Nine-year-old schoolgirl writes poem calling for racial equality

Tiana McLean from Horfield was inspired to write a poem calling for racial equality after following the repercussions from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The nine-year-old pupil at St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School lives in Horfield with her mum, Rachel Stevenson, a civil servant working for the MoD and her older sister, Chanelle Allison.

Tiana said: “This was a massive wake-up call for me and I just thought that I can’t just sit here all day and I at least have to do something to help make a change as well.”

Tians’s grandmother, Steph Lee, shared the poem on Facebook and YouTube:

Here is Tiana’s poem in full:

This is 2020, this is hell
Not only is there a deadly disease but it’s spreading as well.
RIP George, RIP Kobe, “Everything’s gonna be ok” at least that’s what my mother told me.

Pollution, Corona, racism and tears,
This is a message I hope everyone hears.

George was a black man, innocent as anything. Then police go and start harassing him.
“I can’t breathe!” he shouts in pain. He’s black therefore he is bad, that’s what the police seem to claim.
Children need their parents, how can they survive?
Knowing that their own parents were killed just because of their skin
So why is it white people are angels and black people are a sin?

“I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe! Let me go!” Either way he died and this goes to show
That the world is not safe for us black people.
Why is it that the way we treat each other isn’t equal?
White people, black people, we should be friends.
How would you like to be 25 years old and then your life just comes to an end?

It’s not just America, it’s in other countries too. How would you like to grow up knowing that any second the police might shoot?
Any time, any second your life could just end. But for white people that’s just not the case.
White people get to grow old and see their grandkids grow too
While us black people are just dying, no grandkids? No!

We don’t choose to be black but we still are. We just get scared whenever we see a police car.
How would you like to dig your parents’ grave?
So many innocent lives that needed to be saved.

No black people = peace
What has this world turned into?
What can we do about it?
Take a break from technology and just think
Think… think about what you can do instead of scrolling online.

Go up heaven George
Go up there

Go down to hell police officer
Go down there

Down

Down

D o w n

No, I’m not exaggerating. No, I’m not joining in the “trend”
We are living in a history book
Children in the future will look back on this day and say “what a horrible way to live!”
But it’s the horrible truth.

We have already gone through slavery just because we are black
And yet in 2020 we haven’t changed a single bit.
I am a nine-year-old and this isn’t right.
There is just no need to fight.

Main photo by Rachel Stevenson

Read more: Black Lives Matter march taking place on Sunday