BLK JUPTR

vii. post traumatic slave disorder

Overall, I would say that the first Black Student Union meeting of the school year was successful. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't feel like we had a few setbacks during the meeting, the first one being that whatever Kendrick said, Nicole almost always contradicted him. If Kendrick said up, Nicole would say down, if Kendrick said left, Nicole would say right, if Kendrick said apple, Nicole would say orange. Each time, this would spiral into a pointless argument or ridiculous tangent, which led us away from the task at hand. And to be truthful, Nicole probably didn't even really disagree with what Kendrick had to say, she just wanted to piss him off on purpose. If Vincent had not been there to mediate, nothing would've gotten accomplished at all.

Another thing that I found getting under my skin was that it seemed as if people only showed up because there was free food. One of the alumni who graduated the previous year thought it would be nice to cater the Meeting. While the food was much appreciated, it was hard for Kendrick and Vincent to get people's attention when they were distracted by their plates. In fact, a lot of people just took plates to go! It was kind of sad to see people just take advantage of something so important and just not care.

On the brighter side of things, many students were very involved and voicing their opinions on every matter, especially with the subject of the Alt-Right assembling on our campus. There were many different views on the matter; some students thought we should hold a protest, others thought that if we clashed with them in a fight, they wouldn't think twice about throwing hands. However, there was one student that everyone gave a dirty look. One girl in particular, whose name was April, said, "We have to show the Alt-Right love and peace to change their hearts and minds." Even though I 100% disagreed with her, I didn't like how everyone began to yell and scream at her, either. She got up and left, tears in her eyes.

"I'll go talk to her." Estelle got up from her seat and went in the hallway.

"So... Does anyone else have any ideas about getting rid of the Alt-Right since our Dean is doing nothing?" Kendrick voiced to the group.

I stood up, which put a grin on Kendrick's face. "We can do some sort of financial boycott so the school loses a lot of money. And it doesn't even have to be just us boycotting, maybe we can spread the word and maybe even gain a few allies while we're at it."

"Mhm, I like that. Nicole, can you please write that down?" Kendrick asked.

Nicole looked me in the eyes, giving me a dirty look.

"Is there a problem, Nicole?"

"No," she huffed.

Vincent sighed. "Then write it down, please."

She rolled her eyes and scribbled my idea down. The majority of the group nodded their heads in agreement to what I had said.

"What about refusing to pay dorm fees, not buying any campus items, not eating anywhere on campus, and other expenses? That can cause them to lose a lot of money," Joey suggested.

Kendrick took a deep breath. "I think you're on to something. Maybe with some help from the Asian Student Union we can both come together and boycott everything on campus for atleast one month. Unless they meet our demands earlier, that is."

Everyone began to credit Kendrick on how great his idea was, even though Joey had blatantly just suggested it. However, they acted as if Kendrick came up with everything, making Joey upset. He sighed and shook his head.

"All for the greater good of our school, right?" he said to me.

"Listen, I know you thought of it. That's what counts." I touched his shoulder and he nodded.