In October, The Student Voice visited the annual GSSPA fall conference. While there at a workshop, I was shown my worst fear. Sitting in the lecture hall I was prepared to see photographs taken by a professional photographer and ready to hear the stories attached to the photos. What we were shown was something that hit close to home.
I am not going to lie, at first before much was even said, I was not mentally there. I was zoned out and ready to get everything over with since it was the last session for the day. I was sure that everything that was about to be said was going to enter one ear and go out the other.
However, what I saw chilled me to the bone. There on screen was the photo of a person being arrested by ice agents. My attention was immediately focused on what this picture contained, the context behind it, and how dangerous it was to even capture it. The lecture quickly turned into a real discussion where the photographer mentioned how disturbingly sad and hopeless it felt seeing these people showing up for their court dates only to be detained.
I decided to look around the room to see if anyone else seemed as astounded as I was. That is when I noticed these two girls had been playing mobile games throughout the whole span of the lecture. I would have probably not cared about this if they just did not know what was being talked about, but they literally looked up at a point, saw what was being said, looked at each other and continued to care less about the topic.
Disgust built up in me. I thought to myself, “How can someone be so ignorant of their own kind?” We are all human beings. I was struggling to understand how this topic did not concern them. Seeing innocent people getting arrested simply because of misconceived notions of the current president and his associates. Immigrants are not criminals. They are human beings looking for a better way of life.
It hit me then that there are people out there who, because something does not affect them directly, act as if the world is such a great place. It would not even be acting, they probably do think that.
Apparently privileged people are not just those with money and fame, it is also those who can sit there and enjoy their peace while choosing not to see someone else’s pain. Having empathy for those around us is important. Lately, it seems like everyone is going through something or being affected by what is happening to others and if you are lucky enough to not feel any of that great, but understand that we are all human beings and just because it is not happening to you now it does not mean you are safe.
