Malcolm Yearby, 16

Malcolm Yearby, from Burnsville, Minnesota, is a youth advocate for diversity and youth and minority empowerment. As an African American male, he believes that the ability to succeed and make a meaningful impact in society, despite poverty, oppression, prejudice, discrimination, and inferiority, builds strength and resilience in the Black community. Yearby hopes to empower other African Americans to breach the wall of prejudice and stereotypes through his writing and poetry, and encourages his readers to mold society into a just and equitable place.

Yearby’s poetic style focuses on topics revolving around diversity, racial awareness, youth advocacy, and racial disparities. He says that his process is both therapeutic and medicinal, resulting in emotional releases and healing from the physical world. Yearby says he writes to engage with the distinct, powerful cognitive activities when humans read—making them more alert to the significance and meaning of the prose and enhancing their comprehension on the subject. Yearby has been published numerous times in Ars Nova, an annual anthology of student art. He leads weekly community-based classes at local elementary schools, using poetry to teach children about expression through writing, and he volunteers at the Children’s Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota’s Theater and Literature workshops.

Yearby aspires to attend Stanford University after high school to study International Relations in health care or politics. His education in American social issues have caused him to rethink economic disparities all over the world and he wants to continue to be an advocate for the human race and basic rights, including clean water and education.

Bound

by Malcolm Yearby

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream in anger as I yank on the chains on my black, bloody ankles.

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream in anguish as I cringe and flinch at the 10 ft. leather whip that repeatedly slashes at my back.

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream in fury as I watch the angry black women who rant and complain about who-knows-what!

“Unshackle me, now!

I scream from the back of the classroom with 40+ kids because only white kids go to private school and get a good education.

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream and shout as I go pick up my welfare checks because Lord knows I cannot take care of these damn kids alone!

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream in bitterness as I stand on the corner selling drugs because all the good jobs don’t accept my black skin.

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream in vexation as the white woman clenches her purse at the sight of my brown skin.

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream in exasperation as I eat bread and sugar because mama ain’t got no money until next Friday.

“Unshackle me, now!”

I scream with indignation as I walk through the “ghettos” and “hoods” because black people can’t live where the white people live.

“Unshackle me, now!”

I cry because the chains are still

bound.

Unshackle me. Now.