In 2020, we faced a national reckoning on racial injustice in America - a reckoning that continues today. Discuss how this has affected you, what you have learned, or how you have been inspired to be a change agent around this important issue.

I'm angry and I’m tired of pretending

otherwise

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. There have been too many riots, too many marches, too many people shouting into uncaring ears when Black people get treated the way we do. How many dead fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters have to move from the front page of the news to the bottom of the social media feed before we get recognized and listened to

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I just want to be heard. I have given up on the idea of waking up in a

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where I am not afraid, angry, and weary. Maybe that

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is for my grandkids, or my great-grandkids, but not me. My mother and my father, my aunts and uncles,

they

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were all very active in the protests – often at the front of the line – and they did not come through unscathed. They had bruises and blood spilt, they had broken bones. I know they will return to that battlefield, to protest peacefully until they cannot maintain that rank any longer. From these noble

people

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I received my sense of righteous anger. But I

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got good advice on how to use it well. They know that protests are one thing, but action is another, and my mind has been geared toward law school for some time now

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because I wanted to bring about the major changes that are needed for our society to move on. So,

in addition

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to protests, I have been taking pre-law courses, and I have acquired a part-time job in the law firm where my uncle works, and

while

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it is a small, office job, I get to spend a lot of time with my uncle learning about how to bring positive change by fighting big and little battles. Of course, he is

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showing me how to fight those battles. Anger alone isn’t going to settle anything, which is why I believe in making a better

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with my actions and rhetoric. But I am still frustrated and furious, and

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I am trying to find a hopeful place to get to, I’ll repeat that I don’t think we’ll see the better

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I want. Maybe our grandkids, but not us. Hold on to that, get angry, and join me in pushing forward for them.