Sometimes students say, “I wasn’t doing
Well, for evil to flourish, all it takes is for good people to do nothing.
Stonewall have a new campaign called “no bystanders”. If you go on their website you can keep up to date with it.
What is a bystander? A bystander is someone who knows something is going on and doesn’t do anything.
It can feel very unfair. We might know somebody is being horrible to somebody else but feel like we can’t stop it.
Or we might get involved in the wrong way, by throwing insults back and make it worse.
To help us with this problem I like to look for people who have stood up for what was right in the past.
Today I am going to talk to you a little bit about Maya Angelou.
Who was Maya Angelou?
This was a remarkable woman, somebody who knew Dr Martin Luther King and knew Malcolm X. She spoke at the UN and at the inauguration of US President Clinton.
She lived all over the world and every country she went to she would learn their language.
She was also a mother, a poet, a novelist, a teacher and a professor.
The journalist Gary Younge said, “When you look at Maya Angelou’s life you wonder what you have been doing with your own."
When she was your age, though, everyone thought she was stupid because she didn’t speak.
In fact, she was afraid, that if she spoke up what she had to say would kill people. So she knew a lot about the power of words.
Once she discovered how to use them properly though, she really went for it.
She writes a lot about the role of courage, and having the strength to speak up: that’s how she connects with what I am saying today.
Angelou thought courage was the beginning of goodness. Once you have the courage to stand your ground you can start to be good not just when the teacher is watching or when you’re in a group, but all the time.
So how does Angelou think we get there? Listen to this
“I will not sit in a group of black friends and hear racial pejoratives against whites. I will not hear "honky." I will not hear "Jap." I will not hear "kike." I will not hear "greaser." I will not hear "dago." I will not hear it. As soon as I hear it, I say, "Excuse me, I have to leave. Sorry." Or if it's in my home, I say, "You have to leave. I can't have that. That is poison, and I know it is poison, and you're smearing it on me. I will not have it." Now, it's not an easy thing. And one doesn't all of a sudden sort of blossom into somebody who's courageous enough to say that. But you do start little by little. And you sit in a room, and somebody says -- if you're all white, and somebody says, "Well, the niggers -- " You may not have the courage right then, but you say, "Whooh! My goodness! It's already eight o'clock. I have to go," and leave. Little by little, you develop courage. You sit in a room, and somebody says, "Well, you know what the Japs did then, and what they're doing now." Say, "Mm-hmm! I have to go. My goodness! It's already six o'clock." Leave. Continue to build the courage. Sooner or later, you'll be able to say out loud, "Just a minute. I defend that person. I will not have gay bashing, lesbian bashing. Not in my company. I will not do it."
"Equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air; we all have it or none of us has it. That is the truth of it."
So this is what I am talking about: Maya Angelou didn’t think you start off doing the right thing, but she thought you can take a step. Real bravery for her isn’t about lashing out but about standing up.
So next time people start to say something unpleasant about someone else, maybe the bravest thing you can do will be to stand up and walk away.
If it is, do it.
