I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth for the word “brave” lately. I’m not brave. I have never considered myself brave.
My senior fall semester, I propelled myself into positions of advocacy and quickly found praise for my leadership. But by the spring, as the political climate transformed, I would learn to receive the same remark on repeat, “You’re so brave.”
This comment constantly felt unsettling, because I didn’t feel courageous for continuing in my beliefs in the power of diversity, equity and inclusion. It almost felt isolating to hear that I stood out for believing we should recognize and value differences among people, ensure everyone has access to fair opportunities, and create environments where everyone feels welcomed.
I’m not independent, and I never have been. I’ve always existed in difficult circumstances with the support of my community. Every friend’s parent who provided me with resources to help me fit in, every teacher who saw through my shyness to support me, and every classmate who picked me up when I was down — that’s what made it all possible. I would not have been empowered to empower others if no one had empowered me.
I often felt alone growing up, lacking resources and support, yet filled with dreams and plans to achieve them. Receiving empathy from others is what has allowed me to come to an institution like Lehigh and find success, and each initiative I was a part of wouldn’t have been possible without other leaders who hold the same values.
Each experience — from The Brown and White, to the TRAC program, to the feminist magazine team, all the way to the Uganda Sustainable Livelihoods Program — has connected me to a different, diverse group of people passionate about improving lives. The community I’ve found is one that inspires me to take action, speak up and amplify the voices of those who are silenced.
In reality, I’m not alone. I’ve never been alone. The change in rhetoric with the new presidential administration just makes it feel like it.
Statistics show 84% of Americans support equal opportunity programs, while 89% support the right to quality education for everyone, and 80% support equal access to decent housing. As for increasing DEI at work, 56% of employed adults view the efforts positively, and 61% of Americans favor affirmative action programs for minorities.
Creating a perception of isolation is dangerous, because it kills from within. The more divided we feel, the weaker we are. Much of the division has been based on identity, separating and “othering” people based on the parts of them that make them unique.
But we don’t actually want to limit one another like the rhetoric suggests. For example, 72% of Americans oppose restricting a woman’s right to contraception, 61% oppose eliminating the Department of Education, 70% think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 69% favor laws that would protect LGBT people from discrimination in the job market, public accommodations and housing.
Our voices simply aren’t loud enough right now. These are issues that have been critically debated and fought over for decades, and yet in 2024, we have more commonalities than ever before. This is not a new fight, although authority and mass media may create that perception.
We have more similarities than differences, and we need to continue listening and talking to one another to evolve. Now, more than ever, we need to find more ways to hear people’s stories and connect emotionally. We need to engage with art, literature, science — all the things that make us critically think — to remember the power of being human.
Our strength lies in our ability to collaborate and innovate. When we lose that, we lose our humanity. We need collective action. We don’t need artificial intellegence telling us how to think, politicians telling us what to feel or the media feeding us lines to say. We don’t need to make someone feel bold for standing up for what they need from the government. We need to normalize identifying and advocating for our unique needs in society.
When we approach each other with empathy and recognize where someone is coming from, we build stronger, more resilient communities. Every act of kindness shown to me throughout my 22 years of living has made me stronger. Every act of hate and discrimination this country has overcome has brought us together to build back better, because that’s the only way we’ve known how.
It’s our job as citizens to make demands and hold the government accountable, and we have to do so together. We need to rebuild our sense of community and remember what it is to be American; to be free. Anything that limits someone’s choice or divides them from others puts that freedom at risk.
No act of bravery is done alone; we are brave. We are Americans.
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