The Change
By: DeAndre’ Pullen
“I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter”- Jay-Z.
For all those who don’t know who said that, he turned out to be one of greatest rappers out there, and his name is Jay-Z. I picked that quote specifically because he named three different leaders who stood up for what they believe in. I they believed in Freedom of Speech, Equality, Respect, Unity.
The same thing that I believe in, is what they believed in. Muhammad Ali for example was one of the best fighters in the world, who fought in and out of the ring. And if he can put up a fight in and out the ring, then so you can as well. All it would take is change of heart and some backbone. Now you’re probably asking yourselves how so? Well what he had to do was fight racism alongside having to deal with people who disagreed with what he had believed in.
Ali was born Cassius Clay Jr., he changed his name in 1964 after joining the Nation of Islam. Citing his religious beliefs, refusing military induction and was stripped of his heavyweight championship and banned from boxing for three years during the prime of his career.
Ali said “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over.
This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”- Muhammad Ali.
This shows us that this world needs to change. We can all honestly say that, we are repeating the same mistakes that happened in the past that we are doing now just with a little twist. Like honestly you and I both know that all our problems from the past and presents are just swept underneath the rug. So why don’t you do what he did, stand for what u believe in and believe that you have freedom of speech and show equality.
Don’t be afraid to tell people why you feel the way you feel. I’m going to give a prime example who was not afraid to do that. Martin Luther jr. was one of the best people to do so.
He told everyone that we need to stand as one. He told people that we are brothers and sisters who are the same. You can be Black, White, Yellow, Blue, it doesn’t matter because a person is a person.
Think about, we are all made and engineered the same. If we didn’t have this skin on our body, you couldn’t even tell us apart.
So are people be so ignorant about the way people look or dress. I think it’s time to just grow up and show some damn respect to one another. I’m tired of seeing the crimes of blacks, whites and cops. and hear what their doing.
Now I know it may be an hard task to do. But it’s not impossible. So if you believe and put your mind to it, then it can be done. If it couldn’t be done then think about the slavery that went on for 400 years. 400 hundred years is a long time but it got somewhat abolished. So don’t give up on it.
The rights for black man and women to vote. Those were all things we thought were impossible but it was done by people who wasn’t afraid.
So stop being afraid to stand up and fight back with knowledge and tell people what’s right is right. Do as our leaders did when they fought for us. So let’s fight for the next generation as well as ourselves.
