Viva la revolución!

BRAD GOTTSCHALK

A year ago, I represented my school in a march down Vilakazi Street in Soweto to the Hector Pieterson Memorial, alongside people from all walks of life. This year, tributes for Youth Day will be held on Zoom at home. We might feel as if we are living in an entirely different reality, but there is one constant every Youth Day – the feeling of standing up to an oppressor and fighting back.

Why is this year different? Youth Day, falling in Pride Month, elicits a feeling of rebellion and anger with the status quo. Although it may feel like we’re stuck at home, we’re potentially witnessing, supporting, and taking part in one of the most consequential fights for civil rights in the United States. Although it may feel like we are stuck at home, that feeling of disdain due to our unfair landscape has only been amplified.

Though Youth Day is a time of reflection and commemoration, it can also be a bitter reminder of the fact that we need to uphold the lessons of the past because injustice is still present. I could make the comparison of police brutality in America to police brutality in apartheid South Africa, but right at home right now, countless people have been murdered by South African police under lockdown. In the long and tiresome fight for equality, feelings of resilience might turn into an acceptance of the status quo, but Youth Day and Pride Month are there to remind us to keep that angry spirit alive.

If we don’t sacrifice and fight for a better world, we are doing an injustice to those who fought before us. Hector Pieterson’s fight in 1976 is our fight in 2020. The famous queer liberation fighter Marsha P Johnson’s fight in 1969 is our fight in 2020. Names and dates change, but injustice doesn’t – and neither should the fighting spirit. This Youth Day, let’s commemorate those who fought and died for a better world, and this Youth Day, let’s raise our fists against all injustice in 2020.

Viva la revolución!

• Brad Gottschalk is in Grade 12 at King David High School Linksfield.