We Speak for Ourselves

Shannon Mendez

Blog# 3

6/28/19

                                                     We Speak For Ourselves

I walked into a room not knowing what to expect. I was handed a book called “We Speak for Ourselves” by D. Watkins. The room was bright with sunlight rays hitting the windows of the humongous building. I looked at my surroundings and I noticed I was one of the youngest people in the room. I started skimming through the book and found it quite interesting. The book is about an African American male who grows up in Baltimore in a very segregated neighborhood with high crime rates and bad influences. In this book, he discusses his turning point where he changed his life around into something new. You might be asking yourself why I am writing this?

              Well, to be completely honest, the way the author spoke on behalf of his book was what caught my attention and many of the audience’s attention. Not only did he make his book sound interesting to read, but he made people realize some the issues we have here in America such as poverty, racism, the education system, and voting rights. I acknowledged the fact that D. Watkins, the author of the book, would always keep the conversation going, and he wanted people to know more about his perception of life. One of the things he mentioned that caught my attention was the fact that he wanted to repeatedly be the face that most middle and high schools know because most of the faces they see are black males as drug dealers, criminals, or prisoners. He went on to mention that he wanted to change the way people perceive African Americans in this country.
              The one thing I got out of this speech was the potential he had to speak out and be heard. He also stated how it is not enough to be woke because even when most individuals are woke about a certain topic they may never be willing to find a solution to the problem. In his book, he mentions how he gets sicken by being woke because it is never enough to make a change in the world, one must work hard to put the policies and laws in place in order to seek a better tomorrow. It might seem like an ordinary speech, but the way he spoke was unique, funny, warming, and energetic. As a future social worker, it opens our mind to find solutions within the client as well as our society to better the well-being of the individuals and be change agents to our clients. I hope to go to more of these events later in the future. It made me realize how important it is for our stories and our voices to be heard.