It's Time to Love.

Two issues that will be further addressed in our upcoming month of September is cultural and racial tolerance. There are an abundance of untrue and offensive stereotypes present in our society that are abused and shared far too often.

I am a biracial girl, meaning that I identify two ethnicities. I am Filipino-Caucasian, and I felt a personal need to spread further awareness of such atrocious behavior. I would like to bring attention to the fact that an extreme amount of culturally or racially offensive phrases/names are thrown around too easily. These phrases and names need to be eliminated from everyday conversation and dialogue if we are to encourage a more inclusive and equal society. We need to understand that laughing at a racially or culturally offensive joke, or simply not speaking up about it, is only helping to encourage the normalcy and justification of these jokes. With no one to speak up against cultural slander, these examples of intolerance will continue on as common dialogue.

It is vital for our community to also understand that the level of respect that someone is given should not be determined by whether or not they are of mixed race or someone who is not "black enough" or "white enough" or "brown enough", because the shade of someone's skin is not who they are as an individual. Regardless of skin color, people are people. The color of our skin and whether or not we follow a certain culture does not dignify that we are more or less of anything. If you have a certain ethnicity running through your blood, hold it with pride and do not allow false and intolerable comments define who you are. You are amazing and you are important to this country and to the world. Love yourself regardless of your culture, religion, ethnicity, or gender and embrace all parts of you. Fight forever against the hate, and fight with voices that will never be silenced. 

-Aislyn Nihan
VP of Campaigns and Events
Co-VP of Journalism and Publication