This is the second poem in my spoken word album called, “Bridges to Climb.” I hope you enjoy!

Transcript:

It is said that education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world.

But education is not universal, really it’s only controversial

We live in a country where education is prized, celebrated, and precious

Where we feel lucky to be well-educated and dedicated to the ideas of the past, present, and future

But it was in that past, that was not so long ago, that people who had a darker complexion were separated and degraded because of the color of their skin

But, why was it that education is still is used as a means of discrimination?

As a means of discrimination not against the caucasian, but against the asian, latino, African, and ingigenous populations.

Why are we still seeing the repercussions of oppression in the education system?

We may have come a long way from Ruby Bridges, who was one of the first African-American students allowed in an all-white school, but we still have so many more bridges to climb.

So many more barriers to topple and so many more role models to uplift.

So let us be the generation that does not resist innovation, but rather the one that ends this woeful discrimination within education.