Finding Love & Support on UT Tyler’s Campus

by Michael Hale of the UT Tyler Student Blog

Every year countless people are the victims of various forms of abuse, much of it verbal and psychological.

TYLER — As I write this I am currently in a strange state on the topic as it (currently) exists in my mind and as a draft in front of me. I’d love to share all the details about this subject, however as this is a student blog there are obviously many, MANY things to consider about the nature of the topic, where the conversation can lead, etc…

Every year countless people are the victims of various forms of abuse, much of it verbal and psychological. I am in no way counting out physical abuse, but rather I hope to illustrate that while it is not OK to, say, publically hit a person, every day I hear people make some fashion of remark about other people. Both are dire situations to encounter, but I feel this blog can have the biggest impact in verbal and psychological abuse first and physical abuse second. I hope by reading that you'll understand.

Below are just some of the things I hear daily, from the classroom to the lounge areas:

That’s gay [ said commonly by many people, be they saying it in jest or spite ]

She’s a dumb skank [ said by some people just because a girl wears a low-cut item of clothing]

Psh, shut up faggot [ a common response to imply superiority over others, even in a “good spirited way” … unless the person you are talking to is actually/secretly gay, in which case can becomes hurtful ]

I think to a certain point these words have entered our collective vocabularies and we would have an extraordinarily hard time censoring, screening, and assessing all their variable terminologies. Am I saying this is a “get out of hate speech free” card? No, of course not. Some people use these words and it in no way causes them stress, or anger, or even irritation. Those people then are not to whom I am addressing this, but I hope those people still listen.

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