Is this 2020? Is this what “Make America Great Again” is supposed to be all about?
Is this really the world we live in?
People are being attacked or killed for being black? “Why?” I ask.
People are being attacked or killed for being LGBTQI+? “Why?” I ask.
Is this really the world we live in?
I believed in the American Dream, I truly did.
What’s happening now is nothing like what the American Dream is supposed to be about.
What’s happening now isn’t making America great again.
What’s happening now is not a world I want to live in.
What’s happening now is NOT what previous generations fought for.
This isn’t freedom. This isn’t equality.
This is hatred. This is racism. This is a scary place to be living in.
I’m a 17-year-old mixed-race kid from a British mother and a South African father, living in Belgium.
My father lived through Apartheid. He lived through oppression. He lived through the violence. He had to flee HIS country to marry the woman he loved. His story is my story.
Rosa Parks’s story is my story.
Martin Luther King’s story is my story.
He had a dream. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream…,” he said, in 1963.
Their stories are my stories.
Your story is my story.
You’d think that Martin Luther King’s children would be judged by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin.
You’d think that people would have changed with time.
You’d think that racism wouldn’t be a thing anymore.
You’d think the world would now be a better place than in the previous century – a safe place.
Well… 57 years after the “I have a dream” speech, 29 years after the abolition of Apartheid, racism still exists.
IT STILL EXISTS IN 2020.
People are being killed because of their COLOUR.
This is 2020. This is reality.
Protests are being held for justice to be done, for things to change, for actions against racism to be made. These protestors, during non-violent protests, are being attacked by police forces.
Enough is enough.
I’m sick of all the unnecessary violence going on.
This isn’t the world in which I want to grow. This isn’t the world in which I want future generations to live.
This world should be a place of love, of peace, of equality.
This world should be a safe place.
This world should be a world where we are FREE to be WHOEVER WE WANT to be.
Things need to change. Racism and hate NEED to be abolished.
My generation wants things to change. We are the future. We are speaking up. We will keep speaking up. Our voices need to be heard.
We need your help.
We need to all stand together and be as one. ALL GENERATIONS.
This world needs to be healed.
To heal this world, we need to understand that we are all equal regardless of our colour, gender, size, sexual orientation, nationality.
WE ARE ALL HUMANS.
Together, we CAN heal the world. We CAN make it a better place. For you, for me, for the entire human race.
Speak up for what is right. We are the change.
We all have the power to make things change.
Be kind to one another. Spread love to one another.
We are the ones who make a brighter day. We’re saving our own lives.
Love will win!