"Please don’t kill me because I’m different."
[ Image Description: A young Black teenager shown from the shoulders up in a white t-shirt that reads "What's J Say?" He is standing in front of a taupe brick wall, and the sun is casting a shadow of his body. He is looking at the camera with a direct expression. Text on the image states: I Am a Proud, Black, Nonspeaking Young Man with Autism. My Life Matters. End Image Description ]
October is International Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Month and is also Black History Month in the UK, so I wanted to share this poem.
Justice Killebrew, a non-speaking Black Autistic person, was 14 when he wrote this poem in 2020, after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. He uses an iPad or laminated board to communicate.
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So are we still waiting with a song in our hearts?!
Hoping we make it back home to loved ones.
Not because I’m a police officer, not because I’m a person in the military. NO!
It’s because my skin is black, my frame is tall and I am considered to be a threat!
They want me to disappear!
So if I don’t leave they’ll do it for me, but I’m here and I’m not leaving! My Black Life Matters!
I move on a different frequency, yes a different rhythm.
Please don’t kill me because I’m different. I deserve a chance at a good life. My Black Life Matters.
Instead, celebrate me!
I’m a descendant of the people who built this country you worship, and the ground you freely walk and that flag you love so much that Betsy Ross stole the credit for.
My Black Life Matters!
How can you be so mad at me because I want to be free?!
Are you loving people and making hate an enemy?!
Let’s begin to heal one another by education and advocation.
Let’s drown out hate and flood this world with love because:
All lives Matter when Black lives Matters!
