Break Time!

Hey peeps! So…. Story Timeeeee…. late last night I was laying in bed scrolling through snapchat and saw that someone (I won’t say who) had posted a few videos on their snap story. Unfortunately it was not at all a lighthearted video. The videos consisted of them and a few of their friends following an innocent muslim man on the street and had captioned the video “terrorist”. The individual taking the videos was maniacally laughing while shouting things such as “Go drop another bomb” and “Who let you in here Muhammed” while filming. Did I also mention this individual was simultaneously throwing eggs at this man?. The man realized he was being filmed, continually asked them to stop filming him and they refused. My heart was broken for this man and I was sick to my stomach knowing he felt defenseless. I could hear the embarrassment and pain in his voice as he kept saying “please stop taping me.I’m not a terrorist. That’s not what I am”.

It absolutely disgusts me that this man’s privacy was not only forcefully invaded, but in a way he was religiously and racially stripped of everything within a 20 second video on a SOCIAL MEDIA SITE. Regardless of who you wrote on that Presidential ballot, or where you stand politically, if you can’t see that something like that is absolutely wrong, that is a major problem. I can’t and won’t stay silent about any form of bullying, whether it’s behind a computer/phone screen, or in person. It is absolutely unacceptable. Which brings me to an even bigger question: "What makes people think behavior like this is okay? and WHY do they think this is okay?" I of course didn't have the answer right then and there but I wanted to think about it more. Why would someone think that kind of act is funny? I will never know, but I do know that I won't tolerate it.

And so because of this, I have decided to go on a social media break for a while. I’ll continue to post on Facebook every once in a while and update blog posts of course, but I need to take a breather. Partly because social media in general takes up too much of my time anyway and also because the world seems to have a unanimous lack of clarity at the moment. For some reason social media recently has been pushing a lot of us to think from a standpoint of “All about me me me”. I too am unclear and still processing all that is happening politically but we as humans cannot continue to live in this world of hate, judgement, and anger toward one another. Regardless of where you stand politically, I implore you to please lead with love.

If that means that continuing to be vocal about any form of mistreatment toward people, or any issues that you’re passionate about, then so be it. I definitely will continue to be vocal about all of those things, just not behind a computer screen as much. And of you do choose to be vocal, please speak from a place of empathy and understanding. You might not always understand why people are the way they are, why they do what they do, or think what they think. At the end of the day behind that political view that your opposer has that YOU think is wrong, is a person. They’re just as much of a human being as you are. I myself have struggled a lot to realize that lately but I need to, We all need to. So with that, go out and fight for the equality, truth, and love that each and every person deserves but lead with love. Stay informed, stay aware, and empathetic! I love you all and I’ll be posting again very sooooooon :)