Graduating High School & Working with the Community Rights Campaign a blog by Delona Washington

Graduating high school was a very important day for me because I earned my diploma! It was a big accomplishment because high school was a struggle. A struggle because Manual Arts High School classes were over-crowded, losing good teachers because of the budget cuts, more school police were being added to our school, and resources such as counselors, books, desk/chairs were less on our campus and in our classrooms.

Graduating from high school means a lot to my family

I managed to keep my focus by joining programs, clubs, sports, and organizations. Even through all of the complications at M.A.H.S. I graduated! It means a lot to me and my family because I am the first one to be going to college. I will be attending Santa Monica College in the Fall of 2012 and I'm excited to continue my education in a better environment with mature, serious, and educated adults. New beginnings are scary but what is scarier about new beginnings............is not taking it.

The first thing I had to overcome as a black woman was my timidity

Being a black woman working with the Community Rights Campaign, it was difficult when I first started out because I was timid and I had to be a strong black woman with knowledge, power, and know what it means to be proud. I had to stand up with what I believed in because my silence wouldn't help me or my community; instead it would backfire. Ashley (an organizer with the Strategy Center) explained to me how important it is to be black and to fight back. She grounded our struggle in the past and the roots of racism and the charge to never forget.

I used what I learned to be an example for other black people

While gaining this insight, I used it to my advantage to be an example to all black people by knowing the history, earning a diploma, and working with the community. It is pressure as it is to be black because you're already profiled as being ignorant, poor, ghetto, and nothing. I wanted to rise above all of those stereotypes and I already do. Community Rights Campaign -Taking Action- changed my whole mentality from a quiet narrowed-minded teen age girl who didn't care about school into a highly opinionated, intelligent, strong black woman.