On 26th of August, a group of Year 12 English students went to see DeRay McKesson in conversation with playwright Victor Roger as part of Word Christchurch’s Shifting Points of View programme.

In 2014, after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, McKesson quit his job as a teacher in Baltimore and spent the next 400 days living in Missouri where he became an integral part in the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and Violence towards African Americans.

McKesson talked about his life as an activist, the prevalence of white supremacy, the shocking disregard some American police appear to have for African American lives, and the systems that allow and pardon that disregard. Despite all this, we were left with an overwhelming sense of hope for an America that values diversity and inclusion and is not afraid of the work needed to live up to its ideals.