I don’t know where to start, maybe at the beginning of human existence 200,000 years ago. There are all sorts of people – white people, Black people, gay people, Jewish people and so many more. There was always a group of people being oppressed for being different, and the group that was oppressing them. I don’t know why so many of us fear those who are different, but it’s still going on today. It makes me so sad and mad to see that such an old terrible thing that never should have happened in the first place is still going on. It’s a tale as old as time.

Right now it’s racism against Black people. I personally don’t know what it’s like to be the one being picked on, and I can’t even imagine how much it hurts. What feeling unsafe everywhere you go feels like. To even fear the police who are supposed to be the ones protecting everyone. To have the President of what’s considered one of the most influential countries in the world being a big part of the problem.

I believe the only way to fix this problem is if we stand up for oppressed people. It’s not enough to be a non-racist white person. We need to use our white privilege to send a message to the racists that this is over. We need to stand with oppressed groups as one. We need to speak out, donate money, sign petitions and do everything we can to tell everyone that Black people belong and racists don’t. After all that white people, including my ancestors, have done, oppressed people need and deserve our support. We need to do everything we can because we do not deserve their forgiveness, which they have historically given. We white people need to prove that we deserve to be equal to them because, in so many ways, they deserve to be the privileged ones.

This was written by Marisa (14), who lives in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

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