Saphire Tucker-McCartney

We are happy to announce a winner for our recent writing contest! Saphire A. Tucker-McCartney!

The prompt was How do you overcome the challenges we are facing today? Saphire’s personal essay offers great insight into her frustrations with racism.  She shares her story to be the ripple who can help teach others acceptance and understanding as our world navigates the waters of racial  injustice.  It is her hope that you too can be that ripple of change toward equal justice and kindness for all.

Dear World,

I am one of my mother’s five children. We are an interracial family. I never saw color, I only ever saw family. To me, I didn’t notice that there were not many people of color in Chester, Vermont. Now that our country is being more divided by the Covid 19 virus, murder hornets, and color, I am starting to see that other people do indeed see color. Of course I had a sense that people did, after all my family has dealt with some racism. It’s bound to happen when you are part of a interracial family, which is a sad thing to say. However, I wish they would stop seeing the color of someone’s skin and just see the person. It is challenges like these that require change, especially racism. For the most part, my family ignored all the racial comments. If we were to start teaching others that race has nothing to do with the person, that would be the start of the change that we as a world need.

Racism hits home for me and it hurts that it has to be that way for anyone. Racism needs to end. I know it more than likely will never be  fully gone, but we as a country, no as a world, need to end it as much as we possibly can. It only leads to us being divided and to the death of many innocent people. As a kid, I never really understood racism. I had no reason to, but as I got older and my little siblings started school we started to face racism. People didn’t know that a family could be interracial or if they did, they probably didn’t realize that it actually happens. They didn’t realize that it isn’t a bad or weird thing. What they did in response sticks with me. It hurts my heart that this happened.  However, other people deal with worse because of the color of their skin, like George Floyd. My family has had to deal with questions like “you guys are sisters? How are you sisters? You are white and she is black? Are one of you adopted?” with my response being an unamused “yeah, so what, we have different dads?” It’s questions like that, that hurt. They might seem innocent enough, but they stick with a person. We’ve dealt with weird stares for walking with each other. However, what hurts me the worst of all is someone feeling the need to yell racial slurs at my little brother from across the street. He was wearing a Donald Trump mask and all I could do was distract my eight year old brother. These words should never have even been said because they stay with people for a long time. People use the excuse, “He was raised in a racist family, that is why he is like that.” However, there is no excuse for racism. Yes, you or someone you love could be born into a racist family, but you have the choice to break that vicious cycle. Racism is not a genetic trait passed through DNA, it is a choice.

Racism tears families apart. Just take a look at what happened to George Floyd. He had a daughter. When he was brutally murdered by Officer Derek Chauvin he ended up leaving his daughter behind. She will have to grow up without her father. She will grow up watching other kids having all the father daughter experiences that she will never get the chance to experience. She will have to grow up knowing how her  father suffered. It is not right, nor is it fair, that that little girl now has to go through all of those terrible things because Officer Derek Chauvin killed her father over the color of his skin. All because one man decided to take George Floyd’s life, this little girl will have to grieve the loss of her father. The saddest thing though, is she is not the only one going through this pain. There are many more cases like this in the past and there probably will be many more, if we do not put an end to it.

As a country we are supposed to be united, but instead we have people dividing us based on our skin color. To overcome this, we need to reach every single generation with the same message: SKIN COLOR DOES NOT MATTER. We need to make the world a safer place; less police brutality, less racism, and less selfishness. Then and only then are we united. So how can we call ourselves The United States of America when we are so clearly divided? How can we let this continue on the way it has been? Has George Floyd and everyone else who has died due to the Virus and to racism not been enough for change? How many more lives will this separation cost us? How long before we make a difference? It only takes one person to start the ripple, so I leave you with this. Will you let that ripple affect you? Will you be part of the change that needs to happen? If not why?

Sincerely,

The Ripple