because I'm a Young Mexican American woman. Even to this day, I get the jokes, and the stares and the insults because I look dark, but my son looks white. It infuriates me, but I just stay quiet because it’s better to be strong and ignore the ignorance of other people than to show my son the fear of letting words hurt you. That's why I strongly believe if you see someone hurting, struggling, begging for help, then HELP THEM. Because you never know what that person is thinking or even what they went through or even to this day going through because of racial behavior.