Don't Be Silenced

Chapter 6

The principal had been talking for over an hour on the new school rules and regulations, they were pretty strict and but we all knew he wouldn't take them seriously.

"....now an exceptional student, intelligent, brave, courageous, brilliant, perfect in so many unexplainable ways and is responsible for the 500,000 dollars fund that was raised to ensure every child in Freeland is in school learning and improving on their talents, Miss Rebecca Duria".

Immediately the principal was done with his welcome speech and introducing me, the whole school started clapping, mainly because they heard my name not because of his boring speech.

I walked over to where the principal stood.

"Uhm", I giggled, " I am really excited to see everyone of you here, it brings joy to my heart to see everyone of you is being given a chance to explore their talents, become greater people in life instead of being left in the ghetto to rot, the fund that was raised wouldn't be possible without the help of my amazing friends, Bella Marc, Daniella Martin, Skai Martin, Tiffany Oneheart, Trevor Wilson, Clement Green, Khalil Marce, Tyler Johnson and Christopher Willow".

The whole school started clapping, staring at my friends who were smiling and waving their hands.

"This wouldn't be possible without their love and support", I continued, "ok how many of you here has started black lightning, I've been told I look like the one of the actresses in the show", i chuckled.

I saw a lot of hands up and I nodded my head.

"Ok ok I want us to try what Mr Pierce from the show does with his students, can we do that?", I questioned.

Most of the students started smiling and laughing, but I could hear "yes" from every angle of the basket ball court.

I smiled, "where is the future?".

They chorused, "right here".

"And whose life is this?".

"mine!".

"And what are you going to do with it?".

"Live by  any means necessary!".

The court was filled with laughter, smiles and woo-hoo's from every single angle.

"This is our life and we decide how we choose to live it, I don't want to live in a world were they say black people cant accomplish anything, I'm sick of living in a world were I'm expected to be ashamed of my skin color, I'm tired of living in a world were white drug lords and terrorist are arrested in tuxedo, but a petty black thief gets choked to death on the spot of the arrest, I don't want a life were I look at my skin color and ask God why was I born black?, I don't want....I don't want a world where at a crime scene the first suspect is the black man even if that black man is 759 miles away from the scene, but he's going to be a suspect, why?, because he's black and I sure as hell don't want to live in a world where I go to a store and  when something goes wrong with my credit card, I get a knee to my neck".

Students started shouting, "it ain't fair how they treat us", "I hope all white racists die tonight", " I am tired of this  bullshit", "say his name".....

"George Floyd", I looked up trying to look for the person who said that, "Eric Garner, Brenna Taylor, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam, Antron Mcray, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson....we had people like Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks who went through hell trying to fight for the black community and yet nothing seems to have changed, now it's just people can capture our suffering on video and make funny cartoons mocking us, I thought, I had a little iota of hope that after Obama became president things would actually become better for black people, but they didn't, Obama didn't do shit for the black community, all the nigga did was say bullshit speeches about "the land of the free" but nigga didn't do shit....