For decades infighting has occurred within marginalized groups, not only between Black and brown people, but within Black and brown communities as well. These last three years, there have been at least three major fights that break out every semester. An example of this was the fight in the Lab building that took place about a week ago. And these are only the fights that everyone is able to see. Who knows about the number of fights that occur outside of campus or the verbal conflicts and other problems that arise between students?

This issue has only caused regression within the Black and brown community and must come to an end if we, as people of color, want to finally make a change and beat this system that was created for us not to prosper, not to build wealth, and not to get along with one another. The system was rather created for us to get trapped into this cycle of growing up and being taught that other people of color are our enemies.

Why are these fights an issue? 

They are an issue because this is what is ultimately keeping Black and brown people from progressing. This is what is keeping Black and brown people confined to living a way of life that causes us to either end up incarcerated, or even worse, murdered. Sadly, this is the reality for a lot of Black and brown people. 

From the second a lot of us are born, or enter school, we grow up in an environment that teaches us that you must one-up one another from a materialistic standpoint and be tough in order to show others not only that you are not one to be messed with, but also to show others that if you wanted to, you could coerce someone into doing unwanted actions. And the fights at Hamilton are a prime example of this issue. 

This mentality only harms us. And sadly, many Black and brown students are trapped in this cycle of growing up in a community that teaches us that the enemy is someone from a rival gang, someone whom we dislike at school, or someone of a different minority group. 

And we fail…fail to realize that is what they want.

And you may be asking yourself, “Who are they?”

“They” are the racist white people who have created this system of institutionalized discrimination and have been systematically oppressing us since the moment they stepped foot on this land. 

They do not want us to progress. 

Hence the reason there is a liquor store on every corner in every neighborhood of poverty. 

Hence the reason they separate the Black and brown people in prison.

Hence the reason first responders arrive more quickly in white neighborhoods than they do in Black and brown neighborhoods.

We have to realize that the enemy is not in fact someone who we do not get along with who happens to be from a rival group, or a rival gang, or a rival neighborhood, who also happens to be another man of color. 

We have to realize that the real enemy are the prejudiced white people who look down on us and run this bigoted system that has been systematically oppressing us and institutionalizing discrimination against us.

So while students continue to fight, disrespect, and hate each other, they watch from a distance with smirks on their faces.

As fictional character Furious from “Boyz N The Hood” responded when asked why is it that there is a gun store and liquor store on every corner in neighborhoods of poverty, “They want us to kill ourselves…you go out to Beverly Hills you don’t see that s***. The best way you can destroy a people is by taking away their ability to reproduce themselves.” A local resident then expressed that he has no other option but to kill someone before they get the chance to kill him. Furious then responded, “You’re doing exactly what they want you to do, you have to think, young brother, about your future.”

Three decades later, this lesson is still falling on deaf ears for many students at Hamilton, and for the majority of Black and brown people across the nation.

And we wonder why they look down on us.