In two hours, she is scheduled to speak in front of the demonstrators who, like every day, occupy the hemicycle-shaped plaza that surrounds the town hall of San José, on the edge of Silicon Valley. The speech is not ready, but whatever. Helen Kassa is busy distributing food parcels to families left unemployed by the coronavirus epidemic. The African American community center where she volunteers receives several hundred applicants per week. Preserves and diaper packages are stacked on the tables, the young volunteers are not idle. Now that racial justice is "on trend", banks are showing up before they are even asked: " Can we do something for you? "
Helen, 21, should be preparing for her final exam. She is finishing her studies in political science at the nearby University of Santa Clara. A private university, a bit bourgeois for a girl of political refugee who, at 16, was already the president of the young people of the NAACP (National Association for the Promotion of People of Color). But Santa Clara offered her a scholarship, and since the school is located near her home, she was able to study higher without ruining her parents. University maintained the last courses. It's not easy to stay motivated on the umpteenth essay on climate change when the revolution calls you. And when the professors pretend to ignore what's going on outside. "When it was Covid, it was the only thing everyone wanted to talk about …"
Explain "the privilege of being white"
Daughter of Ethiopian emigrants who arrived in the United States before her birth, Helen Kassa "Not had to internalize oppression like descendants of slaves". She became aware of the discrimination in CE2, when they were playing with water on a hot day with her girlfriend, and she was the only one to be suspended. She had "Constantly having problems at school", but rarely enjoyed the same "Merciful treatment" than the others. It was a private school from which her mother quickly removed it. Not without having explained a thing or two to him about life and skin color. Better not be silly, "Because they will not see you as a child". Since then, she has been on guard, her speech has softened.
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