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No Asterisks. No Conditions

Yusra Hassan, a Grade 12 student from White Oaks Secondary School shares her substantive poem about Black Lives Matter.
Yusra Hassan | Hassan Family
Yusra Hassan | Hassan Family

Brown, black or white. Name-calling was never your right.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but judging by skin colour will hurt my soul.

After years of being “free”, I only weep a little less than my ancestors.

But you may choose to disagree.

As Parks sat in the front of the bus in silence, she raised a siren.

Causing the fin de siècle with Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela.

Why do men of colour still live in fear?

No more segregation, but racism still permeates the air.

Believe me while you can.

Broken souls. Shattered hearts.

What’s more to hear and talk about?

I die three times more than you during a pandemic.

Is white gold and black dust?

Indeed I matter so why do you stutter?

You do this as a trend. But do nothing to make it end.

Can I live my life without a ban?

1 in every 1000 of my men die and that's a fact.

Racism is over every stack.

Wake up world. This is not an opportunity, this is a reality. And a sad one too.

Why ignore haters when they floor my men. We need to stand up and mentor them.

Say their names, raise your voices. Because this is a battle that we must win.

Why have silence when we can stop this violence?

Demanding change is what we want. Not cosmetic but systematic!

The pandemic of racism cannot be ignored

Never again should a man call me a monkey

And twice become the president of a country!

Let’s teach our kids the demonizing effects of a black face on Halloween.

So that they don’t grow up to be a policeman who is mean.

Now, I have a dream. I have a dream to change constitution to implement in letter and in spirit

“All men are created equal.” No asterisks. No conditions.


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