Aug 31. 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So much is going on in the world right now, and up until now, most of my speech\u00ades have been about love, hope and peace for the future. And while I don\u2019t intend to change that, I think I need to get a lit\u00adtle bit more seri\u00adous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t think in my entire life I\u2019ve been as sad or as defeat\u00aded as I am right now. In the week of the Jacob Blake shoot\u00ading, I could\u00adn\u2019t fath\u00adom the amount of hatred that I\u2019ve seen on the inter\u00adnet. I could\u00adn\u2019t under\u00adstand why some peo\u00adple just have no human\u00adi\u00adty in their hearts. My heart aches. With every neg\u00ada\u00adtive com\u00adment, my heart aches. I was going to write a speech about how I get inspired to write, but I just don\u2019t care any\u00admore. I\u2019m so con\u00adflict\u00aded, I\u2019m so sad, I\u2019m so hurt. This move\u00adment has giv\u00aden me the chance to give peo\u00adple who don\u2019t have a voice a voice. This move\u00adment has giv\u00aden me con\u00adfi\u00addence that my opin\u00adion, my life and who I am mat\u00adters to oth\u00aders. It sucks that not every\u00adone feels the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All my speech\u00ades have been about hope for the future, but con\u00adsid\u00ader this one a PSA to BIPOC, white peo\u00adple and any\u00adone else who is strug\u00adgling in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sep\u00adtem\u00adber is Sui\u00adcide Aware\u00adness Month, and often\u00adtimes, we don\u2019t con\u00adsid\u00ader the peo\u00adple who have been there for us or know how pow\u00ader\u00adful the things we say to oth\u00aders can be until it\u2019s too late. Every 12 min\u00adutes, some\u00adone in the U.S. dies by sui\u00adcide, and those are only the ones who \u201csuc\u00adceed.\u201d Oth\u00aders are self-harm\u00ading every day, and all of those peo\u00adple are miss\u00ading some\u00adthing in their life: love, con\u00adnec\u00adtions, hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 300 mil\u00adlion peo\u00adple around the world suf\u00adfer from depres\u00adsive dis\u00ador\u00adders, and that\u2019s just the num\u00adber of peo\u00adple who are will\u00ading to talk about it. Many oth\u00aders keep their men\u00adtal and phys\u00adi\u00adcal health a secret, either because of the stig\u00adma sur\u00adround\u00ading it or because they\u2019re unable to prop\u00ader\u00adly iden\u00adti\u00adfy the symp\u00adtoms. Accord\u00ading to the World Health Orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtion, near\u00adly 800,000 con\u00adfirmed sui\u00adcides occur every year, 300,000 of those in the U.S. While these num\u00adbers are not all relat\u00aded to depres\u00adsion or oth\u00ader men\u00adtal health dis\u00ador\u00adders, it\u2019s dev\u00adas\u00adtat\u00ading to think about how often a per\u00adson takes their own life due to uncon\u00adtrol\u00adlable fac\u00adtors, includ\u00ading acci\u00adden\u00adtal self-harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That num\u00adber gets more ter\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading when you con\u00adsid\u00ader that for every adult who dies by sui\u00adcide, there are 20 more peo\u00adple attempt\u00ading it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, look at the world today. BIPOC peo\u00adple are being told every day that they are insignif\u00adi\u00adcant. BIPOC are being killed because of the col\u00ador of their skin. It sucks to feel like the world would be bet\u00adter if you were dead or if you had nev\u00ader been born. I under\u00adstand want\u00adi\u00adng to get rid of pain and just be able to live. I have gone through that these past few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, there are a bunch of peo\u00adple who have not gone through that and hope\u00adful\u00adly won\u2019t go through that in their life\u00adtime. But I implore you: Don\u2019t be a part of the sta\u00adtis\u00adtics I just talked about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether you\u2019re white, Black, brown, yel\u00adlow, pur\u00adple, what\u00adev\u00ader, please love your\u00adself, espe\u00adcial\u00adly in times like these. I know that under dis\u00adtress\u00ading cir\u00adcum\u00adstances, it\u2019s real\u00adly hard to lis\u00adten to those who are try\u00ading to help, but they have the best heart for you. It\u2019s also hard to keep liv\u00ading when some\u00adone won\u2019t lis\u00adten to you, when you\u2019re doing your best to be com\u00adfort\u00ading or when you\u2019re try\u00ading to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But please, if you\u2019re in that posi\u00adtion, don\u2019t stop try\u00ading to help. Keep com\u00ading to protests, show your sup\u00adport on social media, reach out to your BIPOC friends and fam\u00adi\u00adly. Let them know you\u2019re here for them and you believe in their fight. Tell them to con\u00adtact a sui\u00adcide pre\u00adven\u00adtion hot\u00adline, encour\u00adage them to go to ther\u00ada\u00adpy and reach out to peo\u00adple with prop\u00ader infor\u00adma\u00adtion and resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s nev\u00ader too late to make a change. If you\u2019re unsat\u00adis\u00adfied with the world we live in, let\u2019s fight to change it. Every\u00adone in the world agrees that the end goal is to be in a world where every\u00adone is hap\u00adpy. As unre\u00adal\u00adis\u00adtic as you might think that is, I\u2019m going to keep work\u00ading to make it hap\u00adpen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if you feel like nobody loves you, or that you\u2019re a waste of space, or that nobody would miss you if you were gone, you are gen\u00aduine\u00adly more valu\u00adable than you know. And I am say\u00ading this as some\u00adone who has had these thoughts him\u00adself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We often don\u2019t real\u00adize the impact we have on oth\u00ader peo\u00adple\u2019s lives, because if we did, all the neg\u00ada\u00adtive com\u00adments I see under many Black Lives Mat\u00adter posts would\u00adn\u2019t be there. We also often don\u2019t see how much some\u00adone loves and appre\u00adci\u00adates us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s tell the peo\u00adple we love that they mat\u00adter to us. It could save some\u00adone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s wrong to lose so many peo\u00adple we care about, no mat\u00adter the col\u00ador of their skin, because they could\u00adn\u2019t speak freely about how they felt. It\u2019s wrong that so many peo\u00adple feel trapped by the racism going on in the world that they feel like there\u2019s only one per\u00adma\u00adnent escape. It\u2019s wrong that there are peo\u00adple out there who refuse to acknowl\u00adedge those who are going through tough times and refuse to acknowl\u00adedge their strug\u00adgles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s wrong that when BIPOC peo\u00adple speak about racism, white peo\u00adple shut the idea down. It\u2019s wrong that some white peo\u00adple refuse to step into the shoes of BIPOC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what\u00adev\u00ader the col\u00ador of your skin is, there is noth\u00ading wrong with want\u00adi\u00adng a bet\u00adter life for your\u00adself and want\u00adi\u00adng to be hap\u00adpy. I may not be with you right now, but I need every\u00adone to under\u00adstand this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So please, every\u00adone, we need to get up and make a change in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because we have that pow\u00ader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because we mat\u00adter. Because you<\/strong> mat\u00adter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aug 31. 2020 So much is going on in the world right now, and up until now, most of my speech\u00ades have been about love, hope and peace for the future. And while I don\u2019t intend to change that, I think I need to get a lit\u00adtle bit more seri\u00adous. I don\u2019t think in my [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":993,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speeches"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/993"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaljournalism.uconn.edu\/kwasi-osei-amankwah-portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}