Black Lives Matter: An opinion from a ten-year-old.

One of my students asked me to post this on my Medium profile in its entirety (The Parents permitted to do so). This topic has never been discussed in class. Furthermore, this student is not even black or white. He’s not even American. Go figure.

I usually shy away from taking a political stance for fear of backlash from the other side, regardless of the issue. A ten-year-old sees it, yet many cannot. We are failing our youth. We are all responsible.

The piece, in its entirety, is below.

GEORGE FLOYD: “I CAN’T BREATHE!”

Those were the last words of George Floyd, the African-American man killed by officer Derek Chauvin for suspected use of a fake twenty-dollar bill. It was real money that he had given to the cashier at the shop. The question is, would a white person suffer the same fate as George did?

Even as a ten-year-old, I know when things get stupid or racist around me, and the death of George Floyd was more than that. It was an injustice. The weight of a man on someone’s neck for refusing to give back a pack of cigarettes he had legally obtained. And the man died. Even if the police thought it was a fake twenty-dollar bill, the actions of the policeman were too extreme and cost George his life.

The police in America are not what the movies show them to be. They are seen as heroes. They are not all heroes, and some are abusing their power. People can change, and that is the first move to our unity. BLACK LIVES MATTER was the chant of the people. Injustice, cruelty, murder and racism: It isn’t right. We need to make a change.

We need someone responsible in the White House. We need to make racism extinct forever, make it yesterday’s news. If we don’t change our ways, we will continue to have more tragedies with people abusing their power.

We need good people in power, such as Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Mahatma Gandhi. Those types of people. They are good people They are righteous, respecting, rebellious in their way to make the world a better place. Right now, we are locked up in a society with no power, but we don’t have to be. We can’t let this go on.

We need to make changes to the political system. I would change it so the citizens can demote prime ministers/presidents through a vote if they were doing a lousy job. We should also make sure people in power are held responsible for their actions, And black history should be taught more often in schools. In my ten years, there has been no mention of black history.

In memory of George Floyd

BLACK LIVES MATTER.