Adults, Please Get Out The Way [How Students Do It]
This morning, I imagined Marvin Gaye would have a few things to say about what’s going on today:
Today was supposed to be Michael Brown’s fourth day in college, getting acclimated with the ins and outs of college life, surely different than the humdrum K-12 bells. Sadly, he never got his chance at college and career readiness as the Ferguson police’s hands still smell of blood and tear gas. We never got the chance to see Michael Brown past the few pictures that the media has offered and the sharp image of him mother mourning. The names of young women and men who also had their potential stolen from them read like one of my student rosters at school.
Then it hit me. The activism around Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Renisha McBride, and, more recently, Michael Brown, ripe with young folk doing amazing speaking and organizing, should serve as a reminder to adults a) how much we as adults often look down upon younger generations and b) how much potential the next generations have to move people forward.
In spite of the tragedy and strife of concluding that these public institutions aren’t made for youth of color in mind, our nation’s Adults, Please Get Out The Way [How Students Do It] - The Jose Vilson: