How I Introduce Myself

Now that my introduction is out of the way, I want to talk to you about a very important issue; prejudice. To put it simply, we automatically judge people because of the color of their skin, their gender, or even how they speak. Imagine how many opportunities we miss on a daily basis. If a scientist who discovered a cure for cancer in Mexico came to America to tell us about it, but spoke in broken English, we would laugh at him, and continue to allow people to die of cancer.

WAIT, do not be embarrassed or enraged. Stop leaving and listen! I’m not attacking you, I’m simply telling you that it happens. And it happens on BOTH sides. Little white boys grow up wanting to become police officers, and little black boys grow up running from the police. Allow me to explain; this happens with race, and gender. A college application with a female name is far less likely to get accepted than one with a male name. This ideology extends to both males and females, which is sadly a little-known fact. We have taken to blaming all white males, though the majority are good, honest people.

I am technically in the top percentile. I was born white, and in the upper-middle class. However, my father didn’t give me a Y chromosome, so I was born female. And I am very grateful for that. My femininity has allowed me to realize just how unfair and unjust the world really is, especially to low socioeconomic families, and anyone who isn’t a white male.

White guys listening to me, you are better off than any other race and gender, no matter what socioeconomic class you are in. You are constantly being told to speak up. And you are not shunned when you do.

I am enraged at my country. I am enraged that we scream for women to speak up against their rapists, and when they do… the PRESIDENT berates them, and they become nothing more than a punchline. They say we accuse for fame, can you name ANY of Cosby’s accusers? Do they have their own reality shows? Would you recognize them on the streets? Do you even know what he did to each of them?

If I asked for the men here to raise their hands if they know someone who was wrongly accused, there would be almost no hands being raised. If I asked the women how many of them have been made to feel uncomfortable, sexually harassed, or even raped, almost every hand would go up. Even I would raise my hand.

You see, for months I walked an extra half hour every day to get to school. I walked the extra half hour to avoid a single house; a house where every day when I walked past, a man would come out, and tell me to stop going to school, that I’d be better off just bending over his kitchen counter. That my brain is worthless. I did not snap back that I’m a straight-A student with 7 courses and AP and Honors. I did not tell him that last year I won a presidential award in academics. I lowered my head and kept walking. It was made worse when a boy who I knew from school yelled that I should stop pretending to enjoy school, and just marry myself off already. As though I only went to school to get a guy. The worst part of it all, there was another adult guy across the street, he could’ve helped me. He ignored us. I knew the name of the boy who had helped in the harassment. I could’ve reported him.

I, for all my talk of being a feminist, did not report. I just avoided it. Took new routes to school, stayed on the other side of the hallway, and didn’t say a word about it to anyone. I am a 15-year-old. I should not have to listen to people yell about how they’d fuck me. I should not have to buy a personal alarm. I should not have to wish I could carry pepper spray, even though my school doesn’t allow it. I should not have to carry a weapon just to feel safe, in my own neighborhood. In my own school.

So, men. Stop being victimized. Stop pretending that you’re afraid of being falsely accused. Stop. I’m not telling you to, I’m not even asking. I’m begging. I’m begging you to get your head out of the sand. I’m begging you to protect me when I can’t protect myself.

Men, you are not your loudest speakers. Your loudest speakers are the ones who harass and rape women. And you are just as bad. You see what’s going on, and turn a blind eye. You ignore our suffering and pain.

Men, you need to draw a line in the sand. You need to say that the bad ones, the ones who victimize you to support their harassing and raping, are on one side, and that the majority is on the other.

Men, show me that when I report I have an army of supporters behind me, that I’m not standing alone.

Men, show me that I do have a voice. Stop just asking me to report, report yourselves. Know that I do NOT enjoy being yelled at. That I am a HUMAN BEING. That I am more than just a body for you to fuck.

Men, stop allowing these horrid people to define the entire group. Stop pretending to be victims. You are not the victim in this story. You are the bystander. I pray that you will one day become the army that stands behind me, pushing me forward and holding me up against the men who try to define you as wholly bad.