[center][color=#f54278][h3]Ashley Burns[/h3][/color][/center]
[B]Location:[/b] UIC - Vetrinary School

[hr]
Ashley had her backpack worn on her back, with both straps on her shoulders. Showing her geek level was pegged at a solid 11. It made sense to do it, because of the weight distribution. But no one on campus did that unless they were a nerd. She had just sat through her freshman English Class. It was a complete waste of time. Two comments, and the prof was off ranting about the evils of Republicans, how white people were the problem to ever ill in the world, and white privilege was ... Well, you get the idea. The English prof picked Ashley out for her pale skin, red hair, and nice clothing as the poster child for all that was wrong in this country. You might as well put a make America Great hat on her head and a Trump for 2020 shirt on her. Not that she liked any political candidate, in her mind they all acted like animals. 

"It's people like you that are causing the problems in this country," the prof growled. She was a middle aged Caucasian woman wearing a wool skirt in a Irish family pattern. That made Ashley want to scratch her head in confusion. Then she had a nerve to ask Ashley to name a famous black writer. 

Ashley looked at her and said, "Maya Angelou who wrote the poem [i]Touched by An Angel[/i]" 
Then went on to recite the poem,
[indent]"We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free."[/indent] 

Her prof went nuts telling her she was making that up, till someone did a google search on their phone to prove her right. It did not mater that she knew Black poets, Mexican poets, and others. Her liberal prof was so open minded that she couldn't be open minded to anything but her own position. It wasn't that Ashley disagreed that the family she was born into was able to provide for her better than other families or that slavery or what was done to the Native Americans was wrong. But didn't the prof realize that she worked in a system that reinforced white privilege and quota's were not going to fix that nor would giving everyone an A for attendance. There needed to be some standard somewhere. 

Ashley had to work hard to block her prof's anger at her and the classes bordem on the topic. On the window sill sat a grey squirrel, "You want to talk privilege. Dogs. They live in you house, they eat your food, and pampered while we live out in the cold," It's thoughts coming through clear, "and don't get me started on cats..." 

After class, one of the African American women came up to her and said, "Good job, Carrot-top now we all get to write a five page paper for  Friday about a Black writer."