From the outside looking in.

As someone who has no home, you could call me a vagrant or a third culture kid, I have no real say on cases or situations in other countries.

With one condition. When the story or the situation tugs at my heart, begs me for attention, tells me of injustice and wrong-doing I must step up and take part in going against the horror that exists.

When it came to girl’s education, not only Nigeria where the terrible kidnapping took place, but everywhere, I made sure to speak out and say my mind on it. I spoke out at a girl rising viewing. I don't know whether what I said really made a difference, but I knew I had to do something, I had to say something.

It goes the same way for the situation in the U.S. with young black men being shot and killed. Especially the most recent publicly displayed shooting of Michael Brown. I feel like I have to do something I have to say something.

Why do I care? No, it’s not just because I share the same skin color as him, although that has a part in it, I cannot deny. It is because I want justice for every single oppressed person in this entire world. Anyone who has ever been judged will know what I mean. Anyone who has ever been rejected will understand. Anyone who has ever been taken for granted, used, hurt and set aside will get me.

I want to make sure people know that I care because it’s the right thing for me to do. I care about teens being shot multiple times by a police officer (who’s suppose to make people feel safe) and left on the streets for hours, their dead body reeking to the community. I care about the mother that wishes her child could have amounted to more. That even if he was arrested he could have come out a better person, now he won't even get that chance. I care about communities coming together to protest and some people breaking into violence and then military coming with tear gas and rubber bullets to “control the situation” and “keep people safe”.

I care because I grew up as a human. When I lived in China I was me, I was myself, I wasn’t my race. My thoughts weren't “black” they were mine. And in fact I hated being called black, I hated it because when I saw my skin I saw a brown hue, not black. I saw a tree’s color not ebony. I didn't understand why people decided to name skin colors as who we were. Saying “I'm black” made me cringe until I finally decided to accept it because I realized the world wasn’t changing anytime soon. I realized (with fear) if I didn't say I was black I would almost have no identity.

So, I speak now, because I feel pain for the communities who have had to suffer from racial injustice for centuries. I studied American history growing up, it’s been such a long time coming, and I would hope that by this time things would be completely different. But it isn’t. There’s still so much work to be done.

Michael Brown’s death wasn't just a police officer killing a teen, it was a wake up call for all the racial prejudice still haunting a beautiful country that embraced freedom(and the entire world). I believe that there is hope for this country that I really want to go to. I want to know what it’s like to be in a country that so loves freedom and that pioneered democracy as a government and that has good food.

But I have that fear in my heart, that I won't be accepted fully just because of what I look like. And when I see the picture, taken by Gordon Parks, that heads this message, I see myself as one of those girls, from the outside looking into a life, it seems, I will never have. A life of total freedom from oppression, and injustice, a life in another world, another universe, another realm.

The truth is, I am just like them. I am from the outside looking into America, looking into Gaza, looking into Syria, looking into Iraq, looking into the world, and hoping that one day there will no longer be this divide and we can see each other the way we truly are, that we can truly understand what it feels like to have freedom. Completely unified as countries, peoples, and cultures. No barriers, no barricades, no prisons, no bondage. Real complete freedom.