The Moment Responding to Social Injustice Began to Be Natural for Me

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I have always been somewhat engaged and outspoken about developments in society and culture. I would say that my curiosity, my questioning spirit, and my creativity set me on a path that would lead me to question social injustice at some point in my life. I do not know if I can honestly point to one social injustice and say that was the social injustice that led me to act.

My ability to understand the importance of responding to social injustice through art and media is really the culmination of experiences that have occurred because of education. In high school, I took on topics for essays in English class that involved exploring how the United Nations might bring peace to the world or why the U.S. needed to immediately withdraw from Iraq.

I participated in debate team my sophomore year. I will never forget choosing to take an unpopular position and argue against sex offender registries. I succeeded in mounting an argument that earned me a lot of points because I was using good objective reasoning to argue how a sex offender registry might violate someone’s civil liberties if he or she was listed.

But, if I have to pick one point, one instance of social injustice that led me here, I would say that instance was freshman year during the first semester when I took African History & Culture: Since 1880 with Prexy Nesbitt as my professor. It was in that class that I was introduced, for the first time, to the deeper reality that Americans are so ignorant of Africa and the history of Africa. I was exposed to the reality that this is not part of our education and the dark history of colonialism and imperialism that involved America and Europe kindled my interest in exploring through research all the ways that America might be responsible for the suffering of the people in various African countries.

The arousal of my spirit led me to travel with the class instructor to South Africa in the spring of 2007. We traveled to South Africa for six days and visited Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg staying for two days in each city. I was deeply moved by the history, the people, and the spirit. I was astounded by the sincerity and kindness of the people who would approach you and start conversations with you. I wasn’t afraid and there was something about the South African people that made me resent the American people just a little bit, because at least I knew social injustice was fresh in the minds of these people; they had risen up to throw off the chains of apartheid not long ago.

From then on, I became more and more politically engaged. The 2008 Election came around and I chose to support Dennis J. Kucinich for president. I was to find that the system of elections was rigged and the media was rigged to prevent voices or individuals like Kucinich from getting a fair hearing in an election. And, I could have known that because the film, An Unreasonable Man, awakened my political mind after I returned from South Africa. It was a combination of Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich and their speeches detailing injustice and how the world should be that led me to become more engaged especially on campus.

And, since my class in African History, I have experienced a revolution of the mind—a political awakening—that will forever impact my life. I am open to ideas that I never would have been open to before I was exposed to the history of injustice in Africa. I engage in activism and write regularly in a way that would not have happened without my awakening. And, I am far too cognizant of ignorance and American reluctance to critique ideas, policies, systems, etc and be outspoken.

I will forever be on a quest for a world that should be. It’s only natural that I keep my passion and energy alive through the creation of media informing and rousing others who I hope will begin to speak up and take action like I have in the past few years.