Have a voice Give an opinion Express yourself Lay yourself bare
I'll tell you a story of a boy His family are farmers - conservatives At the bottom of the lane, the pub used to burn a cross on bonfire night. It held the letters KWW - Keep Waterside White His Grandma is agoraphobic, xenophobic and racist who told him in no uncertain terms not to marry a black girl Before he passed away, his grandad would shoot at people searching for magic mushrooms on their land His father liked Thatcher, criticised the miners and the unions and was a casual homophobe His mother judges women by appearance and thinks Nigel Farage is a decent bloke. Her place is in the home. His brother works for the police His sister rides horses One uncle is a millionaire and CEO The other believes that mental illness does not exist and its treatment is dangerous The boy is christened, confirmed, went to an all white, Christian primary school and predominantly white, Christian secondary school. He left secondary school and college with no qualifications through the arts. Only the important subjects.
There is another story about this boy but for now we will look only at these facts.
It may create an image in your mind
It would be easy to condemn this story Sure enough it was condemned By those who held the moral right Opinions stronger than people The boy grew fearful of people Tried to hide his story Became silent Shut off from the world Thought of the ways he could end the pain Sought to become a different person To deny his past Outwardly this worked Inwardly...
People believed the moral of the story was that he had overcome They missed the point
Inwardly... Sometimes, the majority ... Can feel like the minority
If I said all of that, could I still express myself? Would you listen? Or would I be condemned?