Keianna

Leave it to me to make a decent number of the students I go to school with hate me just a month before I graduate. I guess it’s so close to graduation that it doesn’t matter whether or not they like me, but woah I was not expecting this.

I had just watched a video titled “Driving While Black” and it brought up the same anger that seeing videos of racial injustice on social media always does. It’s not fair. It’s not right.

The tweet I posted said simply, “Fight me, White America.” I’m very picky about which people from school follow me on social media, so I wasn’t expecting anything more than the usual retweets and likes. I put my phone down and went about my day. Three hours later, a boy from my school had quoted the tweet and replied, “B**** you look like Steve Harvey.” I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find his lack of a better insult a little funny. Like who thinks of that?

But it did bother me, particularly when people from my school were liking and retweeting his tweet. I received a few more rude tweets but after reporting those they were deleted. The original Steve Harvey tweet is still up and I’ve noticed that it’s one of this boy’s most popular tweets.

I hoped it would blow over before school on Monday. It didn’t. People asked about it in almost all of my classes. I overheard my tweet discussed in a mocking way multiple times that day. My friends were supportive, but I couldn’t help but feel really bad about myself. On my way home from school, a group of boys were obviously taking pictures and recording video of me. I regret not saying anything.

I felt as bad about myself as I did when I was going through a really bad time a while back. I even had panic attacks this week, because I was so afraid that I’d start feeling that way again.

This week hasn’t been the best, but I have an amazing group of friends who were there for me when I needed them. There’s also someone I can be happy for and look forward to seeing soon. My friend Nabil raised $1000 in just four days to fund his dream of coming to Los Angeles. I’ll get to see many of my online friends this summer and that alone is enough to get me through the rest of the school year. ♦