The State of the Democracy

Since the conclusion of the last World War, the United States has been seen by many around the globe to be a beacon to hope and equality for the rest of the world to follow. In the year 2021, mere centuries after the official abolishment of slavery, the substance of equality still manages to allude black Americans within the borders of the nation that we are told ever so frequently to pledge allegiance to.
The reality of the story however, is that the United States is in the midst of a new revolution; one led by the youth and one that refuses to settle for compromise. Instead, the youth crusades for the realization of their beliefs through the system that our reality has been built upon; that the west has been built upon: democracy.
As the new year has become the present, the world has been shown an America where liberty, justice, and equality is just as fragile at home as it is in the farthest community of people from our shores. For many, this is where resolve matters most and the reasons that we seek to make change in whatever way possible have become the things that we stake our names to.
For the longest, our democracy has been defined by cooperation between ideologies wanting to destroy each other and has opposed each other at every turn, and yet we continually return to the table in hopes of being able to find a better answer; a more American answer.
And yet, as those rioters stormed Capital Hill and flooded the People’s house in January of 2021, I’m reminded of the nation’s pledge, its pledge to the people. It was only then however that I understood that those people who threatened the sanctity of the people’s democracy are fueled by the same thing as us who are so stoutly opposed to them; the desire for the freedom to make this brave new world one that will love and accept us for who we are. In this world of compromise and neutrality for the sake of peace however, the youth of both sides understand that this freedom is something that must be taken.
This isn’t a rallying cry to unite behind the Biden-democracy and its fence-sitting history of compromise; but rather, it’s a request to unite behind the goal of being better and being united. For so long, black and brown people have been made to conform and adjust to the world as it was built around us.
From my perspective of the present however, we have a chance to lay the foundations of a world that can live up to the expectations of greatness that the stories of America the Unifier has promised us all since we were small children pledging allegiance to a flag whose blood and sacrifices we’ve become numb to.
It’s coming to pass that the majority is becoming the minority, and vice versa in more ways than one. It’s what this brave, new environment of growth can be that has the youth on both sides of the fence rallying for the mic and to the light; to prove that their way is better, that their way works.
Witnessing this story play out for the minuscule amount of time that I’ve been on this Earth, it’s clear to me that the black and brown people who have unwittingly made this nation their home are the ones who will serve as the catalysts to our own revolution. Now, more than any time before, is the time to act and choose our path with conviction and in unity.
In ways that only they could before, through the stock market, in the courtrooms, and now in the Oval Office, a better world that answers our questions and empowers our youth is within our grasp, if only we all were to reach out and take it.