BLK JUPTR

v. the colors + the whites

Joey, Vincent, and Kendrick agreed to meet Jasmine and I at Ted's this morning for breakfast. Though Ted's wasn't far from campus, Vincent offered to pick us up anyway because of safety reasons, which I understood completely. After the party and yesterday's dining hall disaster, I wasn't too set on going anywhere unless it was in a group of people. I opened my closet and and chose a simple white collared shirt and a pair of jeans to wear. I wanted to look nice, but not overdo anything either, it was only breakfast after all. My afro went in a cute puff at the top of my head; I needed to contain my hair since this morning it seemed all over the place. Jasmine wore a white shirt similar to mine, but a pencil skirt and some matching combat boots. When we entered the common room, many girls were watching the ongoing coverage of the murders from two days ago. I was shocked that the coverage was still on, the media usually didn't care when black people died.

Vincent said he'd pick Jasmine and I up near the dining hall. So we sat on a nearby bench, where we could view people go in and out of the dining hall. We make much eye contact with the people around, because some of those same people taunted me in there the previous day. We did notice one black girl coming out, with a ruined outfit and tears in her eyes. Her hair was a brightly colored red, but I could see what appeared to be ketchup dripping from it. There were both brown and yellow colored substances on her sweater and some on her pants, which I assumed was eggs and syrup. Jasmine and I looked at each other, then back at the girl before rushing up to her in order to help her out. Jasmine asked her what happened and she explained that when she innocently went in to go get breakfast, the white students immediately started to cover her in food and drink, or anything they could find to throw on her. I sighed and shook my head. Sure, my experience in there wasn't the most positive, but at least it wasn't this.

Vincent pulled up in front of us, and when he saw the girl, he got out of his car and inquired about what happened to her. He said he'd put in a complaint to the Dean's office this afternoon, and also invited her to have brunch with us at Ted's. She accepted but wwent to go change her clothes first and get the ketchup out of her hair. Jasmine and I sat in the backseat of Vincent's car, trying to make sense with him on why they'd do that.

"It's a damn shame," Vincent spoke, looking at us through the rearview mirror, "that poor girl couldn't even get a bite to eat without getting food tossed all on her. It sounds like she went through a sit-in from the civil rights movement. It's 2017, this shouldn't be going on!"

I was just as infuriated as Vincent was. In 2017 we shouldn't have to worry about segregation when it came to a place to eat, but apparently we still did. Just when Vincent mentioned sit-ins, Jasmine suggested that the black students have one in the dining hall, a peaceful protest. Vincent said it wasn't a bad idea, but he probably wouldn't be able to do it. He wasn't a huge fan of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's "turn the other cheek" method. He stated that if someone put his hands on him, there would be "consequences and repercussions." I was with him on that too, if someone thought they were going to touch me and get away with it, they were very much mistaken.

A minute later, Kendrick called Vincent and asked him where the three of us were. Vincent told him the details of the situation and that we were going to be a little bit late. Kendrick said when we arrived, we'd have a discussion about taking further action. After Vincent got off the phone with Kendrick, the girl got in the front passenger's seat in a clean outfit. Her hair was even washed and blown out too. I was glad to see her in a better mood.

"So, what's your name?"

"Estelle." She then asked us what our names were and we all introduced ourselves.