Who am I?

Jonathan
Wofford College
January 2013

Who am I? As I wake up every morning I ask myself that question. Sure, I could be another statistic or eventually fit in with the self proclaimed image given to black people by modern pop culture but I chose not to. Striving to try to become very successful in today’s world I began to wander what is my goal in life? What is my calling? What am I going to do with myself? Educating and feeding my mind with knowledge leads me into several different paths that I never knew I could go. By leaving the stereotype and striving to become that writer, that journalist, that advocate I learned one thing along the way that keeps me motivated to reach my goals and to reach my dreams. Just be yourself!

Time Progresses I Grow Strong

Adult Leader
Unity Center
March 2012

I was a nobody
Not acknowledged
Not recognized
Then I went to school
I became somebody
A person changed
I stood high

I was a nobody
Not acknowledged
Not recognized
Brought down
God came to me and took my hand
A person changed I stood high

I am a somebody
But others are not
I brace my jaw in anger
It is their right to be a somebody
God possesses me of this from the inside out
I must speak out
Persons changed
We stand tall

Free

Tatyana, Youth
Unity Center
March 2012

I am an orphan who wants someone to love me. I want people to look at me and say “you’re special”. I want a family to go to, to laugh with and to cry with. I want to be free, free from racism, free from poverty, free from evil, just free! I am determined to go and fight for my freedom! I’m going to grow up and have a great job, no matter what color I am. I’m going to have a loving family. I’m going to be free!

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Siarah, Youth
Unity Center
March 2012

What’s really important to me is for everybody to have the same right to do whatever they want and to not be judged by the way they look or where they are from. I think that our group is a great example of a community and we do not care where we came from. We are like a big family. For me it doesn’t matter if you are African American, Latino, Russian or American. I just think that God made everybody unique. And I’m thankful for that because if in this world we only had one race, one culture and the same personalities our world would be boring.

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Crystal
Unity Center
March 2012

Crystal thinks people need help! We all have problems. We all need help. God comes mysterious and He doesn’t come when you want. He comes at the best time He thinks. So while we are hurting and suffering. We want comfort and want kindness it can help to just say thank you to someone. You could just say one sweet thing and make their day. Be kind it makes a difference.

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Ceasar, Youth
Unity Center
March 2012

I look to the left and all I see is White. I look to the right and all I see is Black. Why can we all not come together and get along? Are we all not the same on the inside? Are we all not one species on the same planet? Are we not all made in His image of the most high? But we are and we will all someday come together to lift His name.

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Adam, Youth
Unity Center
March 2012

I’ve been in places. I’ve seen things. I’ve witnessed poverty. I’ve witnessed wealth. I’ve witnessed war. I’ve witnessed peace. I’ve witnessed what it is like on the other side of the world. We are very lucky, very lucky indeed. I’ve been in places that have not changed for many years. We do not appreciate what we have. However, we just destroy it.

I Am

Isabel, youth
Unity Center
March 2012

I am strong and faithful
I hear the metro and people talking and laughing
I believe that everybody has the right
I trust in myself and God
I am strong and faithful
I want peace and equality in this world
I listen for God’s word
I feel free
I hope that in the future we will be equal
I love how our group is like a strong family all for one and one for all
As our benediction says we are a community both short and tall
We are God’s family one and all
We laugh and cry we work and play
We find God’s love in every day
May we go from here and peace depart
May we all return with a joyful heart
Amen!

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Wofford College
January 2012

Here we are, the city, the stone to come together, not go alone. You say speak from the heart so that’s what I’ll do, I’ve got a story…for you—and you—and you. As 15 we came and 15 we are, we traveled and travel together in spirit and even in the car. Things we have learned and will want to take back do help those. Whether White, Brown, or Black to be like us is together, 1000% improvement if we can make a life even a little bit better.

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Johvany
Wofford College
January 2012

You say everyone has a light that illuminates love, compassion, joy. It will never fade you say. But what if that light is so dim, so dim a whisper could blow it out. What if the darkness is so black it’s hard to crawl out of bed? So black that everything and I mean everything in life you do is to counteract it. Then some days you feel it is dimmer than ever. Then I ask you is that living? Is that being human? Can we fix that?

Look at the World

Nathaniel J.S.
West Ohio Intern 2011

Look at the world,
What do you see?
Yellow, black, white, or brown?
Woman or man?
Does it matter?

We say we want equality,
But never take action in reality,
We say we want jutice
But never give people reason to trust this,

We say freedom is priceless
But yet you can buy your fellow man,
It’s time to stand up, speak out,
Dispel all doubt,

We can change the world they say,
But we never prove them right,
It’s time to stand up, speak out,
Let people know what it’s all about,

Look at the world,
What do you see?

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Rebecca Farnum
Third Year Undergraduate, Michigan State University
Participant in GBCS Seminar Spring Break 2011

So many people climb up my stairs
Ride up my elevators
To see DC as I do
To see the city in its splendor
From my heights they look to the White House, the Capitol, the Potomac
They revel in the stone glory of their national home
But they don't see all that I see
From my heights I see the city
The people
The life that is DC
I see the White House, the Capitol Building, the other monuments
But they are but a blip on the radar
Most of my sight, most of my city
Is composed of people
Living, working
Loving, dying
People whose only crime is to live in a city without representation
People who come to the capitol of freedom and are rejected
People who walk past buildings with the words "Equality" and "Justice" every day
But there is no justice
The is no equality
There is only hope
Hope that one day the land of the free will live in freedom
For all
For mothers and children and brothers and uncles
For white and black and rich and poor
For the immigrants who came here illegally and the immigrants who came before there was a law to break
For the working poor and the unworking rich
I see people
Sharing food, offering shelter
Telling stories, laughing together
I see people.
As the many people of this nation look through my high windows,
I see them. I hear them.
And I see and hear the people they have failed to see and hear.
I watch over this city, this people
And I wish them well. I wish them hope.
I wish them freedom.

Do You See Me?

Tiffanie Shanks

Group Leader

West Ohio

Do you see me?

Standing here in front of you.

Look into my eyes.

What do you see?

Me?

Or how society portrays my kind?

When you see me, please

Don’t see what society tells you

See that I stand on the strength of my people

Embrace the strength of our legacy.

Vanity cannot reside in their story

Their suffering

Their fight

Their future

So intricately bound to mine

Do you see it in my eyes?

Our legacy.

Your legacy.