Ain’t I a Child
This was first written as a mid-term exam. Nothing excessive, simply a single page: Concession and counterargument style, with inspiration from the strong, caustic piece "Ain't I a Woman?" A Black woman ain't never heard or seen, and she ain't never been treated as fine and delicate as a White woman. Yet she's still weaker than a man somehow? What I have felt for a long time, is that adults have power over what I should feel, what I should agree with, what I should think, young people who see injustice in the world are silenced and ridiculed. Forced to conform else they're stripped of the status symbols that adults dictate are necessary for their future and their success. Pulled out from school, kicked out of a home, shunned from club activities or other social functions. Anger is a violent, ugly emotion, a monster to keep at bay, rather, speak like an adult: to understand what we say and have a discourse or so it's easier to ignore and dismiss as whimsy and immature, undercooked musings? Did you know scientists have called an adolescent's brain a raw potato?