INCLUSION CURIOSITY HONESTY
YOUTH LEADERSHIP EDITION
EMPATHY EXCELLENCE RESPECT

VIEWS OF A STRUGGLING PERSON OF COLOUR
I am worried about having my rights taken away,
Those thoughts, they always come to stay.
My mind is full and misunderstood,
If only they'd let me have my say.
The words that stabbed rights through me,
I wish that they'd believe me.
It wasn't me who did the graffiti,
I wasn't me who was disrespectful,
It wasn't me who had the privileges,
It wasn't me who was safe in every country,
It wasn't me that was treated like royalty.
It was me when I tried to achieve equality.
Alessia Luca, Year 7

BORN DIFFERENT BLACK LIVES MATTER
I was born different
Born to embrace pain and gain pain
No more "no pain no gain"
Fee-dom not freedom
So I need to pay to be heard
I was born different
Born black
Not born to lack
Born into humanity
Not born to please society
I was born different
But I'm judged for my appearance
And sentenced to the row of death
In the depth of my thoughts
Choke me in the throat
And I'm going to say it loud
Being black is being proud
I was born different
My culture and tradition respects every life
Your life matters
My life matters
Black Lives Matter
Abigail Frempong, Year 7
I AM BLACK
I am beautiful,
I am smart,
I am kind,
I am wonderful,
I AM BLACK.
No matter the way I look, dress or feel,
No matter the book, car or meal,
I AM BLACK.
You will never shut me down;
You will never push me to the ground.
WHY?
Because I am Black,
And I am proud of being Black.
Phoebe Edwards-Green, Year 7


PEACEFUL PROTEST
How does one express the effects of 400 years of oppression?
After 300 years of enslavement?
How does one truly show the daily instances of racism that
culminate in self-doubt, self-hatred?
How do you expect us to protest peacefully when your war
against us has been anything but?
What do you expect from people that have been nothing but
belittled, hunted and hurt?
Your privilege blinds you, if you think a peaceful protest will
achieve anything.
We refuse to be silenced,
we refuse to be spoken over,
we refuse to march peacefully while you justify why
killing our brothers and sisters is okay,
why they deserved it.
You quote MLK as though you have any clue what he preached.
Try quoting Malcolm X to us,
try quoting Huey P. Newton,
try quoting Bobby Seale, Elbert Howard.
You spend your time speaking over black voices instead of
helping to amplify us. You choose your privilege over our
freedom. You choose to continue this cycle of systemic
racism and oppression. You choose white supremacy.
If I'm going to die behind the colour of my skin then I'll die
loud and I'll die fighting.
Forget your peace.
Anonymous
SKIN DEEP
Excuse me Mr. Policeman, Sir,
I wanted to ask why you see us all with targets
on our backs, Sir.
I don't mean to offend you, Sir,
because we both know the slightest hint of disrespect from me
would result in my blood spilling, Sir.
Or maybe I would be suffocated instead, Sir,
or mysteriously die in my jail cell, Sir,
or perhaps you would gun down my son, Sir,
or perhaps you would arrest me, Sir,
for resisting arrest, Sir,
without my knowing what the original arrest was..., Sir.
Why have we been dehumanised so much, Sir?
Why do you look at me and see my black skin as a deadly weapon, Sir?
Why do you gaze at a 12-year-old boy and shoot him within 3 seconds of
locking eyes on him, Sir?
Yet you can sympathise with the white supremacists,
with the alt right mass murderers,
with the angry white protesters,
with just about anyone that's on the lighter side of life.
Isn't it interesting?
Anonymous
