BLACK HISTORY MONTH SUBMISSIONS

When you ask someone who looks ethnically different, “What are you?”

What am I? Am I the gangster drug lord that you perceive? This is a problem that isn’t new right? Why do we stay silent? What are we not supposed to see? Cops everywhere staring down the barrel of a gun at a Black man, don’t see a human being, they see a caricature, a thug, a N*gger.

America, we have a problem.

The idea of racism and terminology does not sit right with me, when someone asks me what I am, I say I’m a proud Kenyan, but I know they see me as a Black man because that’s how America sees me. Let’s be real for now, kids are getting shot for just being Black. DAUNTE WRIGHT Killed, White officer alive. Andre Hill dead, White officer alive. GEORGE FLOYD DEAD, White officer alive. Keenan Anderson dead, and guess what: White officer alive. When are we going to change?

AMADOU DIALLO was just a Black man who was minding his business on his porch on Feb. 4, 1999, and a car with four officers of the New York Police Department hopped out, guns out.

41 bullets later, AMADOU DIALLO goes down. 19 of those bullets hit AMADOU DIALLO. He was unarmed, he had committed no crime there was no warrant out there for him. He was just a Black man in New York – that is bad enough. When are we going to change? When are we going to have put an end to this hate towards us, for all my fellow Black brothers and sisters let’s not forget that we are all one built in God’s image?

So what does it mean to be Black? I think being Black in the United States, we have a tremendous amount of pain but we also have a tremendous amount of privilege and opportunities. The pain is linked to racism, slavery, and violence, but the privilege is that Black Americans live in much better conditions than millions of people who live around the world. Black, Asian and Caucasian Americans do get opportunities that others don’t have.

Last summer my family and I went to an Oakland Black parade and it was a primarily African American celebration. I think that’s the thing, you know? In America, there are so many things as a Black person that, statistically, you’re going to be subject to that will cause you pain. Diabetes, miscarriages, gun violence, discrimination at work and school. To experience joy, success, and a good relationship is an opportunity and I am very grateful for that.

So what can Berkeley Unified School District do to make us feel safe at school? Masi Amianda, a parent of a student at Berkeley High School, described how Berkeley elementary and middle schools have done a wonderful job of trying to create an integrated society.

She thinks because parents wind up about colleges, and because of the sheer size of BHS, you lose a lot of that when you go from elementary school to middle school and then to high school.

You have to ask yourself: If a Black student is suddenly struggling, why is that?

I think BUSD needs more oversight to try to understand why the student records are dropping especially for minority students. Why is that? What have we done? Don’t give up on them.

What’s next? For us?