My name is Charli and I am 14. I am a white, cissexual girl
and I have never had the experience of racism upon myself. I have seen it
occur, repetitively, and I have been the victim of sexism. I have seen my
friends slandered for being a sexuality other than heterosexual.
Our generation, bright and beautiful, so full of hope, have
been bought up by racists. By homophobes. By sexists. Our parents and teachers
tell us that we are becoming a more tolerant society; but this is so untrue.
All I see before my eyes is an increasingly dystopian
society, where I am scared for my black friends, my best friend and her
girlfriend. I am sick of hearing “I can’t wear that, I’ll get raped” coming
from the other side of a changing room.
Throughout my life, I have been passionate about making the
change. About making people understand, about making sure everyone can live
their life without constant fear. And maybe in Britain my black friends won’t
get shot; but they are constantly insulted. And maybe gay marriage is legal in
Britain; but it doesn’t mean everyone’s okay with it.
In the last two days, my Tumblr blog went from “let’s all
squeal about people on youtube” to all about Ferguson. I have not seized in reblogging
everything I can; signing petitions and trying to explain it all to people who don’t
understand.
They fleetingly mentioned Ferguson on the radio this morning.
No passion; an extremely small amount of context. My stepnan said it was a good
thing the police were trying to stop the riots; that Mike Brown was rightly
shot. She wouldn’t hear me out. She wouldn’t take it that they were shooting
the protestors, she wouldn’t listen to what happened.
You can tell me that it’s “not about race” as much as you
want to, but I will never believe you.
We need to stop saying “but
not all white people are bad”. That’s true; but irrelevant. This isn’t about
proving that a few of us are good. This is about justice, about a man who
brutally murdered a man and has not received a sentence.
There are protests in so many parts of the world right now;
for so many varying reasons. Our society may be trying to turn itself around,
but it is to no avail. There are too many people covering it up.
The British media isn’t covering it as much as it should. If
a black man had murdered a white man, it would be everywhere. It would be
considered racism in itself; they would be called violent and disgraceful.
Something else that I heard on the radio yesterday was new
policies for “girl empowerment”. I instantly thought it would be good news; but
all I heard was a new teaching method of teaching our girls rape culture.
Society, I plead. Stop teaching “Don’t Get Raped” and start teaching “Don’t
Rape.” Stop the victim blaming; stop acting as if it’s a small matter.
Yesterday I walked out of the house having lost my faith in
my society; my future. Today, I am empowered once more. I want to be one of
those who make the change. Our generation will
be different. It will.
