Civil rights lawyer and Sikh activist Valarie Kaur’s speech has gone viral. It’s a grim time in the states with many protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, this speech is giving people a ray of hope.
Originally made on December 31, days before Trump’s inauguration, the speech has gone viral. Oscar-winning composer A R Rahman is among those who have recently shared it on Facebook. Since January 5, the speech has collected over 1.4 million views and more than 16,000 shares on Facebook!
Why? Because it pierces right through your soul.
Ms Kaur begins the poignant speech by talking about her grandfather who moved to America. “On Christmas eve 103 years ago my grandfather waited in the dark, dank cell,” she says. He sailed by steamship across the Pacific Ocean from India to America. “When he landed on American shores, the immigration officials saw his dark skin, his tall turban worn as a part of his Sikh faith and saw him not a brother but as foreign, as suspect, and threw him behind bars where he languished for months,” she says. He stayed in jail until a lawyer, ‘a white man,’ helped him.
Watch the video here:
She talks about how post 9/11, she decided to became a lawyer just like the man who helped her grandfather. She goes on to express her thoughts about how she wants to help make the world a better place. But she says the world she is leaving for her son is far worse than the one she inherited, because of hate crimes.
Despite that, she believes there is still a chance to make the country better. “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb but the darkness of the womb? What if our America is not dead? But a country that is waiting to be born. What if the story of America is one long labor?” she says to a loud applause.
‘THIS is how you make a stand and have your voice heard! You stand with respect for yourself and for those who suffered before you! What an incredible example of what all women should aspire to be!’ says one comment on AR Rahman’s post. “Darkness of the mother’s womb… incredible. Thank you sir. Everyone should feel this revolutionary love and courage,” says another.
Hats off, Valarie!
