Mission:
Racism and discrimination on college campuses affect millions of lives. Everyday there are students that walk on campus, attend classes and clubs but they do so in fear. Fearing they judgment by their peers because of how they look or the way they dress. Fear that they will be judged by their college or universities faculty and staff because of how they speak and write, how they dress or the stereotypes and misconceptions that are associated with their ethnicity and hometown. Everyday these students live with this fear and it is not healthy. Racism and discrimination can lead to many health risks and it starts with mental health. When people are face racism or discrimination it affects their psyche. It makes them start to wonder what is so wrong with them that causes a person to look at or treat them with contempt or disgust. Initially we try to ignore these thoughts and feelings because as children we are taught to always love and have respect for ourselves. But when you are of a certain race and live in a specific hometown where either your race is common or your own personal views and beliefs are common and or does not bother anyone, then naturally you begin to have the “Is something wrong with me?” thoughts when you face people who look at you and treat you differently because you are different from what they are used to. Now, this works both ways because as they look at you differently, the same thing is being done on your side as well. Some people respond to this by wanting to make physical changes to themselves. It usually starts off as something small like a haircut or change in clothing style. But others make bigger steps that affect them physically and mentally, such as claiming a sexuality they do not identify with. This causes further mental pain and physical struggles because they begin to force things on themselves so they can fit in but doing this causes the mind to feel pain because they are not being true to themselves. So my purpose with this website is to inform the viewer how racism and discrimination has formed over the years to become a social issue of the world today and what I believe is necessary to combat this.
About Me:
My name is Za’Hir Stevenson and I am a freshman at the Ramapo College of New Jersey. This topic is important to because I am a African American male student. As you will read through the history of this topic, people of African American descent have gone through all the motions of the discrimination and as a person who identifies with that ethnicity and are viewed as someone of that race and ethnic group, I face the risk of being discriminated.