Photo Credit: Tom Jenz
The multi-talented Janiya Williams is sixteen years old and soon to be a junior in high school. Locally, she is known for the award-winning speech she gave at the 2018-2019 We Energies MPS Martin Luther King contest. The controversial speech took the form of a rap poem and addressed emotive issues including Black stereotypes, police brutality, Black pride and excellence. Echoing Dr King’s philosophy, she said, “… everything has gone wrong all because we forget that we were all made equal. Made as one so why can’t we just find the strength to just put down the guns. Equal, all of God’s people put on this earth as brothers and sisters misses and misters, unalarmed, unharmed and unarmed.” I met Janiya at a peace rally in Rose Park near Locust and MLK Drive. We talked.
When you wrote your speech, you were only in junior high at Golda Meir. The George Floyd tragedy had not yet taken place.
That’s about when I started realizing what was happening to my people, Black people. I always loved poetry and rapping, and that’s when I came up with my speech which was actually a rap poem.
Can you recite a few lines for me?
Okay. My favorite part is a play on Black stereotypes. It goes…..
Just because I’m Black and I have a hood on my head
That doesn’t mean I’m gonna shoot you dead
Just because I’m Black and I wear ear buds
That doesn’t mean that I automatically sell drugs…..
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Maybe I’m Black but that doesn’t mean that I’m dangerous
Even though to you I might be a stranger
I’m tired of all these stereotypes and all this constant hate
Instead of hating, maybe you should just motivate
Why don’t you think about my strengths like poetry and maybe even dance.
So quick to judge me without giving me a chance….
It’s the hate in this world so sick it needs medicine
But I’m okay cause I’m dripping in melanin
I can speak with pride and I don’t need to crowd
Imma say it loud I’m Black and I’m proud
Janiya delivered her poetic lines to me with clear eye contact, a profound plea to the majority of whites, as I saw it.
That’s beautiful.
Thank you.
Where is your neighborhood? What was it like growing up for you?
I grew up on the north side of Milwaukee, and we lived on 29th and Oriole which is around Silver Spring. I wouldn’t say I lived in a bad neighborhood, but when you go to the parks, you sometimes see kids with stolen cars. The bad influences are around you. I didn’t choose to do that. Instead, I’m trying to be a positive influence.
Golda Meir is a Milwaukee public school with programs for gifted and talented kids, I believe. How did you end up there?
I was always ahead of the other kids in my lessons. I got bored. A teacher recommended me for Golda Meir. I been going there since 3rd grade. I am still at Golda Meir, but I’m in the Doctor Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy program. English and writing are my specialties.
What do you think about this terrible disease of racism that is occupying our social conscience? How do whites and Blacks start to overcome differences?
I see Black people and white people coming together. I’ve been marching with the protesters for this past year since George Floyd. When I do marches with the People’s Revolution, there are some caucasians marching too. It’s about those caucasians spreading the word to their own people that it’s okay to love on Black people, it’s okay to be with Black people being around. Racism didn’t just happen. It was taught. If we wanna change that, we need to have white people to love Black people.
I agree, but it’s very difficult to get white suburbanites to come to a rally like this one here in Rose Park in the central city. It’s about fear. I believe that this is the basis of prejudice and of racism, fear.
Yeah, you see it all the time. Our whole Black coalition, we recently had to go down to the St. Francis School on the south side. The school told my close friend, Tevin Humphrey, that he couldn’t wear his shirt that said, Black Lives, Black Voices, Black Lives Matter. We went there to support him. The white principal seemed to be afraid of us. We told him we’re not here to hurt you. We just don’t agree with your policy. We think it’s wrong. No reason why a person shouldn’t be able to go to school and embrace his beliefs. The principal finally agreed with us, and Tevin will actually be speaking at his graduation ceremony.
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How do you see your generation as it relates to social justice, racism?
I believe it’s gonna get better. We just finished 365 days of marching. We’ve seen progress. They banned the choke hold. The officer in the George Floyd case was found guilty. We’re getting heard. I look forward to the next 365 days for more to get done. My generation, a lot of us mix with different races. We go to school with people of different races, ethnicities.
I have an idea. I wonder if you might be interested in talking to a suburban civic group of whites someday?
Nope. That would be a suicide mission.