By: Zoeya Pasha of Gillette, NJ
2nd place in ICNA CSJ-NJ’s BHM Essay Contest 2025
Topic: Racial Injustice and the responsibility of youth (Grades 11 & 12)
I remember the first time I truly understood what racial injustice meant. It was 2020, I was logged into my zoom meeting, listening to my teacher talk about the Civil Rights Movement. She spoke about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr, marches, speeches, revolutions. Things we’ve been taught since elementary school over and over again. It felt like a closed chapter, something that had happened long ago, that had been fixed. But later that week, my parents opened the television, and I saw the video of George Floyd sobbing , “I can’t breathe.” I saw protests erupting, anger, heartbreak, the desperate need for change. That was when I realized: racial injustice isn’t history. It’s our reality. And as the youth, it’s our responsibility to fight against it. Racism isn’t just the past. It’s everywhere, built into present-day society. The Black man who is stared at cautiously in a store while others shop freely. Indigenous communities whose land is stolen, voices ignored. The Muslim woman who is told to remove her hijab to be “accepted.” It’s the immigrant kid who grows up hearing they don’t belong. The numbers prove it- in a study by NAACP, Black people are imprisoned more than 5x the rate of whites. 65%of Black adults and 35%of Latino and Asian adults have felt targeted because of their race. But numbers don’t capture the real life experiences and pain of being treated as less than. They don’t show the exhaustion of constantly proving your worth to others or the fear of simply existing in your own skin. And when people speak out against injustice, they’re told they’re too angry, too sensitive, too divisive. But what’s more divisive than a system that refuses to see us as equal? What’s more destructive than silence? We’re often told we’re too young to make a difference, but history proves otherwise. Students who staged sit-ins at segregated lunch counters were young. Teenagers who marched across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma were young. People who’ve fought for change in the past were young, just like us. And now, it’s our turn. Change starts with knowledge. Schools don’t always teach the truth about history’s uglies. We have to want to learn, to read books they don’t assign, to listen to voices they try to silence. And once we know better, we have to share that knowledge because education is the first step toward change. We have to act. It’s uncomfortable to call out a racist joke someone makes, to challenge injustice in our communities. But discomfort is nothing compared to the pain of those who suffer in silence. Posting about injustice is important, but activism cannot stop there. It means protesting, bugging lawmakers, supporting Black and Indigenous businesses, and pushing for policies that create real change. It means holding schools accountable for teaching inclusive curriculums to ensure diversity is not just a catch-phrase. The fight isn’t about one big moment of heroism. It’s about a lifetime of commitment to justice, action, and awareness. I often wonder what Civil Rights Leaders would think if they saw the world today. Would they be proud of us or heartbroken by how much hasn’t changed? Maybe both. But they wouldn’t want us to stop fighting. Racial injustice wasn’t created overnight, and won’t disappear overnight. But every time we choose to learn, speak up, or just do something, it’s a step forward. We are the past, future, and present, and it’s our responsibility to make sure the world we leave behind is better than the one we were born into. Because if we don’t fight for justice, who will?