“Life isn’t black and white. It’s a million grey areas, don’t you find?”

Ridley Scott

Can we travel through the grey skins of endless torment? Can we sing at the top of our lungs until we lose our voice? Can we dance until we drop? Can we drive into nothing of pain? Can we sleep without the darkness creeping in trying to suffocate us? Can we marry outside of our sex and race? Can we jump off a cliff and soar into the sky and go to neverland? Can we matter too?

The thing is we’ll always be traveling in grey skies, and we’ll lose our voices when we sing very loud. We can dance and dance and dance but still drop, and The darkness is a part of us always and forever. I’m black, but I also identify as Greek. And I love white people, I’d like to marry a white person, still figuring that out. I believe we can do anything if we put our minds to it. Being black is beautiful. And it’s important to feel comfortable in your own skin. “I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky.” Do you know how it feels to not be wanted? For centuries we’ve been kicked. We’ve been spit on. We’ve been forced to work and work and maybe even drink our sweat and eat dirt. But we never let that dictate what we feel, sure, there were times we felt like we’d never get out of torment. But, we finally did. And now we are determined to make sure we stay out of this torment. Of this darkness. For good. We have the right to be free. The right to sing. To protest, to fight. We have rights, such as the 1st and 2end amendment, which protect us. 

It took time for people to recognize that we are here to stay, that we are here to live. We’re not trying to steal your jobs or steal family life. We’re just trying to get equality. We want justice. The 13th amendment protects people of color (Especially back Americans) “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” 

America is not just for one race. For one sex. For one species. America is for everyone, and although, America has a history of ending segregation and slavery for the wrong reasons. There’s no reason we can’t make it the right reason to protect it. We don’t have to just look out for ourselves. But, we can look out for everyone. For animals, we can protect them. (Be a vegan or vegetarian, I am) or just make sure no one else harms them. For the LGBT community (don’t b afraid to question it and learn more, contribute it to a blog. I do) It’s not a crime or a problem to not be straight. Fight and stand up for what you believe in. Don’t sit on your hands and be a bystander but a fighter. The world is our canvas. And whether or not you want to be the one to make history or the one to follow along with it. History starts with a single stroke of the brush. And this generation can do so much more than the previous generations. They only bought the canvas and paper, it is up to us to finally put paint on the canvas. To finally write the first chapter of the book, to finally be free and live the life that everyone since the 1800s has built for us. I feel we can do things they couldn’t. Let’s finally end this 1 million-year-old war.

“I understand we all have our differences. But while learning about history I’ve read about white people coming together, Jews coming together, Spanish coming together, different cultures and religions understanding and coming together despite their differences. Slavery was never something that shocked me. What shocks me is how black people have not yet overcome the odds and we’re such strong smart people. Why can’t we just stand together?”

― Jonathan Anthony Burkett