https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqIdabDWNRs

            On October 26^th, a table with Trump merchandise on it was flipped over by a Pitt student. Since then, articles have appeared online reporting this as a Pitt student “violently attacking” Trump supporters, and have claimed that this proves that “special snowflake millennial” liberals are hateful and intolerant of any views that aren’t their own.

Give me a break. Here’s my response to this absurd claim:

Obviously, this isn’t a preferred choice of action, and one that I personally didn’t and wouldn’t have chosen. I saw the table while walking around on campus and considered having a conversation with the white male students on issues of race and gender. However, as I was passing by, I heard one of them make fun of oppressed peoples with the joke “My phone doesn’t even have 4G right now, why am I so oppressed!?” and decided it wasn’t worth my emotional energy. That being said, I completely understand why this student reacted this way. This was no “violent attack.” No one was hurt. No one was harmed. No bodily damage was intended. Quite frankly, I don’t understand why conservatives continue to equate property and human life in their value. This wasn’t violence, it was a protest (not necessarily peaceful, but not necessarily violent either) against the hatred and vitriol that continues to be spewed against racial minorities and women.

You think liberals are the “special snowflakes”? How about these middle class straight white men who have had everything given to them and live in their own little privileged bubble? You think protestors are “violent”? How about the violence of allowing racial minorities to be systematically killed and imprisoned by the criminal justice system while also mocking any voices that try to speak out on these injustices? You think protestors are whiny crybabies that block out other perspectives? How about straight white men who whine and cry and label people as “feminazi SJWs” when anyone brings up ideas that challenge the oppressive societal norms that they are so comfortable living in?

Do not ask us to be tolerant of intolerance. Do not ask us to be respectful of your hatred. Do not ask us to empathize with your lack of empathy. Do not ask us to be open-minded towards your closed-mind. You call us hypocrites, but how about you dare to listen to the experiences of the underprivileged for once.