I’m 19. I’m a junior In college, (yes I graduated early).

This one girl that I have 3 classes with can’t seem to stop being racist. I’m Hispanic. Every time she comes around me, she makes remarks about Hispanic people.

Today I was sitting alone at a small table, just using my phone. Her and two of her friends came to my table, sat down, and had a feast in front of me. Yes, there were plenty of other seats available for them but I guess they wanted to sit with me. I had headphones in but when my music stopped playing, I started to hear their conversation. She was talking about how “Spanish people” can’t cook and their food is “nasty as fuck” and how we can’t control our “bad-ass kids” etc. Mind you, they were all eating Spanish food! This is not the first time she has badmouthed Hispanic people and it’s disgusting. She also makes comments about me when I walk by. Another day she looked at me and then turned around to block my path in the hallway and laughed with her friends when I pushed by her. Just so childish.

She even asked a Chinese girl in our class if she eats dogs or rats multiple times. The girl responded “no” but she went ahead and let everyone know outside of the classroom that the Chinese girl eats rats and dogs. The professor, who is Filipina, allowed this conversation, and even joined in, because she likes to play favorites.

Anyway, the situation led to a really big argument. I can only ignore things for so long. According to her she didn’t know that I was Hispanic but the comments she made should’ve been kept to herself no matter what ethnicity I was. Its called having respect and basic human decency. This is a college. There are people from many different countries. You can’t just walk around and say whatever you want about someone else’s culture.

One woman that spoke to me refused to call the comments that were made racist. She insisted that the comments were prejudice. But let this have been a white on black issue and the first word to use would’ve been “racism”. But because the girl is black and I’m also a minority, apparently it’s not racist. She also claimed over and over again that the college building is a public space and they can sit wherever they want and I understand that but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. They were other seats available but that was not the big problem. Sit down at my table? Fine. But don’t CHOOSE to sit with me and disrespect my culture right to my face and expect me to continue to stay quiet.

I was suspended and set home just for today. Was I wrong for defending my culture?