Bake Sale at UT

So, it was a bake sale at University of Texas (nothing good ever came out of Texas except for Morpheus, and even he doesn't like the place), protesting Affirmative Action.

(http://college.usatoday.com/2016/10/26/young-conservatives-ut-bake-sale-racism/)

(https://www.texastribune.org/2016/10/26/affirmative-action-bake-sale-ut-austin-met-protest/)

It's Engl 201A where we are asked to write responses to various new items in our journal to turn it at the end of the semester. I asked the English instructor if he actually read them, to which his answer was "sometimes." I hardly find the motivation to write material he isn't going to read without the guarantee of him not reading it. In other words, if he told me for sure he wouldn't read it, I would probably be more open and, possibly, more honest in my reply. I understand it is just writing practice, which is helpful--really.

I don't write a single word. I'm completely horrified, and I feel my pulse going up, pending anxiety. I instinctively put my hand to my mouth.

The students at UT are not hosting the mentally ill bake sale, where prices depend on how severe your disorder is (schizophrenics would get cookies for free!), but this is solely a race and gender issue.

So, why am I so upset?

I can't help but think about Maria, who sits next to me on my right, the only student in Engl 201A who bothers to converse with me and how she deals with racism as a Mexican American. Just before class, she told me a story about how she was in a supermarket and she spook to her kids in Spanish, and she was reprimanded by a white woman who told her to speak in English.  She says she told the lady that she could talk in English as well.

"People say, 'oh you're taking our jobs,' " she tells me in a demure tone like she just expects people to treat her like shit.

I want to tell her that I understand discrimination, but I can't find the words. Something about how she is working, and raising her kids--and taking four classes in college--for some reason, I feel like I don't have much to complain about.