Hate and UW-Waukesha

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”   -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hate has been around as long as man has roamed the earth. Whether it has been individual hatred of one another or groups of people, hate is something that has evolved over time into perhaps the most destructive emotion humans possess. Hatred grows out of fear, which grows out of the unknown or unwillingness to know.

This history of hate in America has been well documented, so there is no reason to recap it here. What needs to be recapped is the recent string of hate that seems to have infected the country.

Everyone knows about the ongoing saga involving the Florida teenager, Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed in February in a gated community. Equally as tragic, but yet unknown to the majority of people, is the story of Paige Clay. Clay, 23, was a transgender woman living in Chicago who was found brutally murdered on April 16.

Locally, Carroll University has made headlines over the school’s wall of prejudice. The project was started to raise awareness about intolerance and prejudice. The wall was to be filled by students with names or phrases they had been called to show how much hate still exists in the world. The B-word, the C-word, the F-word, and the N-word were all on the wall. All words are filled with so much negativity and hate, yet so recognizable that you know them without having to spell them out.

While the concept of the wall may have filled with good intentions, the location of it was poorly thought out. It was constructed in an area near an elementary school; hardly an audience that should view such hateful words and phrases.

UW-Waukesha has experienced its own share of hate on campus as well. Bathrooms have been filled with graffiti of hateful and derogatory terms several times in the past. Such hate and discrimination cannot be tolerated on the campus or anywhere in the community.

One of the goals of attaining a college-level education should be the growth and expansion of an individual’s thoughts and ideas. College puts you in a setting filled with people who have come from completely different backgrounds, making college campuses one of the most unique and diverse areas in our society. We should all embrace the uniqueness and diversity in order to learn from one another as much as possible. Just because you see someone with different colored skin from you or a different sexual orientation than you’re used to makes them no less equal to you. Embrace the differences. Learn to love the differences. Those differences are what allows us to come together to create the world we’d all like to live in.

The world has thrived upon the hatred on its people for thousands of years. Hatred doesn’t begin at a global or even national level. It begins with the thoughts and feelings of each and every individual. And as hard as it may be to comprehend, the thoughts and feelings of one individual CAN change the world.

There are wonderful groups on the campus that can help foster the growth of toleration and understanding of diversity. Just because you aren’t African-American, Latino, or Gay doesn’t mean you still can’t reach out to groups like the African-American Union, O.L.L.A, or the Pride Alliance. They would be more than happy to welcome you, if even for a single club meeting. Even though the end of the semester is near, it’s never too late to at least stop by and make your presence known.

The idea that the word “love” is thrown around too loosely in our society in absurd. Love should be given at every opportunity to foster the idea of tolerance and to deter hatred. The only way society can grow into something great is with love. Hate and intolerance will do nothing for us except keep us from getting where we want to be.