“Being privileged doesn’t mean that you are always wrong and people without privilege are always right. It means that there is a good chance you are missing a few very important pieces of the puzzle.”― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race
For me, educational spaces have never been safe. My race, my ethnicity, the fact that I am Black and Biracially white, offended people before I ever opened my mouth to speak.
I don’t think the other students understood that their abuse would have lifelong consequences, but that wasn’t the worst part. It was that as we were being taught that “It takes a village to raise a child,” the adults in the village, the ones with all the power, made the deliberate choice to hurt me.
Power is a funny thing. It convinces you that you can do whatever you want, that the consequences of your actions aren’t yours to carry.
It allows you to twist yourself into someone who will abuse and hurt and consume others, even as those others are just trying to help you elevate your place in the world.
I’ve started to understand the difference between power and faith. Faith means understanding you may not know the full picture, you may not see the future, but you know in your gut things are going to work out okay.
Power means you have the ability to control the world around you. It means you know how to control yourself, and the world around you moves to your will. But using power and using power wisely are two different things entirely.
I have made the decision to finally go back to school, and I am excited about the prospect. I would have done it last spring, but as we all know I was nursing a broken ankle and the last thing I was thinking about was education.
Now that I have the time I have decided it’s time to follow the path that will get me where “I” want to go, instead of where I was told that I was supposed to end up.
For the first time in my life I have faith, and power, I am in control, I am in power, I am in charge of my life and I know what comes next.
The only fear and anxiety that I carry is that I might not be successful, but that fear is limiting, I am not interested in participating in anything that limits me or puts limits upon me that I do not set myself.
This weekend I attended the BC NDP Convention and I had a great time with old friends, as well as making new ones, but I did notice a serious lack of diversity.
When I mentioned it to mom she said “Run.” I looked at her and realized she was serious. There are a lot of people that don’t even speak to some of the voting public, and those are the folks I grew up with.
The marginalized, disenfranchised people who are living on the street, who are unhoused, who are poor and upset, it occured to me this weekend that one day I absolutely want to run, and I want to succeed.
I want to be able to say “I took the hard path, and I won.” And while that’s going to take me a long time, I also know the end result is worth the dream, and the dream will be worth the work.
Wish me luck,
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall, The Original Loud Mouth Brown Girl
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 
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