Personal Narrative: My Hateful Speech

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I grew up in a Caribbean, conservative, Christian, ‘no nonsense’ household, where being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender (LGBT) was not only frowned upon, but unthinkable. This led to my intolerable attitude towards members of the LGBT community growing up, and a great deal of hateful speech during my years in middle school and part of high school. This changed when a friend in high school told me he was gay. I was shocked, and truthfully, I did not know what to do. At first, I did what was natural to me, which was to ignore him, but I realized that this was the wrong attitude and not Christ-like. Therefore, I began to critically think about my hateful speech and actions towards that differed from me. I accepted my errors and from that …show more content…
Similar to Motown, the party brought black and white LGBT students together. There were a bunch of different genres and some of the songs were by black artists like Nicki Minaj and the white attendees knew all the words; however, while students of all races were in the room together singing, it did not seem like they were interacting much. This reminded me of the discussion in class about how there are generations that love black culture, but do not hang out with black …show more content…
He saw the community as a loving and supportive place where anyone could come and hopefully be welcomed. Is the only reason he feels this way be because he fits into the ‘type’ that can actually belong to this group? Like Michael Jeffries said in chapter 2 of Paint the White House Black, “white privilege is a collective, implicit acceptance of whiteness as virtuous, normal, unremarkable, and expected” (Jeffries, 2013). There are certain advantages to being white, and I cannot blame this student, nor any other student that white privilege exists. Instead, I believe that it is our responsibility to speak to our white peers and allow them to us their privilege to help others around them feel welcomed and more included when they can. So while the LGBTQ community at Cornell may not be the most inclusive place, like any other community, solutions can be created after people sit down and have uncomfortable conversations that seem awkward, but are

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