This week In the BSN we are holding Equality Week, a week where we teach and learn about how we are all different and how this is a good thing. Equality week focuses on: justice, sustainability, gender, race and ethnicity and identity. In the following report we are going to be talking about the meaning of equality to us and other people.
We came up the #likeme campaign for people to give their views and to be heard by everyone. We follow one simple rule: we are all different, we are all unique and that’s ok. There should be no discrimination and nobody should be treated differently because of who they are. We want to promote equality and put an end to the negativity we see on the internet that stops people living how they want to. We need to start discussions and talks; that is the way to move forward and that is what the #likeme campaign is about. We want everybody across our school and this world to know that they are part of our community.
We are all different and that’s ok
Diversity is a vital part of our world. The exact definition for diversity is “the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness”. In the BSN we have 83+ nationalities, so it’s important for us to accept everyone, no matter what nationality, no matter what they look like. Take America’s situation: at its inception, America was a place for everybody, a diverse nation and place where everybody was welcome. For many, it was a safe haven. But this has changed after the inauguration of Trump; he signed an executive order banning all refugees from 7 different nations coming into the country. This is what we are trying to stop – the negativity and the stereotypes of groups of people. A diverse area is an accepting area, where nobody is judged, nobody has been given stereotypes. This is our goal and this isn’t going to happen with one of the most powerful countries stopping their nation from becoming diverse.
Racism shouldn’t be happening, especially in 2017. Nobody should care about what colour skin you have, or what you believe in. We are all human. We are the same. How is it so hard for people to realise this? The colour of your skin doesn’t change who you are inside, the religion you believe in doesn’t make you a terrorist.
We thought are world was so evolved and it is, but even in this evolved world sexism is still at large. How did this start? How did people come up with the idea that men are the leaders and people who are strong, who never get upset and woman are week and follows and break down? These stereotypes just cause problems to everybody, for men and woman. They need to be stopped; as a young girl I didn’t understand this. I didn’t understand how people thought I was weak because I was a girl. This needs to stop – all of it. The #likeme campaign is about being you, about speaking up and saying this is who I am. It’s about stopping the stereotypes you are given, saying this is who you want me to be but I don’t care and I’m going to be who I am.
It’s not wrong to be you
We believe in equality, we believe in feminism, we believe that black lives matter. These aren’t things that should be fought against – these are good things. This is equality. Girls shouldn’t be told to be more lady-like, boys shouldn’t be told to man up. These are facts, not wrong, not different; as teenagers, the future is ours, and our future is equality.
– By Maddison and Aminata
