Eternal Sunshine ✓

35. The N-Word

"So apparently Crest Bay High cares about black folks now, huh?"

The room sounded with laughter, most people shaking their heads at Malik's taunting of Crest Bay High directly in front of its principal.

Crest Bay High School's principal Mr. Jacobsen chuckled awkwardly. He personally knew the black kids gathered in the room were totally correct: the school, hell, the entire town, had for long done a poor job at supporting its small black population.

After becoming principal, he'd promised himself he would do more to make sure the black students at his school would feel represented and seen. Admittedly, he'd been focused on other things throughout the years that he hadn't had much time to truly help in any specific way.

Mr. Jacobsen spoke up from the front of the classroom, "I know that this school has not done as much as it should have to lend support to our African American students. And I know that some of you are now seniors and will be leaving high school feeling ignored. I'm extremely sorry for that."

In the room, the few black students at Crest Bay who were meeting for their biweekly Black Student Union club gathering watched their principal with sad smiles on their lips.

"And as I was saying, the incident that happened yesterday will not go without investigation and serious repercussions."

A bunch of "Finally's" and "Thank God's" were heard around the room as the black students were relieved that the particular incident would not just go under the rug as many others had.

The principal kept talking, specifically directing his words to Tasha, "Tasha, what was done to your locker yesterday was completely unacceptable. Such foul words should have never been directed at you. Never. From the entire school, we're very sorry. I promise you, it'll never happen again to you or any other black student at this institution."

Tasha nodded with a forced smile on her lips. "Thank you, Mr. Jacobsen."

Turning back to the rest of the students, he spoke, "Thank you guys for allowing me to join your meeting today. I wish it was under better circumstances but I'm glad Black Student Union is here to do the hard work. Much thanks to Layla and Malik for being such great leaders. And of course, thank you Ms. Hughes for always standing along with our students and being a darn great teacher and advisor to all of them."

The students broke into applause as he stepped away from the front of the room, giving way for the Black Student Union's President Layla Matthews to replace him at the front of the room.

After more discussions about the club's next community outreach events, playing different team-building games, and holding dialogue on several important topics, they adjourned for the day.

Although the meeting had been fun and filled with love and support as always, Tasha was admittedly feeling spent and ready to literally fall on her bed.

It had been an exhausting couple of days for her, mostly as a result of the shit she'd had to witness yesterday as soon as she'd stepped foot on campus. Even worse, Steven had not been there for her to rely on for such a stressful experience.

On the other hand, she was grateful that he hadn't been there to see what was written on her locker and to witness her literally breakdown. He would have definitely exploded and made matters worse.

He would be back from visiting his grand-aunt Kathy late that night, so he would be back on campus the next day. Tasha had told her friends to refrain from telling Steven what happened in hopes of minimizing the blowout. She obviously wasn't planning on keeping it away from him, but she certainly didn't want him to find out at school because he would be harder to manage.

Truth was, there was a part of Tasha that was simply embarrassed by what happened. Logically, she knew it wasn't her fault that someone called her out of her name by writing obscenities on her locker, but still. She was embarrassed.

Maybe it was the fact that she hadn't seen it coming at all. She had actually been excited that morning when walking into school, so much so that she made it to campus extra early.

So it came as a major shock when she'd made it to her locker and read what was written with a dark black marker on its walls for all to see: 'OUT OF THE WAY NIGGER BITCH'

It almost felt surreal but mostly confusing. Even the bullying she'd received in her younger years had been more 'tasteful' than what had been written on her locker. At least the bullying in her younger years had been more childish and lacking the racial slurs, and those bullies at been tough enough to make fun of her face-to-face.

After seeing the damage to her locker, Tasha had simply taken a photo of it and worked to scrub the writing away from it before class started and the halls filled with students.

Nevertheless, even after she told her friends, she remained confused. After she'd reported the incident to the principal, she stayed confused. And even the next day, seeing her locker back to its natural state, her confusion persisted.

Who the hell had written such words to her? And, why?

She supposed minding one's business did not mean racists would not still do racist shit, but damn.

In cracking her brain to come up with a person responsible for the crime, her mind kept going to Steven. It's because of our relationship, she kept thinking. And even then, Steven didn't have any disgruntled racist ex-girlfriend that would be angered by their recent public relationship, so Tasha remained confused.

At the same time, it ultimately shouldn't have been too surprising to Tasha that a hate crime had been committed against her. It wasn't as though Crest Bay was a very progressive place that upheld justice and love, so things of that nature occurred on a pretty frequent basis. Maybe it was just that confusing to her because, at that time, she was the victim.