Claremont, a small, suburban city just outside of Los Angeles, is widely known as the “City of Trees and PHDs.” As a daughter of immigrants, I always felt incredibly lucky to live in such a peaceful and prosperous city. Furthermore, I felt proud to live in a community that prides itself on inclusive liberal values. My world shattered after my debate coach’s response to the Oct. 7 massacre.
Back in October of last year, an assistant coach insisted on discussing the crisis in Israel and Gaza, even though it had no relevance to our upcoming debate topic. For a second, I felt some sort of solidarity with the coach’s desire to shed light on the events that had just occurred. Even though I felt vulnerable, being the only person in the room with ties to the region, I insisted on staying and listening to the lecture. I was expecting the coach to state how the events that took place on Oct. 7, such as the murder and rape of so many Israelis, were wrong. I was expecting that there would be an attempt to explain the significance of these events and the detrimental outcome that they will cause.