RACISM: Evergreen Community Charter School third-grader Adam Lee Aiken illustrates his essay below with a drawing of how racism can be hurtful while kids are playing sports.
Editor’s note: This essay and artwork are part of a series of posts from Part I of Xpress’ annual Kids Issue, which features the art and writing of local K-12 students. This year, we asked kids and teens to address the theme of “Let’s fix it!”
There is a pretty big problem in Asheville. It’s racism. Racism is discriminating against someone because of their skin color. Sometimes, people who are racist are called white nationalists. These people usually organize rallies and speeches based on their beliefs that white people should be supreme, and in some places, it is being used! In some prisons, black people have to do extra work. They are also sometimes arrested for no reason. But luckily, there are lots of movements trying to stop this. It will be a challenge because it is very hard to change a person’s opinion.
— Adam Lee Aiken Third grade Evergreen Community Charter School
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The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.