Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem, The Hill We Climb, was a huge deal for me as a young black man. Her powerful and inspirational words blew my mind. When Gorman spoke about division and integration, it made me think about America in the 1960s, when racism and segregation were prevalent and black people were treated unfairly. As a black boy, her poem means a lot to me because it speaks of all of the racial injustice, slavery, and hatred my ancestors experienced from the oppressors.
Gorman’s poem gives me hope for the future because she’s black and can identify with our struggles. She understands our kind and our history in America. Segregation, slavery, bus boycotts, sit-ins, and other historical events and injustices. If I had to consider the time we live in and write a letter to the future, I would mention my personal experience living in the United States as a child. I would tell them about the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and other black figures.
I would tell them, not to allow others to define their character by the color of their skin, but by their character. That is something that Martin Luther King Jr. said to the people in Washington at his “I Have A Dream speech.” One line that stood out to me was, “And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us.” It is imploring us to set aside our differences regardless of race and focus on the future. It has a lot to offer our country and the future of our people.
