By: Tiburcio Garcia
There was a boy in highschool who was 18 and in his sophomore year. He was still in school, after years of being in the same grade, because after a certain point no one cared about his education, including himself. When you are in those institutions, alone, encouraged not to learn and only to pass, someone that isn’t an easy student falls through the cracks and doesn't have the good feeling story of the smart kid making it out of the hood.
I met him, already planning on what job he was going to have to work most likely for the rest of his life without a highschool diploma, and wished that somewhere in his life he had been introduced to Deecolonize Academy. Because of Deecolonize Academy, my friends and myself are able to have a clear and precise shot at a decent education, something that is very necessary in this time of economic failure.
One of my earliest memories in life is of being evicted from the house I grew up in as a young child. The next memory that sticks out to me is being evicted from the next house nearly 2 years later. For the majority of my childhood, my mother and I were evicted from different houses and a couple of times ended up houseless, couch surfing and doing what we could to keep a roof over our heads. Because of Homefulness and subsequently Deecolonize Academy, I now have a place to call home.
In Deecolonize Academy I have learned construction techniques such as learning to use a drill, sawing wood, and the steps it takes to do many useful home repairs. I have learned the true history from the point of view of the people who have been oppressed and silenced, and how to write the story of my people in ways the white scholars that have been silencing us for generations can't argue or clearly understand.
Although I have much to learn, Deecolonize Academy has taught me to be a young man who cares for his community and uses his resources and knowledge to give back to a community that has poured so much into him. Deecolonize Academy has taught me to have eldership, and fight for people I believe have been wronged by the system that has put me and my mother through so much.