2020 Archives - Page 2 of 14 - The Litmus School Writing Project

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Reflection

"Beyond the crystal glass I see A motionless portrait – A figure staring back At me. She holds me with her softened gaze, Hair tousled by the zest from our summer days. Her smile is white yet now restrained: A replica of my diffident frame. When joy lights up my fragile face, It glows in her The very same way. When ominous snakes of sorrow seep in, Her eyes shine bright, Watered to the brim. Through her I see my one true self; Her clarity never fades. We disapprove of and appreciate The same tastes and textures and shades. We’ve grown together – Two synchronised images Made from one. From the very same threads we have been spun, Morphing into beings soon to be frayed By the merciless stitches of Time and Age. But then I turn away And she silently leaves, Slipping into the depths Beneath the looking-glass’ gleam. My heart bleeds to remember Her tender face, And so I return, Longing for her appearance from that Looking-glass place. In what abyss have I kept her – Confined to the walls of a crystalline glass? And how can I forget her porcelain frame, With no voice or thought or dream or name But mine? Is there another girl she longs to be – Someone far greater and bolder than Me? "

by Karissa © Copyright 2020 Karissa. All rights reserved.

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A Biological Answer to Racism

“In Common” Race is a societal invention; racism is a societal cataclysm. It has come to a general scientific consensus that people have more in common between races than within races. This is not perspective; this not subjective opinion: this is phylogenetics at its finest. Genetics has proven two things. 1. Race is not a biological phenomenon. 2. Racism is not biologically plausible. Take Thomas Nagel’s philosophical paper “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”. The heated stabs at the reductionist, physicalist theories on consciousness are insightful. However, from a humanitarian perspective, we need to take this question at face value. In today’s dystopian society, only two words would suffice as a perfect answer. Not racist. I do not know many bats personally. However, zoological intuition serves me right by telling me that they do not engage in racism. Humans are a social species as chemically depicted by their raging levels of oxytocin. And yet, we are the sole species which have racism rife throughout all strata of our vulnerable society. Man likes to think he is above all other animals. Philosophers claim that only man emanates rationality. But if we claim that we are rational, and yet continue to live in an anti-utopia where racism is commonplace, then neurobiologists must redefine rationality. Rationality and racism are mutually exclusive events. They cannot coexist. Different races, however, can. Richard Dawkins illustrates in “The Selfish Gene” how we are survival machines: mere vehicles built through natural selection to propagate our DNA. This Darwinian distortion of our optimistic outlook on life proposes an innate individualistic view to life. And as many racists idealise their race as part of themselves, it is not too difficult to envisage how they could twist this view into racist ideology. However, Dawkins brilliantly pointed out that we can fight off the control our DNA has on us by using contraception. Thus, if we can avoid DNA controlling our lives through this simple conception, then imagine how simple it must be to prevent racism from ruling our society. Daniel Dennett discusses in his speech “Dangerous Memes” a way of dealing with detrimental ideologies. A meme is “an information packet with attitude”. A philosopher of memetics would reach common ground with a biologist with a virologist as a translator. After all, the biological equivalent of a dangerous meme would be a virus: it infiltrates the individual just as racist ideas are indoctrinated into certain people, and proliferates throughout their body destroying their somatic cells just as racism destroys all goodness with its avarice for insanity. We need to promote immunity against racism, just as vaccines promote immunity against viruses. We will never eliminate racism just as we will never eliminate pathogens from our environment. What we can do is encourage avirulence—a utopia where racism can no longer hurt us. What is our panacea to the noxious notion of racism? Again, two words. In common. Let us celebrate our similarities. Our race. The human race.

by Shanker Narayan, Age 17 © Copyright 2020 Shanker Narayan. All rights reserved.

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Burned by the Flames

"Knock. Knock. Knock. Each one was tenaciously louder than it’s presiding one. I desperately wanted to stay in bed and bide time but I knew it was futile. Dragging my legs like fifty-tonne weights, I serrated down the steps sceptical I was making a huge mistake. Maybe I was. My hands quivering with dread, the sound was still screaming in my ears. I slowly twisted the key, breathing heavily. Crashing through were two officers in their heavy dominating uniform. One muttered under their breath, clearly very piqued at the task he’d been set. The other pulled out a rather large statement which contained technical information and confusing jargons. To my disbelief, he explained in more colloquial terms that I had to leave because the letter stated my seeking for asylum had been rejected. Although I knew this information, it still shocked me as if I’d never heard it before. I’d just hoped for a second chance like, out of way out of sight. Instead of wasting pointless time avoiding the question, I led them to my room. Tiny as it was, it was like home. This cold, squalid house had become my home. This cold, rainy country had become my home. I laughed in utter dubiety. They had not accepted me yet I was so quick to accept them. Not wanting to spend too much time in the house of shame, the officers quickly started to pack my clothes, ornaments and photos in a small suitcase, roughly put together like I had nothing of value. Rushing so quickly and tossing my stuff away like it was of no use or value, I realised, there was a small, bent and crusty photograph. Like an old lady, I stooped to pick it up. Memories came flushing back. Grasping her small hand, I dragged her to the van. My arms were agonisingly painful. Food has been scarce, so I’d not eaten. I gave it all to her, she deserved to live more than me. My darling daughter, we didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve this. Running faster we ran into the van filled with people all sitting cramped. As the English say, there was not enough room to swing a cat or an insect in this case. We sat down, huddled amongst many. After many hours she fell asleep on my lap. Stroking her soft hair, I started whimpering, quietly though. My home was beautiful. Flowers in the garden, a veranda so big it made the horizon look small. I loved my home. Until they came. And destroyed everything. And everyone. I never wanted to leave. Never wanted to say goodbye. Returning back to the real world, I peered at the officers who’d clearly thought I was mad. I collected my suitcase and they hostilely led me out, clearly disliking me. Entering a police car, ashamed I turned away, never in my life would I have thought I’d be a criminal, the one in the back. Where was my home now? "

by Abigail Akinyemi, Age 14 © Copyright 2020 Abigail Akinyemi. All rights reserved.

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In Common

by Maxwell, Year 9 © Copyright 2020 Maxwell. All rights reserved.

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Her Lost Half

“You’re it!” Ari shouted, she started to run, I followed her. As I was about to get her, she fell. When she reached the bottom, I ran down after her. “Ari! You need to be more careful” I shouted whilst rolling my eyes. I helped her up. ”Look what you did”, I tried wiping the dirt from her dress, it didn’t work. We started to walk, hoping to find a path. ”God forbid if it got dark, lost in the woods in the dark, my favourite” I said sarcastically. “Don’t be silly, we will find our way home. I promise” she held out her pinkie, as normal she tries to make light of our situation. But I saw through her, I guess it was twin telepathy people keep talking to us about. We had grown up in a small town , and as it is known that twins are very uncommon, we got treated like royalty. At first, the attention was amazing, but it started to become too much for us. We changed our hair, dyeing and cutting. We both used to have long, curly brown hair. I changed my hair to a lilac colour, whilst Ari changed hers to a black bob. I guess you could say we were close, we had always been there for each other. I was stronger than her, but she was kinder and could handle problems with just words, lots of people looked up to her. The night began to fall, quicker than expected. “It is getting dark, maybe we should-“ She cut herself off. I looked at her and her face lit up. “Laura! Laura, look!” she shouted and pointed her finger. There was a village. She started to run again, faster than before. As we arrived, I felt something wasn’t right. I can’t remember what it was exactly, but I know it was something to do with the obvious lack of people. Ari went ahead whilst I followed. The village was like a mirror of a section of our town, which was weird. There was a lot in common, but not exactly. Ari’s shouting woke me up from my confusion. “Laura! Are you coming?” She stopped and waited for me to catch up with her. As I was walking, I saw a dark figure come round the corner. A hand swept over my mouth. “Laura? What are you doing don’t just stand there, hurry up I want to go explore” She said. Could she not see them? Frightened, I tried to scream, nothing. I tried to shout, nothing. Then everything started to fade to black. That’s when I woke up here. “So that’s all you can remember? No idea of where your sister is?” A man asked. Laura shook her head, her eyes started to tear up. Had she lost her sister forever? “We think that someone has taken your sister, twins are rare. They might have just preferred her” He said. Laura nodded, was that the only thing she could do?

by Faith, Age 13, Eggars School © Copyright 2020 Faith. All rights reserved.

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“I’m not a threat”

“As I walk down the street, my expression is calm, a smile printed on my face like a mask. However, my thoughts are a restless collage of fear and worry. Why can’t we just be treated the same? Why can’t we just be looked at as a human and not as a threat?” She poured her worries and thoughts out to me in a raspy voice as she fought back the urge to cry. I thought I understood. I, a white person, born into this world with an unbelievable amount of privilege. Privileges that people don’t normally consider. I can go for a jog. I can play with a toy gun. I can hold my phone at night. I can sleep in my car. I can do these ordinary things everyday without the fear of being killed by a police officer that excuses my death by saying they thought the phone I was holding was a gun “My skin colour is not my choice, My skin colour is not a weapon, my skin colour is purely just a colour caused by chemicals in my body. I am not a threat so why do they see me as one.” She left with that last comment, leaving me in a state of shock. Then I realised We don't have anything in common, though I thought we did. The activities I listed are some of the reasons why black people have been killed by the police. Killed for jogging: Ahmaud Arbery Killed for holding a toy gun: Tamir Rice Killed for holding their phone: Stephon Clark Killed for sleeping in their car: Willie Mccoy #BlackLivesmatter No freedom until we’re equal. No justice No peace. Say their names. Sign petitions. Please act.

by Grace, Age 14, Year 9 © Copyright 2020 Grace. All rights reserved.

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In Common

In Common This world that is focused on discrimination Inequality Prejudice A world that is inherently Racist, sexist, homophobic A world that favours the rich above the poor A world of barriers not bridges Rubber coated bullets of lies and deceit A world of protectionist policies And barricades of hate That bombarded our heads And more frighteningly our hearts Building walls, closing borders, hiding in your glass towers But an airborne terror, unites us in fear A global enemy never encountered before No uniform Identification number Allegiance or leader Climbed over our manmade mountains Squeezed between the cracks in your lies and deceit Seeped through your pretences The barriers thought to be indestructible Slowly crumbled to the ground Dystopian fiction now a reality But as the world was locked down One man was knocked down Held down Forced down 8 minutes and 46 seconds Human connection reduced to a screen As we were contained inside four walls Was ignited with a spark of rage A fire burned brightly A fire so powerful it spread past borders And encompassed the world People will stay silent no longer So, for George Floyd. Breonna Taylor Tony McDade And every other life lost Because of institutionalised brutality United on the ground Chanting I can’t breathe While you bunker down Stand up, Fists raised No words needed But what is it that you fear When you perch on your capitalist thrones Or hide in your ivory towers Those who are different Or is it what you truly fear That there is far less that divides us Than what we have, In Common

by Elinor Hurry, Age 14 © Copyright 2020 Elinor. All rights reserved.

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Something in Common

by Honor © Copyright 2020 Honor. All rights reserved.

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The similarities between Kafka and Cervantes; the use of transmutation.

by Alexandra Shepherd © Copyright 2020 Alexandra Shepherd. All rights reserved.

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Questions I Can’t Answer…

by Bella, Age 14 © Copyright 2020 Bella. All rights reserved.