On Being an Antiracist
I took Environmental Science during my senior year of high school. I had dropped out of AP Physics because... well... physics. I still needed a science credit. So, there I was. It was a much better class than it had gotten credit for. I was seated next to a kid named CJ. I’ve since lost track of CJ, but I loved sitting next to him. I looked forward to that class every day. CJ was kind, funny, and smart. Most people (teachers) didn’t think he was smart because his grades were terrible. I figured out after a week or so that his grades were terrible because he could never find his classwork and homework to turn it in. He always did it. He just lost it from one day to the next. As a result, he got zeros for all that work he did and lost. I became the keeper of CJ’s environmental science work. To me, it was a small way I could positively impact someone I cared about. Everyday when work was being collected, I would take his out and hand it to him. He would turn it in and receive credit for