freshman journalism major
I was sitting in Stamp Student Union with the Nyumburu Cultural Center a few hundred yards away. A few inches away from me was my open book, containing anthems of heroes who dedicated their lives to freedom and unfettered expression. A few feet away was a group of people denouncing everything I stand for.
I was sitting in a diverse university, in a free country, in what I thought to be a 21st-century world. But I was wrong.
I was listening to a student stabbing at my religion. He passed a card around from an on-campus Christian group, showing his friends and overflowing with comedic remarks and hearty chuckles.
It’s too hard for him to understand how anyone could believe this, he said. It’s too ridiculous not to laugh at, he said.
By some pervasion of the progressive nature of our ever-diversifying culture, I was in the middle of this situation. I was in a sick wonderland and there were no cute talking animals to pull me out.
My heart broke as I realized that some are still so myopic in their own views that they simply don’t realize the painful ricochet effect their words can have on a complete stranger. I was exhibit A. My blood was boiling and I was shaking, and he wasn’t even speaking directly to me.
I asked him to please stop making fun of my religion. His response? “Don’t worry, I have a lot of friends who are Christian.”
The amount of religious intolerance this student exhibited astounded me. I generally consider our generation to have an incredibly progressive and accepting take on the world and the people around them. Whether that is optimistic or naive, I don’t know, but I refuse to believe that the few cheap laughs he received from his friends were worth the gunshots I felt in my heart at that moment.
People often mistake the freedom to express themselves for the liberty to attack others. You have the same rights as the students sitting on either side of you. I believe that those rights come with the responsibility to respect the rights of others. No matter how mighty you think you are, you have no reason to stand as a gate between someone and their own beliefs.
Eventually, he apologized, but he can’t take back what he said or what I felt. And I’m sure some of his friends didn’t agree with what he was saying, but he couldn’t have known that for sure, and that’s the problem. It’s not about knowing your audience, because you never really can. It’s about being respectful of the possibilities that live behind the carefully constructed, socially accepted reactions.
We’re so accustomed to gracefully dropping ownership in the face of controversy or conflict — or not being “cool enough,” for that matter — and as a result, we keep our opinions coveted and our vetted profiles set to “public.”
I’m all for free expression. You wouldn’t see my byline on this page if not for it. But there doesn’t need to be such a disregard for others in the process. It is possible to hold views different than someone else’s and to do so with consideration.
In the end, when push comes to shove, your weapons shouldn’t be someone else’s beliefs.
Samantha Reilly is a freshman journalism major. She can be reached at sreillydbk@gmail.com.
