Back in 2014, three teenage girls set the internet on fire when they were on The Queen Latifah Show. They work with a company called Get Lit, which is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization. They bring voices of at-risk youth to the forefront through education, literary performance, and teen poetry programs. The girls perform a spoken word piece called "Somewhere in America." Today, I am here to say that I stand with these girls in knowing the lessons we never learned.
"Now somewhere in America, there is a child holding a copy of "Catcher in the Rye" and there is a child holding a gun, but only one of these things have been banned by their state government." Throughout all of my educational experience, I was taught about books that got banned and why they were banned (for the use of language or scandals of race), yet we live in a world where we aren't doing a well enough job to know what our children are doing. We live in a generation where we'd rather let our children play with guns and act like thugs than to educate and set goals for them.
"Maya Angelou is prohibited because we're not allowed to talk about rape. In school, we were taught that just because something happens, doesn't mean you are to talk about it." In today's society, we're taught to dance around the word "rape" because it could make someone feel uncomfortable. We're taught to blame victims and that leads to thousands of unreported sexual assaults or rapes each year.
"Kids are late to class for working the midnight shift. They give awards for best attendance, but not for keeping your family off the streets." I hadn't learned this lesson until I was a Teacher Cadet. You see so many kids that come in tired and with next to nothing, but they'll never receive praise for helping the way they do. Instead, as a society, we act as though, simply because you're in school everyday, that your life must be picture perfect, but this is not so.
"Somewhere in America, schools are promoting self-confidence while they whip out their scales and shout out your body fat percentage in class." This is something we all know. It's the classic tale of "beauty is only skin deep," yet we judge people based on how skinny or fat they might be. Bigger girls are shamed for their fat while skinny girls are asked to "eat a burger." When will we learn to stop body shaming?
"Women are killed for rejecting dates, but God forbid I bring my girlfriend to prom." It truly bothers me that, as a society, we're more concerned over someone's sexual preference than about the life of others. I remember the news report over a girl that had acid thrown in her face for turning a guy down to a date. I also remember the report staying in the news for maybe a week or two at most. Yet, bands like Coldplay are bashed for their support of the LGBT community,
"What’d you learn in class today? Don’t walk fast, don’t speak loud, keep your hands to yourself, keep your head down. Keep your eyes on your own paper, if you don't know the answer fill in 'C'. Always wear earbuds when you ride the bus alone. If you feel like someone’s following you, pretend you’re on the phone. A teacher never fails, only you do." The public school system hits this one right on the head. Growing up, these were the lessons constantly taught to us. We weren't taught how to balance a checkbook, that being educated is better than being best dressed, how to retain knowledge, or even lessons that could one day save our life. No, instead we were taught how to act in a classroom for 60 minutes and that if you fail, you're the one to blame.
Being a female, I learned that it was unsafe to go places alone and that I need to watch the way that I dress or else I'm "asking for it." Society told me to love myself the way that I am, yet they continue to photo-shop models for ads. I guess what I'm really trying to say can only be said like this: "Every state in America, the greatest lessons, are the ones you don’t remember learning."
