Nefertari Williams: Students Protest and The Truth

Truth seems to be beyond reach as of late. Even definitions of words can be left to interpretation. The questions that young people longed to have answered as they eagerly leave high school during this graduation season and enter the colleges of their choices seem to have turned back the hands of time to over fifty years ago. Is history repeating itself as college students lock arms to protest issues that our parents thought were resolved issues back in the 1960’s? 

 

Regardless of  how I feel about the current geopolitical conversations that the news stations are discussing daily, I would never be as bold and brave as the college students that are protesting today. Some of these students stand firm in their beliefs and risk being expelled for what some argue are their constitutional rights – the freedom to peacefully assemble.

 

It is very scary how the narrative of what some of the students are saying have been twisted by some of the news agencies. A student will make a very clear statement and the news personality will clearly spin their words to whichever narrative fits the political angle that particular news outlet generally covers. This isn’t the way those of us raised in the 80’s experienced “news”. When a reporter told a story, for the most part, we were told and unbiased version of the facts and allowed to form our own opinions as to right or wrong. 

 

These days watching our young impressionable students peacefully protesting with locked arms chanting how they feel about a situation that is happening in our world; Their words can be clear, their signs can have words that are easy to read yet somehow their message is being sent out into the world differently than how they are intended. We the television watchers are being told that what we are seeing is not what is actually happening. Trust is no longer truth. 

 

As a mentor to our youth I must admit I feel helpless in these situations. Some topics are not to be discussed in this country. The tragic topic that they’ve bravely chosen to tackle at such a young age could cause some of “adults” to loose employment, contracts, professional relationships and more should we chose to speak on the subject. 

 

As sad as it may be the best some of us older people can do is to tell our college students to remain silent. I feel cowardly not speaking out but until black is black and white is white, most of us can’t risk losing everything, being ridiculed like we were during the BLM protests. Although most humans would agree that leaning on a man’s neck until he can’t breath is wrong, a large portion in this country found a way to turn it around to imply that some lives have more value than others and the rest of us have been paying for our decisions to speak on every since. 

 

We don’t want our children to be branded, labeled and mistreated just because they have an opinion about humanity that some may disagree with.

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