By Rachel Meier
A note from Rachel’s mother: My daughter is Congolese-Canadian. She is 12 1/2 years old and has been deeply affected by recent events in the United States. She was frustrated that we couldn’t attend the protest in Vancouver last night, but we watched the news footage of it and other protests around the world. This morning we discovered that her final writing project of the year was to write something to encourage someone and she chose to write to little black girls with a Black Lives Matter theme. Tomorrow she returns to school and she asked me to remove her twists so that she could wear her hair ‘loud and proud’ in an act of protest and solidarity.
Little black girls,
My life matters,
Your life matters,
Our lives matter,
Black lives matter.
Young black girls,
Though we feel scared, frustrated, angry, sad
Never let them steal our joy.
We are literally crowned in glory.
We are our ancestors greatest hope.
We will stand, kneel, march, shout, sing and dance for freedom.
We will make our voices heard.
Until there is justice, there will be no peace.
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About Rachel:
Rachel Meier is a 12 year old grade 6 student from Surrey, BC. She loves dance, art, track and field and graphic novels.
