Essays
Essay
I am representing bill HF2967, A bill for an act relating to child protection; including modifying and requiring reports, improving technology, providing grants and funding for this work. For the African American Child Well-Being Advisory Council, I believe everyone should vote yes to protect the future of our state through protecting the lives of African American youth.
The African American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council works to create functioning citizens from households that cannot afford to supply their child with every need, as well as children in foster care. African American children are often subjected to disparities and are overrepresented within social services such as foster care and child welfare acts, representing 26% of children in foster care in 2021 while making up only 10% of Minnesota's child population. We will work to hold commissioners accountable for identifying these issues, address them, and reduce the factors that let them happen again.
This bill focuses primarily on African American families because those communities are shown throughout history for being underfunded and uncared for despite working so hard for this country. But this is just a start. I believe that if this bill is passed, we can open it up to all races in need.
When facilities and families with children are underfunded and starving, the child struggles to focus in schools and thus cannot learn what is necessary to escape their situation, causing the next generation to struggle in the exact same way. A society like this will never prosper. To create a town, city, or state that we all can love, we must start by helping those in need in any and every way possible. We must show them that there are people to represent them, people to care for them, people who want them to grow. You can tell someone thousands of things, but it’s hard to believe even one without evidence. We can be the evidence needed in these childrens’ and families lives.
Now, I want you to close your eyes. Imagine your family. Your mom, dad, siblings if you have any. Replace them all with different faces. Faces that look nothing like you. Now ask those faces, “where do I come from?” Many children of color can go their entire lives without actually knowing their family origin. I bet you’ve started thinking of DNA tests, right? After all, in this generation it’s that simple to figure it out. But to that I ask you, do you remember slavery? How millions of Africans were abducted and dragged out to the Americas? How they were raped by their owners? And how those children were, in turn, raped too? Now your test will tell you that you’re more White than Black and looking at yourself it wouldn’t sound right. And that’s that. Many children who can’t find a reasonable answer to that question just chalk it up to slavery. As a child of immigrants, I find it heartbreaking that you don’t know where your blood runs. The stated goals of the African American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council is to help children connect to their roots, and work to create functioning citizens. It isn’t just about food and shelter. It isn’t just about access to everything others have. It includes knowing yourself. Knowing your place in America and where your place came from in the world.
It is incredibly important to fund this council for the lives of the youth. As we all know, we will die. When we die, we leave the world to the next generation with all of our resources and knowledge. All of that is useless if the next generation doesn’t have the energy to even touch that knowledge. When you’re hungry, or your home is in a wreck, or you as a child are hustling for your family’s well-being, you can’t focus on school. There is likely a child who could be close to finding cures to diseases we just slapped a vaccine on but we’ll never know if that child can’t grow and prosper. If we could help a child, we can help a family. Maybe that family can help a community. Maybe that community can help a city. Maybe a child in that city will get another chance. A path to something beyond our imagination.
The African American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council works to create functioning citizens from households that cannot afford to supply their child with every need, as well as children in foster care. It works to hold commissioners accountable for identifying these issues, addressing them, and reducing the factors that let them happen again, and to connect these children and families to their truth and culture. It will start with African American children and branch out until every race is supported. I believe bill HF2967 is fundamental to the future of America and believe you all should vote yes.