Oh, So this Groupchat is Exclusive?

Black people are always inviting people of other races to our cookouts. (Strong use of “always,” I know.) But other races aren’t inviting us to their get togethers. Now, I’m personally not the one to invite anyone but my family and a few close friends to the cookout but you know our fellow brothers and sisters who invite any and everybody who can hit a decent milly rock.

While sitting in my Education Seminar (probably building up the stamina to change my major) the instructor suggested that for support, we create group chats within our content area. By content area she meant whatever subject we planned on teaching after graduating. After she stated to create a group chat my first immediate thought was, “I can’t even get into the group chat.” That thought was so negative and full of rejection at the time but it’s how I felt. None of my peers looked like me and they were all already an established friend group with their own inside jokes and notions. I was the only Black English Education major in my class and being invited to the group chat did not seem like the likely thing for me. Being the only Black English education major didn’t always bother me because I knew I held my own, but something about senior year and actually going to teach kind of scared me. I knew my peers felt a twinge of fear too because of the conversations I would overhear while in class. The difference however between their fear and mine was they all had someone else to lean on within our major but I simply did not have anyone peer wise. Of course I had professors and advisors to share my concerns with but not someone who was dealing with the same nervousness as me at the same time. I must admit, it was strange to me because we were all in the same major racing toward the same goals, but somehow I didn’t make the cut to be included in the groupchat.

Now, I’m sure none of them thought I was lesser than them (or shoot maybe they did, but I like to think the best of people) but in order to get in the groupchat you have to be invited. The same way Black people tend to invite others to our cookouts. You can not invite yourself to the cookout. I mean you can, but come on now, who does that…so embarrassing… I mean like unless that’s your forte then do you, boo.

But, why wasn’t I invited to the initial group chat that wasn’t suggested by our professor? Truthfully, there are a plethora of answers that come to mind when I think of this time in my life. It always resorts back to race although I hope that wasn’t the case. Going to a PWI as a Black person can be hard to navigate, this rather small tick on my college timeline has crossed my mind numerous times because it should not have been a worry of mine. We were ALL students at the time facing the same academic journey except I am almost certain that one comment made by our professor didn’t spark a blog post for any of my peers.

Blessings,

Alyssa