April 22, 2003

Dear Diary,

Josh has done it again, insulted me, beat me and pelted me with little notes about my black skin. Today I am going to record everything that happened from the point of view of a bystander. I hope telling you about it will ease my poor, tired mind and allow me to think more clearly.

"No! Please stop! I'll call the police if you don't!"
The sneering face of Joshua Karr looked up into Nadia's, a slightly jeering smile on his smooth features. "Even if you did call, why would the police come? Who cares about little black girls?"
"Stop it! I don't want you to hurt me anymore."
"Oh is that so," he said quietly, a wicked smile coming over his tanned face. "Well then perhaps I won't. But I have one more thing to do first."
Nadia started to shake violently. She knew what was coming. The tears poured down her now bloodstained face, her black hair dangling down in front of her. She was dragged across the empty parking lot to the half filled ditch beside the road. It was nine thirty at night and nobody was out. They were all alone beside the deserted street.
Josh took hold of her hair, forcing her to stand. She looked down into the icy depths of the deep ditch, her bare arms rubbing against each other in the bitter wind, her now thoroughly tangled hair softly swaying in the wind. She closed her eyes, waiting for the push and bracing herself for when she met the cold waters below.
It soon came, but not necessarily as she had expected. Josh took a hold of her hair, digging his finger into her skull, nearly scraping the skin with his fingernails. He breathed two words in her ear before he pushed her:
"Nigger!"
He then cuffed the top of her head, causing the already stinging welts to burst with pain. She came propelling forward, landing in the waters with a loud splash and a quiet thud. As her body met the freezing ditch waters she felt a wave of despair once again wash over her.

As you can see diary, though racism was supposedly eliminated years ago, I am still treated like dirt, flung around like a worthless piece of trash. I hate it! I want it to stop. I had to slip in through the door and run up to my room, quickly clean up and change before either of my foster parents came home and found out. You see, even if I did tell them I shudder to think about what Josh would do to me, something terrible.
There is only one way that I think I will be able to end this, the only way that I will be able to escape the terrors of being who I am, being so scared that I can't step out of my own home. Josh isn't the only one out there, treating me the way they are! Why must I be black? WHY? If this fate bestowed on me must be so, then I will end it, and I will not be sorry.

Yours truly, Nadia

*** Nadia Almond, adopted child of John and Joanne Almond, committed suicide on April 23, 2003, after being mercilessly beaten by Joshua Karr, Freda Leland and Ian Macmillan. The poor girl was a victim of severe and harsh lashings brought upon her because of her dark skin. It was a cruel and horrible fate for such a young person, only fourteen years of age. The note beside her dead body read:

To whoever finds me first,
I would like to firstly thank Mom and Pop for being so good to me, and to assure them that I didn't do this because of them. They are the most lovable and kindly people that I know. Secondly, I say farewell to all who were kind to me and treated me with respect. But last, I must tell you that I escaped from the pain, escaped from the jeering and pointing crowds as they laughed at my blood covered black skin. My three tormenters: Freda Leland, Ian Macmillan and, the last person to call me 'Nigger,' Joshua Karr. I hope that you will never rest, knowing what you have done.
My final request: bury me with my best friend, my diary, in front of the school. I do not think that I will be able to haunt anyone from the dead, but at least their thoughts will always be.
Farewell,
Nadia

Nadia was found with a knife in her chest, her eyes closed and a small smile on her face. She escaped Joshua through death, where perhaps she will not be laughed at because of her dark skin. Racism is a terrible thing, and perhaps someday it will be completely stopped.