If color enlivens canvas, how can it darken the human heart?

That black and white are shades
That nothing is definite in art

We’re taught how to add more white or more black
To achieve our desired shade
That with enough mixing you can drive out
The original color

This is paint.
It’s made to create
It’s made to adhere to the painter’s desires
No two shades are ever the same
But yet they’re all beautiful

Every color of paint
Contributes to the canvas
What used to be blank
Is now complete with a perfectly imperfect rainbow

So why is it that this idea
Is not applied to life?
Look at it like this

We’re the paint.
No two shades will ever be the same
But still all are beautiful
With each unique gift to paint our world

However,
Unlike paint,
Skin color will not change
By adding violence and ignorance

The color of your skin
Was perfectly crafted at birth
It’s meant to give you power

This is beauty.

Color is skin deep
Behind it all
We’re all the same
Bones, muscle, but most importantly, a heart
WE ALL HAVE HEARTS
We all have dreams
We all have fears
We all have doubts
We all have hopes
These are people.
And yet,
There are some that just don’t see it
That think otherwise
That make life impossible to live
For those born with darker, beautiful skin

This is America.
    

Alexandra “Alle” Givens, 16, will be a junior at Benjamin Franklin High School. She is a parishioner of St. Pius X Church in New Orleans.