A 10-year-old black boy who was called a “monkey” by his classmates delivered an impassioned speech about racism at an Oregon city council meeting.
On Tuesday (June 13), fourth-grader Galvin Alston spoke out about racism at the Redmond City Council meeting, per the New York Post. Reading his prepared speech on lined notebook paper, Gavin detailed his own experiences of racism at school.
“A lot of people have been calling me the n-word or a monkey, even ‘Black boy,’” Gavin said. “One girl said to me, ‘I would hit you, but that’s called animal abuse.’”
“Why should us black people suffer from racism, when there are other races doing murders,” he continued. “When us black people are showing respect, but we still get treated like crap.”
“We should not get treated like this,” the boy added. “We should get treated equally. This is not fair to us black people.”
Redmond made national headlines earlier this month after a dead raccoon was left outside of the mayor’s door with a message targeting the city’s sole Black councilman.
Gavin’s mom, Heather Alston, said she and her husband planned to attend Tuesday’s city council meeting to show support for Mayor Ed Fitch and Black city councilor Clifford Evelyn. When Gavin heard their plan, he asked to join.
The boy’s speech garnered applause from the crowd.
“I want people to change and not judge people just because of their skin color,” Gavin said.
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