2nd Years Tackle Racism

There are millions of problems happening throughout the world but one of them has proven that it is able to make or break our society for good and for bad: racism. It has traveled all throughout the world as a horrific memory from the past to an ungrateful “gift” in our present. If you were treated differently because of your race wouldn’t you wonder what happened to the human rights we were supposedly promised?

Hi readers! I’m Vivian, also an AGE UP second year. Today, we started off our first time together in the new year with delicious fried rice filled with the healthy ingredients of soy, carrots, brown rice, and our most treasured ingredient, LOTS OF LOVE!

We all ate in a triangle today and all introduced ourselves to our guest by saying our name, school, and what we did this winter break. I don’t know about you, but I felt like sleeping in is one of the best things to be participating in during winter break. I was in love with my bed! As you can tell already, today’s workshop was about racism within society and human rights. We were grateful to be able to have an empowering strong leader like our guest presenter today, Rahwa Habte. She led us into a discussion about how race affects our society and asked us a direct question that made us silent: “What are human rights?”

She also showed us a video that talked about it, many people had no straight answer for the question nor did they have much of a clue of what human rights they contain. We have the right to “freedom of speech” and people are being arrested for saying how they feel to the public. So it really made me feel like we live in a world filled with people that don’t care how the government is not acknowledging the fact that we have human rights. This discussion left not only me, but also the fellow age uppers with more awareness, inspiration to change society, and a more open mind in discussing about race. It left us closer, more knowledgeable, and motivated to change for the better not only for ourselves but for society.