This past Wednesday at Eastern Tennessee State University, a kid showed up to a Black Lives Matter protest handing out bananas while wearing a gorilla mask, overalls, barefoot and he had a noose tied around one of the bananas to get a rise out of students peacefully protesting. The thing is, this is not the first incident like this to happen at a higher education facility. At the University of Michigan, offensive posters advising young white women to not date black men were found around campus and KKK symbols and slurs were painted on walls at Eastern Michigan University.

Why though? You would think students that are furthering their knowledge would be more mature and empathetic towards their peers. The point of going to college is to expand your mind, be exposed to different cultures and races and to grow as a person. It is not a place to intentionally act ill-mannered towards certain groups of people that you do not like.

I know what some of you are thinking, "Those students are just expressing their first amendment right to freedom of speech." Well if vandalizing university property, dressing up as an offensive stereotype and telling women whom to date is your way of expressing your first amendment right, by all means keep doing it, but don't say that a man exercising his first amendment right, taking a knee during the national anthem or protesters saying Black Lives Matter instead of All Lives Matter, is a disgrace to this country because your actions are just as disgraceful.

Our generation is supposed to be the generation to accept everyone not matter their sexual preference and race; we are failing at that. I'm not saying we have to like another, that is not realistic. What I am saying is that we need to be civil, be respectful and coexist peacefully. It's just a fact of life, and the fact that so many of us are struggling with being mature enough to express our feelings and opinions in a proper way that is acceptable for the public is unsatisfactory.

Truthfully, I do have faith that things will change for the better- it is just going to take some time for people to realize all of this fighting and arguing is not getting us anywhere and is actually making us regress. In the meantime, remember that we are all human and all of us have fundamental rights no matter our gender or skin color.

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