Acacia+D’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

= = =Amex Amalgamation=

Slowly, slowly, I breathe. I fade in and out of nothingness, free falling into a state of mental deprivation where any foreign material is simply unable to breach the barracks set up around my mind. Saturated, overflowing with information, my brain has achieved maximum absorbency. I try to urge it gallantly onward, but the temptation of passivity is just too hard to resist. I begin to fade, I allow the numbing oblivion to envelope my intellectual propriety, I am caught amidst the volatile ebb and flow of rumbling vocal chords, nearly succumbing to the lethargy until... I see it! A flicker. A flicker of light, a blinding brilliance, a shining head among the darkness. In all of its glorious splendor it draws me back from the abyss, calling out to me “coOOoOoOooOmpromise… Chiiiiing, Emma Goldman.” It is the north star in the night sky. It is the light at the end of the tunnel. It is Fitz’s brilliant, bald head. I am awake from my third period doze, freshly reminded that I should probably be taking notes, instead of falling asleep.

I’m sure you’re all wondering by now, uhh ok what is her speech actually about? Well, moving on from this tribute to the baldness, I’d like to point out that you all laughed. So clearly, my little anecdotal reminiscence is relatable. You all laughed because you’ve gone through the same thing. Everyone sitting in this classroom has. We all set out at the beginning of this year as pretty intimidated yet eager juniors, ready to embrace Amex. Ah yes, those were the days when sleep was a thing. And since then, we’ve fought on the battlegrounds of APUSH. We’ve conquered multiple multiples, we’ve slain DBQs and we’ve crushed rhetorical analysis essays. All of this “ripping our roots out” has brought us together into a type of community where we can relate to each other because we’ve all gone through the same things in this classroom, and we all did it with a relatively common goal in mind. I mean, I think that’s pretty awesome, considering we’re all so different. We’re all across the board. We’ve got Kainoa with his brilliantly logic-oriented mind, yet we’ve also got Gwynnie, with her brilliantly emotion-oriented mind. And Sydney, I’d never have benefitted as much from this class without your thought-provoking insight and unique perspectives. There’s Sherlyn, who cheers up everyone with your contagious laugh. There’s Gio, with your infinite music knowledge and your unrelenting will to watch Stepbrothers in class someday. There’s Jackie, with your endless enthusiasm for organic chemistry and NaCl. There’s artists: Noel and Grace (or should I say Al Capone). There’s Will and Will, both history buffs and both incredible writers. There’s Katie with your magnificent bookishness, there’s Julia with your pro baking skills, there’s Eva with your feminist foresight. And HELL, there’s RYAN…

My point is, everyone in this classroom is so different in so many ways, yet somehow we were all able to come together and get through Amex as the junior class. But the question remains… how does this translate to a future America?

Well, I want a future America where people can put aside their differences to come together and to work together. Whether it be BLM, the feminist movement, the LGBT cause, or really anything else, there is so much unwarranted hostility and bitterness between even supporters who are on the same side and share a common goal.

For example, BLM. I have seen PoC disregard BLM supporters because they are white. I have seen white people completely invalidate BLM with the token “ALM.” Black pride is not white hate. And just because you are not the targeted group does not mean you can’t or shouldn’t stand with them to advocate for equality, no matter what race you are. Just because Black lives matter, that doesn’t mean Muslim lives don’t matter. The important thing is that we all stand for equal rights.

I see the same thing in the feminist movement. While female feminists are generally enthusiastic for men to join their cause, I have definitely also seen men alienated from the movement because they somehow “lack qualification” to stand in solidarity with women in their fight for equality. A feminist is not someone who thinks women are better than men, it is someone who wants equality for both sexes. It just feels like these activist groups sometimes become so determined to fight for their cause that they become exclusive and push away the very support that they want and need.

You can see it in both. BLM and the feminist movement, and I’m sure in many others. Differences between people prevent them from uniting to accomplish a common goal, sometimes even preventing them to see that they //have// a common goal. Just like we have our Sydneys, our Noels, and our Wills (two of them in fact), America has its different races and cultures and genders and ethnicities. So, if our Amex Class of 2016-17 was able to unite and defeat the AP gods, why can’t America unite to defeat its foes, too?