There are many racial and prejudicial divides which still exist within this country. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the subsequent popularity of the phrase “Hands up, don’t shoot” clearly displays a heightened American awareness of these issues. This is extremely encouraging and I hope that some significant reforms are made within the criminal justice system in the near future. Moreover, the recent legalization of gay marriage and increased public awareness regarding issues of gender identity are cause for further celebration. Overall, social justice has been and will continue to be a force for good in this country.

That being said, I would like to voice some concerns that have been brought to my attention lately. While there are many interconnected social justice movements in this country which are justified in their desire to see change, there are segments of those movements which breed divisiveness, inefficiency, and flat-out ignorance. It is truly unfortunate that many college campuses have become a breeding ground for these chapters.

The now viral video of a University of Missouri professor desperately trying to block a reporter’s access to a public area where a protest was occurring is commonly and understandably cited as evidence for this kind of divisiveness. The University of Missouri also gained national attention when its president Tim Wolfe resigned in the face of increased protest and outrage on campus. Students demanded his resignation following a series of racially motivated events that occurred on campus. Apparently, racial slurs were yelled at black students on several occasions and a swastika was drawn in feces on a wall.

In complete honesty, I fail to understand how this was Wolfe’s fault. Whoever drew the swastika on the wall did it in feces because he/she is a moron, not a racist. Racial slurs are obviously unacceptable in this context, but why should Wolfe be held responsible? A student by the name of Jonathon Butler actually fabricated a claim about being “struck” by a vehicle that Wolfe was riding in, and then demanded an apology. I feel as though students simply want to feel outraged about something. We crave the dramatic conflict it breeds. We enjoy it.

A group of protesters at Claremont McKenna College organized a protest, which was attended by the president of that school. He agreed with everything that they said, but somehow the students managed to find some insignificant reason to be upset with him. They actually refused to give him a megaphone in order to talk to them. Students regularly misuse the term “white supremacy” throughout their rhetoric and consistently demand recognition of colonial genocide and white privilege, despite the fact that those issues are regularly discussed in nearly every English, history, and social science class.

Many of the demands in 77 schools throughout the country are, quite frankly, ridiculous. These include firing teachers that the students don’t like, demanding that race becomes a priority in selecting staff instead of qualification, drastically increasing funding of student social justice organizations, banning the social media application Yik-Yak, creating separate housing for black students (segregation?), and a myriad of other ultra-specific, occasionally nonsensical demands. In the case of the University of Missouri, the protesters made even more demands after the first ones were already agreed upon. Saying "Yes" the first time will never be enough. Moreover, some of the demands made to various schools are riddled with grammatical and structural errors, making it quite difficult to discern what the students are requesting at times.

This has to stop. Please. Our generation is already looked down upon as one of the most entitled in history. Our continued insistence on demanding everything based on the achievements or hardships of our ancestors who have been gone for centuries only stokes the narrative that we are incapable of forging our own future. We must fight for true justice, not false outrage.

More stuff that you should probably see:

A thousand students protest something that was already properly handled by the school: http://abc7news.com/news/berkeley-high-students-pr...

Then they (of course) demand resignations: https://www.thefire.org/yale-students-demand-resig...

Someone said something that they didn't like: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/11/07/...

Yale student confronting (screaming at) professor.

Meet the student who screamed at her professor: http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/09/meet-the-privile...

An enormous variety of courses which offer advanced education about these issues already exist in many schools: http://wgst.missouri.edu/courses/currentsemester.h...