Freedom Writers is a Movement

The Freedom Writers Diary

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Another main conflict of this book “The Freedom Writers Diary” is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at. But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing. Don’t ever judge someone without knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them. The Freedom Writers formed a family that knows no color lines and only sees what lies deep within the heart. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

This is one of the fragments from the book Freedom Writers Diary that really got my attention. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." This was what the boy that wrote about his brother’s murder trial wrote on another diary entry. After the attorney sentence fifteen years to life in prison to his brother he get back to what he used to do (you know what I mean, illegal stuff). Mrs. Gruwell gave to her students the assignment to do a self-evaluation, he gave himself and F, and he automatically failed himself. Then Mrs. Gruwell asked him “What’s this? Do you know what this means?” then she added “FUCK YOU! That’s what this is! It’s a fuck you, and a fuck me, and fuck everyone who’s ever cared about you!” This was a pep talk that he never thought he would have with his teacher. Also this "pep talk", teacher to student,  in somehow inspires me to not give up on things,  to fix what it has to be fix and to learn from my own mistakes, as the phrase says "A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." I'm going to find my mistakes, learn from them and correct them. These words, the way they use writing to express their thoughts, their feelings, their stories to the world around them makes me get excited and reflect on their stories to change communities like their, where everything was gang violence, even one of the Freedom Writers wrote that every night were guns shooting at the hood that he get used to it, it became his lullaby. 

Freedom, being able to make choices. Performing an action of your own choosing without limitations. “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."(Malcolm x) The Freedom Writers Diary is an inspirational, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. The Freedom Writers is a movement.