Last week, Saint Michael’s College held their annual MLK Convocation Week. This week of events included multiple guest speakers, social and racial discussions, and even a poetry SLAM competition. As a student in my fourth semester here at St. Mike’s, I would have to say that this week has been the most enlightening, yet frustrating, experience here thus far.

While a certain amount of students attended these events because they “had to,” I attended because I was genuinely interested in what people had to say about the racial and social injustice in our community today. Growing up in a semi-conservative household, I have always wondered whether my own political and social views of the sort were based on my family’s opinions or if I actually agreed and believed in similar thought processes. I feel that, as a citizen, it is my duty to expose myself to a multitude of different opinions, values, and backgrounds in order to decide exactly what my own opinions are and how to act upon them. That is why I attended the majority of the events from this past week. Figuring out your own values is a personal journey and, frankly, it's not of anyone’s concern unless you wish to share those opinions with others. I am choosing to express my own opinion because, after this week, I have come to the conclusion that this community is not one of active fighters for social justice, but one of passive bystanders who like to complain.

Before anyone gets too “offended,” try to recall the last time that someone gave you an actual example of how he or she has been “fighting the good fight,” rather than expressing to you why he or she is fighting. I have heard my fair share of speeches about this topic and the great majority of them start and end with a finger pointing in your face, telling you that "subject A has been wronged and violated because of subject B" and that "we need to change and fix B so that A can become equal to B and find success!" That’s great and very informative. However, that’s the same thing as telling me that I need to travel cross-country and then telling me that the GPS is broken, the car is out of gas, and I have to do it blindfolded, but there’s a map somewhere in the glove box of a car at the pound. Being a speaker and telling a group of listeners that there is injustice in our society and that it is our responsibility to work together and change it, but not giving us any information on how to do so is a ridiculous concept.

I would venture to guess that the majority of people who attend such events and the speakers are already aware of the “social injustice” in our society. I believe that they have shown up to see if they can hear something new. For example, if I wanted to hear some statistics about how many black men ages 20-25 are in prison because of the sole fact that they are black and just happened to forget the law and go against it, I would look it up on the internet. If I wanted to hear about how a person went to a prison and interviewed these black men, listened to their stories, attempted to understand the reasons why they made their mistakes, and then went out and formed a prevention program for black youth in the inner city to support their potential success, then I would go to an event hosted by this person as she explained that journey. This would be beneficial because telling me how you personally made a difference is inspiring—telling me why you did it is not. Simply acknowledging a problem and making other people aware does not solve anything. Providing actual physical ways to fix something, on the other hand, does and can.

Many people would argue that talking about it is the first step to change and I wholeheartedly agree. It is just that all I see and hear is talking. There is no motion in our society to try and change anything. We are all in this constant lethargic societal structure in which we are content complaining about our problems rather than changing them. I’m sorry, but that can be defined as laziness. Most people will pounce when they're called lazy—retorting that they go for runs, do their homework, and work eight hours a day, but that is not what I mean. I mean that people see this so-called injustice and either write about it on their blog or put their sunglasses on and ignore it. I cannot add up how many times a professor, family member, or employer has asked me, “When was the last time that you had a real, genuine, thought out conversation about racial and social injustice with your peers?” My answer is all of the time. I don’t think that even a week has gone by in my time as a college student where I have not discussed anything along those lines with my peers or classmates, whether it is us trying to figure out exactly what injustice is out there and how we do or do not face it or simply expressing our discontent with the blame that is put on us because we are so “privileged.” My problem here is that all that we do is talk. We can talk, converse, and discuss all that we want, but, at the end of the day, we go our separate ways, into our own rooms and beds and go to sleep—completely forgetting the conversations that we’ve had or waiting until the next time to talk about it. Not once has any one of us suggested that we do something to change any of the things that we are disturbed by.

So, this leads me to ask the question, "If there seems to be nothing to do to change all of this 'social injustice,' does it even exist at all? Does race really matter? Is white privilege real? Is racial profiling wrong?" A simple answer to all of this is no. Social injustice is not real. Race does not matter. White privilege is, of course, not real. There’s no way that racial profiling can be wrong. “No” is a simple answer. However, "yes" is a simple answer too. Of course social injustice exists. Look around you. Obviously, race matters. White privilege is real and racial profiling is obviously racist! There are two sides here. You can either be right or wrong, good or bad, black or white. By saying no to these questions, you are ignorant and racist. By saying yes, you are a liberal millennial who is obviously plagued by this “injustice.” One of the speakers this week touched upon the idea of a binary standard and how you are either one or the other. Backing up your beliefs and opinions with, “But I am not racist,” or, “But you are racist,” gets us nowhere. Expressing an opinion and refusing to work with someone else with another opinion is not the purpose of being opinionated.

My real question is not “Is it?” or, “Is it not?” but how. How do we define the terms that we use? How do we decide what is right and wrong? How is it that expressing an opinion opposite to that of the majority is frowned upon in a society that once prided itself on the idea of having freedom of speech? How can we go about making the changes that we “so desperately need” in our society without the knowledge or tools to do so? If all of this matters, I am baffled by the amount of us who continue to do nothing, say nothing, and stand at a stoplight, not realizing that it turned green a long time ago. I’m not saying that we all have to be superheroes, but I hope that at least fighting for those rights you believe in is something that we still believe in as a society. I came to college with an open mind, prepared to be influenced by other people and their thoughts, but I always thought that those other opinions would be loud, long-winded, and colorful, not just black or white. While you may pick between white or black, good or bad, right or wrong, I’ll be thinking about what those words actually mean, defining words in response to my own experiences, and acting upon them accordingly.