[Music]
[Applause]
all right hi everyone I am Alexandra
Lewis and today I will be sharing with
you an original poem now I wrote this
poem after seeing the falando Castillo
shooting on the news as you may recall
falando Castillo was a young man who was
riding with his girlfriend in the
passenger seat of her car they got
pulled over by a police officer when the
officer approached them falando told him
that he had a gun but that he also had a
permit to carry the gun yet the officer
still shot him for no apparent reason
after seeing this video I was struck by
a mix of sadness and anger my mother
consoled me and told me about what was
going on in our world she told me about
the sadness the hate the loss and that
moment she also gave me something to
stick up for so that is why I’m going to
write and write and write until our
society understands why
[Applause]
so just know that this is only one
chapter in my book and is only one
chapter on my road to true peace love
and equality I go to a primarily white
school in a primarily white town and I
live in a primarily white neighborhood
but my school wants to tell me that
diversity is one of their number-one
priorities yet when I’m in class and I
sit back and start to relax sometimes
they don’t notice that I’m there with my
caramel skin or my dark dark brownish
black hair it’s like they lose sight and
forget to be polite our racist joke will
slip from somebody’s lip and everyone
will stare in my direction but then he
goes away like it never happened that
second that minute that hour that day
they’re done with that the teacher
didn’t even turn her back to see who was
acting so offensively to me but I forget
it too because who cares about the
little offensive joke and the little
black girl but mostly who cares about
the little black girl who cares what she
thinks who cares what she says but even
though it’s already in their heads that
I do not care they will still stare in
my direction and then they giggle and
ooh why why would you say something like
that you know she’s black you know she’s
black they say it like it’s bad like
it’s a punishment to be black or how
about when I’m in class and we’re
talking about slavery and everyone again
looks at me and yes I’m a slave a slave
of society the way people think the
things people say and I fear that this
will always be the way that there will
never be a day of true peace love and
equality so when I flip through the news
and I see kids like me and you shot dead
to the ground
day after day month after month year
after year tell me what are we free from
if we are still killed and humiliated
denied our rights and laughed at how are
we free because I know I still have
chains on me chains on my thoughts on my
Birds all my actions chains that keep me
from being me but now I’m done I am done
with society pushing us deeper into a
hole that we can not climb out of
I am unapologetically black I’m proud to
be it is time that we decide to speak
freely and it’s time for true peace love
and equality did you know there are some
people that don’t believe in racism it’s
not some theory or something in a
fictional book no it’s real we see it
every day
but you know why people don’t believe
because we push it away we make it seem
like it’s not there because we cannot
bear the fact that humans could be so
hateful towards other humans so hateful
that they could kill them the humans
could take other humans lives this is
why we push it away but maybe there will
be a day of true peace love and equality
maybe there will be a day well I don’t
have to sit and cry and listen to these
police officers lies people praying to
God that their loved ones didn’t die
because they were shot right in front of
their eyes I wish I didn’t have to tell
my mother to be careful when she leaves
for work in the morning along with my
goodbyes how about we recap all the
goodbyes over the years we just let
people die starting with the man who was
shot 41 times to a boy who was walking
home with nothing but a snag in his
hands and Sandra bland the woman whose
future was lying ahead and you know she
was hung dead too a boy who was playing
alone in a park he was shot in plain
sight not even in the dark and they find
the news reports aboard about a man who
is selling CDs outside of a store and
there were so many more it is so hard to
try and imagine my future and not see
one day of true peace love and equality
but I still have hope I still hope that
people will let go of the stereotypes
and realize that we are all the same and
I still have hope that people will open
their eyes and realize that things like
slavery Jim Crow and segregation were
not just left behind after people like
Martin Luther King Malcolm X and Rosa
Parks made a difference that 400 years
of slavery and oppression cannot just
disappear and it cannot be covered up by
America’s history no one will understand
why we still have hope and no one will
understand why we fight for equality in
every way
shape and form and no one will
understand why I still believe in the
day of true peace love and equality
thank you
[Applause]
[Applause]
all right hi everyone I am Alexandra
Lewis and today I will be sharing with
you an original poem now I wrote this
poem after seeing the falando Castillo
shooting on the news as you may recall
falando Castillo was a young man who was
riding with his girlfriend in the
passenger seat of her car they got
pulled over by a police officer when the
officer approached them falando told him
that he had a gun but that he also had a
permit to carry the gun yet the officer
still shot him for no apparent reason
after seeing this video I was struck by
a mix of sadness and anger my mother
consoled me and told me about what was
going on in our world she told me about
the sadness the hate the loss and that
moment she also gave me something to
stick up for so that is why I’m going to
write and write and write until our
society understands why
[Applause]
so just know that this is only one
chapter in my book and is only one
chapter on my road to true peace love
and equality I go to a primarily white
school in a primarily white town and I
live in a primarily white neighborhood
but my school wants to tell me that
diversity is one of their number-one
priorities yet when I’m in class and I
sit back and start to relax sometimes
they don’t notice that I’m there with my
caramel skin or my dark dark brownish
black hair it’s like they lose sight and
forget to be polite our racist joke will
slip from somebody’s lip and everyone
will stare in my direction but then he
goes away like it never happened that
second that minute that hour that day
they’re done with that the teacher
didn’t even turn her back to see who was
acting so offensively to me but I forget
it too because who cares about the
little offensive joke and the little
black girl but mostly who cares about
the little black girl who cares what she
thinks who cares what she says but even
though it’s already in their heads that
I do not care they will still stare in
my direction and then they giggle and
ooh why why would you say something like
that you know she’s black you know she’s
black they say it like it’s bad like
it’s a punishment to be black or how
about when I’m in class and we’re
talking about slavery and everyone again
looks at me and yes I’m a slave a slave
of society the way people think the
things people say and I fear that this
will always be the way that there will
never be a day of true peace love and
equality so when I flip through the news
and I see kids like me and you shot dead
to the ground
day after day month after month year
after year tell me what are we free from
if we are still killed and humiliated
denied our rights and laughed at how are
we free because I know I still have
chains on me chains on my thoughts on my
Birds all my actions chains that keep me
from being me but now I’m done I am done
with society pushing us deeper into a
hole that we can not climb out of
I am unapologetically black I’m proud to
be it is time that we decide to speak
freely and it’s time for true peace love
and equality did you know there are some
people that don’t believe in racism it’s
not some theory or something in a
fictional book no it’s real we see it
every day
but you know why people don’t believe
because we push it away we make it seem
like it’s not there because we cannot
bear the fact that humans could be so
hateful towards other humans so hateful
that they could kill them the humans
could take other humans lives this is
why we push it away but maybe there will
be a day of true peace love and equality
maybe there will be a day well I don’t
have to sit and cry and listen to these
police officers lies people praying to
God that their loved ones didn’t die
because they were shot right in front of
their eyes I wish I didn’t have to tell
my mother to be careful when she leaves
for work in the morning along with my
goodbyes how about we recap all the
goodbyes over the years we just let
people die starting with the man who was
shot 41 times to a boy who was walking
home with nothing but a snag in his
hands and Sandra bland the woman whose
future was lying ahead and you know she
was hung dead too a boy who was playing
alone in a park he was shot in plain
sight not even in the dark and they find
the news reports aboard about a man who
is selling CDs outside of a store and
there were so many more it is so hard to
try and imagine my future and not see
one day of true peace love and equality
but I still have hope I still hope that
people will let go of the stereotypes
and realize that we are all the same and
I still have hope that people will open
their eyes and realize that things like
slavery Jim Crow and segregation were
not just left behind after people like
Martin Luther King Malcolm X and Rosa
Parks made a difference that 400 years
of slavery and oppression cannot just
disappear and it cannot be covered up by
America’s history no one will understand
why we still have hope and no one will
understand why we fight for equality in
every way
shape and form and no one will
understand why I still believe in the
day of true peace love and equality
thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: