So Frustrated

I love my school. MC isn't at all what I expected but it's a great fit for me and it's been wonderful in exposing me to new ideas and helping me to cultivate my beliefs and find firm foundations for them. But after the class today that resulted in my frustration my friend likened being conservative at MC to being black; lacking support, being that token person people can point to and say "See, that's why we're right and they're wrong", and dealing with a privileged group that is blind to their privilege. I'm really glad almost no one reads this blog because I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that's fairly racist, but it feels accurate. In class today we got on a discussion about how MC reacts to conservative students. A few other classmates spoke out before I did, all sharing my opinion. Eventually I said a few things, shared some of my experiences from my freshman year with a few very liberal students and how I felt they were really rude and not at all open to even considering my ideas as even being valid opinions, which is saying something because I'm not even all that conservative. In one of my comments I mentioned that I didn't know MC was so liberal when I made the decision to come here. Another girl in class whom I had previously always respected responded to something I said, and she was so rude, I was so surprised. She said something about how we just didn't try hard enough and it was our fault we didn't have groups on campus, even thought right before a girl had said she tried to start a MC Republicans group and couldn't find a professor to sponsor them so they had to disband. Then she looked at me and said "You guys are from Indiana and are just used to being the majority and thinking that you're the norm. And didn't you even read the mission statement? How could you not know that MC was liberal?" I didn't say anything. The sad part is that I know after saying what I felt half of the students in that class lowered their opinions of me immediately. I fully expect that when I see them in hallways and on the mall they will lower their heads and determinedly not return my smile or "hello". That girl has no idea that I'm from the Region which is certainly not conservative, that two of my best friends in high school were gay, and that I chose MC for the academic quality and couldn't have cared less about the mission statement. I don't remember the last time I was so frustrated. If anything the conversation just further cemented the things I already believed.