Inverness pupils express racism fears
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A LETTER to America written by an Inverness schoolgirl has touched the heart of a preacher in New York’s Madison Avenue.
As part of her schoolwork, Leoni Ward-Walton (15) wrote an essay on the race riots taking place in America, following the alleged murder of African American George Floyd by an on-duty police officer.
Leoni, whose own life has been touched by racism in the attitudes she comes across towards her mixed race nephews, wrote a powerful piece called One World, Two Societies for Inverness Royal Academy, calling for race discrimination to become a thing of the past.
In her essay, she stated: “America is mad at black people for saying ‘black lives matter’, but we are mad for having to say it at all.
“George Floyd didn’t resist arrest yet officers took it upon themselves to use brutal force that isn’t authorised in the police academies. They did this on their own accord and totally off the books.
“The difference between what the government calls a protest and a deathly riot is the colour of their skin.”
Leoni told the Courier: “I have two mixed race nephews, aged three and one. I fear for any discrimination they might face as they grow older.”
Seperately, pupil Sienna Hatch (11), of Lochaber, has illustrated her views on racism with a drawing which includes the words ‘black lives matter’.
The Reverend Beverly Bartlett, who is a minister at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, told the Courier that support from people such as Leoni and Sienna had touched her and her community deeply.
She said: “As a white woman who has never a day in her life been afraid because of the colour of her skin, these days are painful in a different way than they are for my black friends, colleagues, parishioners and neighbours. The accident of my birth – born white, born into a middle class family with well-educated parents – means I was born needing to wake up to my privilege, to the status and safety and opportunity that come to me simply because I am white.
“This time we are going through is painful, full of grief and anger. George Floyd should be alive today.
“Racism was woven into the fabric of our country from its founding. The uprisings that are happening now, the thousands of people marching and demonstrating give me hope that we can unweave that fabric or rip it apart and weave a new one.”
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