Recently, two of my fellow RA colleagues and I presented for the Images of You Diversity Conference on diversity within the presidential election. We discussed a lot of the negativity towards race, gender and age, whether it is in the news, in advertisements, online, or just through conversations and social ideas. We found many racist portrayals of Barack Obama, misogynistic comments about Hillary Clinton, and derogatory comments about John McCain being unable to serve our country at his age, and being close to death. Since Images of You is attended almost exclusively by RA Candidates, we then discussed how to address these issues in the Residence Halls, since political activity is growing so much on college campuses. We received great response to this presentation, and the discussion was really encouraging and optimistic towards an end to ignorance.
Yet even when I feel positive about political activity on campus, I still see, plastered on the Facebook walls of leaders of political groups on campus, offensive statements about race, gender, and age of the candidates that don’t encourage political engagement, but hatred. How can we expect democracy to ever function properly if we as the future of America continue this cycle of discrimination and close-mindedness? As political groups on campus prepare for election season, I hope they start to address this issue.