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  • "My skin is not a threat"

  • It's funny how the world has different time zones,

  • how it could be Saturday on this side of the world and Friday somewhere else.

  • Yet somehow, the United States of America is stuck in 1920.

  • That was a hundred years ago,

  • yet we're still fighting for our lives,

  • for a place here.

  • (Jolia is 11 years old)

  • (This is the speech she gave at her fifth-grade graduation in June 2020.)

  • What did we ever do to make them hate us so much?

  • I know for a fact they love our culture. They love to steal our braids, the way we talk, anything we call ours.

  • But when it's that one white bad cop and that one innocent Black person, that Black person fears for their life.

  • This is the world we live in.

  • See, when I was younger, teachers used to ask kids what they wanted to be when they grew up.

  • Some kids said "famous." I was one of those kids.

  • But now I change my answer. The thing I want to be when I grow up is alive.

  • How do I know that I'm gonna make it out alive if I'm suspicious doing nothing?

  • If I'm suspicious when I'm at my own house sleeping in my own bed.

  • Why am I suspicious?

  • Because I could have sworn from one to three I was the cutest thing.

  • But when did I stop being cute and start being scary?

  • Am I scary if I have a black hoodie? Am I scary if I wear a backpack?

  • Am I scary if I do nothing?

  • Am I scary? Does my dad scare you? Does my mom scare you? Does my auntie scare you?

  • Because let me tell you something: we are not scary.

  • (Black Americans killed by police)

  • Say their names.

  • You will earn my respect when I don't have to fear for my life or anybody else's.

  • Until then, my respect will not come for free.

  • (Black Lives Matter)

"My skin is not a threat"

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