I know everyone was trying to survive the first week of school during the Republican National Convention and may have missed it, so I’ll go ahead and sum it up for you. There was the normal bashing of Democrats and their values, as well as messages supporting Trump’s Care Act and how he’s dealing with the coronavirus.

There were many parts that were so off base and dramatic that I laughed out loud. If you don’t believe me, I encourage you to go back and watch it for yourself.

There were also some heartwarming speeches such as Maximo Alvarez’s story about fleeing communism and finding the American dream. Some speeches even made me question whether President Trump was all that bad, but all those thoughts floated right out of my head when the issue of racism was brought up.

Trump basically sent out the message that he has Black friends so he’s not racist. We need to get that attitude out of our society and certainly out of the White House.

There were also speakers like Abby Johnson, who in a YouTube video said that it’d be “smart” for cops to racially profile her “brown son.” Mark and Patricia McCloskey also spoke. You may remember them as the couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters as they passed their house.

With a president and his campaign glorifying these kinds of actions systematic racism can’t be denied. White people need to wake up and stop being complacent. We’re so privileged that we have the ability to be complacent while people of color can’t. Every white person, including myself, needs to look at ourselves because we’re the problem.

We need to take a look at our ignorance, stereotypes that we’ve held onto, and implicit bias that we may have not been aware of and fix them. Everything I have written is my personal opinion, and if you don’t agree with everything that’s okay. I would much rather you do your own research and disagree with me while making an informed decision and an informed vote than for you to agree with me and not be informed.

I encourage everyone to do research and be sure of your vote because like Charlie Kirk said on the first night of the convention, “This election is the most critical since 1860 when a man named Lincoln was elected to preserve the union from disintegration.”

Lindsey Ulrey is a freshman political science major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or lrulrey@eiu.edu.