Black Lives Matter Summit

I was able to attend the 2019 Black Lives Matter Summit at Laguardia Community College with my teachers, principal, and fellow classmates from the Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice. Activist Shaun King and Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli were special guest speakers at this summit. Another special guest who spoke on one of the panels called Literary Justice and Education was my principal Tabari Bomani who helped opened up a bigger discussion about the problems faced within the school system with the audience.

During the Black Lives Matter Summit I really enjoyed and took advantage of the experience. I’ve never been apart of and got to experience a Summit at a community college, so me going to this and also witnessing my principal speak on a panel really excited me. When we first we first got to see the morning keynote speaker, activist Shaun King. Shaun King is the Co-founder of the Real Justice PAC and the voice of social justice on the Tom Joyner Morning show. Hearing what Shaun King had to say about the social justice issues this country faces (specifically  racism) really helped open my eyes about a lot of issues this country faces and how us young people are so distracted by nothing. He spoke on how young people today are the future of this country and if we keep on letting these issues increase this country there isn’t gonna be change. We expect there to be change but don’t do anything for it, we don’t work for change but always expect it. Shaun King speaking about this topic really open my eyes because this generation is really worried and focused on the wrong things. We are worried about presenting on social media, changing out bodies by showing off outs butts and boobs and always complain about things being the way they are. Always complain about the way police are treating us and the way the school system works with the disproportionately but do absolutely nothing about it.

Another keynote speaker we saw that day was Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli. I really enjoyed this speaker mainly because he’s a rapper from Brooklyn that speaks about problems we face as a community and not about sex, drugs and getting women. Talib Kweli story was really motivating and I took a lot from it. I got to understand that no matter what goes on in your community or your household you always got to push through it and not get caught up in the mix of things.

Having a chance to experience this Summit was amazing. Getting a chance to experience and learn off of what these significant activists are doing for our community is great and it helped motivate me to start speaking up.