Holly Joyce Lehren is a 2015 graduate of Columbia High School.
As a community, Columbia High School has experienced controversy, unity, pride, and unrest as racial lines and divisions cross and intertwine. The student body has protested and outraged against the injustices that have stemmed in our nation from prejudice and ignorance. And while we have yet to reach any kind of perfectly equal environment in relation to our mix of ethnicities and cultures, we have shown to hold a social conscience, much needed in our country today.
Michael Brown was murdered shortly after his own graduation. His death catalyzed a nationwide attack on the racism still prevalent within the population. As thousands lay down in the street, or marched for days to awake in the people some sense of justice, still more were slaughtered in our nation; Staten Island, Baltimore, Charleston, and South Carolina, their killers blinded by the stereotypes and ignorance bound in the social construct of racial prejudice.
A bigotry, the kind of stupidity that exists beyond hate, has remained ever-present in our nation. The United States that hails itself as the bearer of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has been unable to rise above this certitude. And still we live, as the brutality existent in our country ends the lives of men, women, and children still un-liberated from the concepts of racism. Concepts that dictate one’s worth as an individual, content of character, and one’s opportunities within society based solely on the color of one’s skin.
If we can do nothing else, we, as the Class of 2015, must use our new opportunities as a means to bring change to our society, to bring a new understanding to the population. We must learn to exist united, free of the ignorance that has caused the kinds of tragedies that have yet to find any kind of end.
I ask that we begin our graduation as a united group, prepared to face this social injustice. As a unit, we must act as a means to end the corruption of our country, ever increasingly aware of the strict racial boundaries and stereotypes that have permeated the minds of the population. We must find the ability to view ourselves, our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, free from the stupidity racial prejudice has emphasized, and see one another as individuals truly free to create and build our own lives in accordance with the desires and ambitions we possess.
We cannot accept to continue divided by a murderous construct, but strive to promote a collective need for true equality.
