Courage

From a young age, I have always been the type of person to stand by my beliefs and stand up for what is right. I would take to social media to express my opinions and educate myself about the happenings of the world. There was a time in high school when I stopped standing up for the pledge of allegiance in response to the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 and in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. When I got home from school that day, I told my parents about it while we were eating dinner, thinking that they would be proud of me. Instead of getting praise for supporting a movement that I stood for, they got pale in the face and told me that I should not do that because it is not patriotic. Looking back on it now, I know that they meant that in terms of them being afraid of any retaliation towards me from classmates or teachers. Because I was expecting them to support my actions, I was taken aback and that discouraged me from being vocal about causes and movements. I avoided being “political” on Facebook specifically in hopes to not spark negative attention from any friends or family that I had on there.

With the recent growth and attention of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd, I realized that I do not and should not care about any blowback from people on social media. I will be vocal and speak up about what I support because that is my way of taking back my silence and using my voice for those who may not have one.

#BlackLivesMatter: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

#StopAsianHate: https://stopasianhate.carrd.co/