Activist Act

      Throughout high school and still to this day, I have kept a very close-knit group of friends. There is a group of 5 of us that have been best friends for a very long time. One of my friends is black, and the others are all white. This never seemed like a big deal to us. We never even really noticed it actually, but others obviously did. I am by no means a racist or discriminate towards other races. I feel that this is because when I would see others make fun of or discriminate against my friend, it would hurt my feelings too. Even though I wasn't the one to get taunted, I still felt the pain because it upset my friend. My friend would always tell us not to interfere and that she could fight her own battles but one time I couldn't just sit back and watch. 

      At lunch we had a big group of people that sat around each other in the cafeteria. One of the guys that sat by us is definitely a racist--he even admits it. We've all known him since we were in elementary school and normally he keeps his comments to himself or his close friends but decided to state his mind one day at lunch. In front of everyone he started to loud-cap and make fun of my friend making rude comments like "Why don't you go hang out with other black people", "why are you always with white people", "you'll never be as popular as them cause you're black", "stop liking white guys-- none of them will date you", etc. He continuously called her a "token", and by that point I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up in front of everyone at lunch and fired back at him. I've never called someone out before for being a racist but he took it too far. I'm normally more of a quiet person and keep comments to myself so everyone was shocked when I did this because it was totally out of character for me. I yelled back at him for a good 5 minutes straight while everyone's jaws dropped to the floor. The kid had nothing to say after that; he was speechless. I felt so accomplished and relieved after doing this. I knew it needed to be done and no one was stepping up to the plate to defend her so I took it upon myself. I would do it again in a heartbeat if the opportunity arose again. His comments were totally unnecessary and someone needed to put the big-headed, racist jock back in his place.  My friend still thanks me to this day for it.