“I was one of the few Black students in my high school. The main things I can remember...it was mainly from boys. I played basketball, and I remember that people would say “Jaymie, get in the back of the bus” like as a joke. It wasn’t funny. There were jokes about picking cotton, or every time in history class when we talked about civil rights everyone would turn and look at me and expect me to know everything about it. So it was mainly my high school years, and people would like to touch my hair, ask me questions about my father, I don’t know. 

“It wasn’t until a couple years ago that my sister got me a DNA kit, and so I was able to see the Black side of my family. And it broke it down to each country I’m from. My ancestors are from Nigeria. So it made it super surreal and alive that I have ancestors from AFrica and they came over here from slavery. And that made me want to stand up for it even more. When you can connect names and faces and countries, it’s a lot more surreal than just your ancestors. 

“See skin color. I think a lot of people try to avoid this topic because it is a hard topic but there are people who are Black and people who are white. Just being able to see that skin color, and get as aggravated as the Blak people feel. It’s not a trend, and it’s not something that’s just fashionable. It’s racial injustice. It’s something that’s so important to be talking about human life. It’s hard to teach someone to be kind. It’s a lot harder to teach a subject than human rights. So I would say get aggravated, know it’s real, and fight for what’s right.”