I come to you today to educate you on the progress of racial equity at West High School. I know you’ve seen what happened the past couple of weeks and I’m sure some of you are uneducated about the situation. Well, I’m here to clear the air for you. First and foremost, let’s speak about what happened that led to the protest. Over the weekend of Nov. 6 and 7, a video posted by a West High student came out. They were using racial slurs and even made a threat to black people by saying they will stab them in the eye. They specifically said, “Stab a N***** in the eye.” Using the N-word with the hard er. Another picture came out of another student at West doing blackface. Now, many many black students felt disrespected, humiliated, and angry. After emails were sent to the administration, Mr. Gross and Mrs. Head held a meeting in the Little Theater on Nov. 8. The meeting eventually led to a protest around the school at around 12pm. Now, why did we protest?

We protested because it was the only way to have our voices heard. We protested because we were tired of being put on hold and told to wait.

There is only so much we can bear. The point of this movement is to achieve equality between black people and white people. It’s not about being above them, it’s about having equity with them.  As a Black Muslim woman, I face three times the oppression of my white colleagues. I even have to worry about writing this piece because what if someone puts evil eyes on me and seeks revenge. The best way I see this black and white world is through a quote by American author and Journalist Ta’Nehisi Coates, “We should seek not a world where the black race and white race live in harmony but a world in which the terms black and white have no real political meaning.” Sadly, we haven’t accomplished what the quote states but we will and we will rise and we will win.