Walking out and waking up. Youth in protest

Students citywide walked out of school in March to protest the Robbinsdale police killing of Khalil Azad. Photo by Ayanna Melander

By Ayanna Melander, North High School

Activism has always come easily to me. My mother and North High principal Mauri Friestleben has always embodied a spirit that seeks peace and justice, and has instilled those same beliefs in me.

My freshman year, George Floyd was murdered. When it happened I wasn't fully aware of how horrible it was. The morning after his murder, my mom and I went to what is now George Floyd Square and we prayed. I didn’t know what we were praying for until she told me later.

We sat on the concrete, we felt the sadness and the unrest from within and around us. She told me to pray for justice and to pray for change.

I carry that prayer with me always when I march.

I still feel the goosebumps from when I decided to walk out of school in March without my mother. When I arrived on the scene, I could sense the energy from all of the students around me. All feeling the horrible weight of seeing Khalil Azad’s picture held high in the air and knowing that the form of a photograph is all we will be able to see of him now. Those familiar feelings, the confusing swirl of combined sadness, rage, helplessness, with power, community and solidarity all in one knot in my stomach, returned from mourning the death and murder of so many innocent lives in my own community.

“With everything going on in the world it sometimes seems like we're all sleeping, going through the same motions and ignoring the problems that happen to others but sometimes we need to face the music, come alive, and wake up.”

Ayanna Melander

Regardless, I stood in solidarity at the US Bank Stadium with hundreds of other students. It was the afternoon and I was surrounded by the occasional shouts of “Justice!” and “Prosecute the police!,” by people my age who also left their mothers, their comfort, some for the first time, some vetted, flocks of youth fleeing their homes, their schools, some with their families begging them not to, some with families pushing them out of the door, being called a delinquent or a hero as they migrated to the fight and to respond to the call for a change, and demand it.

I keep going out because it's hard to be oblivious. I grew up around so many oblivious people. It hurts to know that a lot of people in general take in injustice as something that just happens. You get to a point where it's too much. It was just too much for me. I try to, while also trying to protect my mental health, help people who are going through horrible things.

At the event, I took pictures for journalism class. I admired how beautiful this big group of students were screaming the most illuminating things. And when I looked up there was an ad on the screen of the US Bank stadium that said, “Wake up.”

Young people have always been a part of the fight for social justice.

The Civil Rights movement was chartered by young people with events like the children's crusade and organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who were instrumental in the Civil Rights movement.

Youth in protest forces people to come to terms with the damage being done to their children. Good or bad, we want a fighting chance for our own future.

With everything going on in the world it sometimes seems like we're all sleeping, going through the same motions and ignoring the problems that happen to others but sometimes we need to face the music, come alive, and wake up.