Student Speaks About About Racist Viral Video
The day after Donald Trump won the presidency, 12-year-old Josie Ramon was sitting in her school cafeteria at Royal Oak Middle School in Royal Oak, Michigan, when a group of a seventh grade students started chanting, "Build a wall! Build a wall!"
The slogan is similar to what could be heard shouted at Trump rallies, a reference to his plan to build a wall along the Mexico border in order to keep out immigrants.
Josie, feeling scared that the chanting was directed toward her and a group of Hispanic students, sent the video to her mom. Her mom told CNN she then passed it along to a few other parents, one of whom posted the video to Facebook where it then went viral.
Josie and her best friend Isabelle Castilla recently opened up to CNN about the experience, and it seems that the fallout from the viral incident might be worse than the incident itself. Josie decided to withdraw from the school and attend private school instead.
Josie told CNN that this is not the first time she's encountered racism at school. She said students had made jokes about her and other Mexican-Americans, and on the day she filmed the video, one student even called her "taco."
“It was so hard to look and just watch and not being able to do anything because I was afraid … I was so scared,” Josie said. After the video went viral, the school district superintendent made sure police were on campus since there had been threats made against the school and the Royal Oak community. Mothers also came in to help give diversity training.
Josie also continued to personally receive negative treatment: "When I walked into the room, people would walk out of the room for some reason. People would see me in the hallways and turn around and walk the other way," she explained. "I felt like an animal."
A week after the video was recorded, a noose was found in a boys’ bathroom at Royal Oak Middle School. The student responsible was expelled, but Josie told CNN the event only made her more afraid.
It's safe to say that the original video is horrible in itself, but it's equally sad to see the ripple effects from something so hate-filled. However, Josie says, "I think if I had to go through this again to help everybody else who's Mexican-American, I would do it a thousand, a million, a quadrillion more times, because I want everybody to be happy no matter what."
Read the rest of Josie's experience here.
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