[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 20313]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TESTIMONY OF ALIYAH SALLEY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 19, 2017

  Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record testimony of 
Aliyah Salley.

       Hello, my name is Aliyah Salley and I am from Bucks County, 
     PA. First let me start off by saying Thank you. Thank you to 
     Congressman Fitzpatrick, and his colleagues for giving us 
     this opportunity to be heard today. I also want to thank 
     Barbara Simmons of the Peace Center, my mom, Necole Salley 
     and my grandmother, Linda Salley who is the president of the 
     African American Museum of Bucks County. If it wasn't for 
     these 3 ladies along with Congressman Fitzpatrick I believe 
     my story as well as the stories you will hear today will have 
     gone unheard. As I said earlier my name is Aliyah Salley. I 
     was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, lived in Virginia for 
     a few years and then moved to Bucks County, PA in 2011 with 
     my mom and my sister. We move to Bucks County because my mom 
     talked about how nice of a place it was to raise her children 
     because of the experience she had living there when she was 
     young. For all the years I lived down south, I never once had 
     to deal with racism or the discrimination until I moved to 
     Bucks County. My sister and I went to school in the Neshaminy 
     school district and I am a proud graduate of the 2016 class 
     of Neshaminy & I have been attending BCCC for the past 2 
     years. While attending Neshaminy High, I experienced many 
     offensive situations. I've seen racists slurs written on 
     school property, my friends and I have been called the N**** 
     word to our faces by students, there has been students 
     wearing a confederate flag throughout the school and no one 
     says anything to them. Two months ago, I became a victim of a 
     hate crime. I have a part time job that I have worked for the 
     past 4 years, As I was walking to my car to go to work I saw 
     handwriting on the car. As I approached the car I could see 
     that the n*** word was carved on the front and back of my 
     car. Imagine how hurtful this is, coming from the south, 
     never having to deal with anything like this before and 
     having it in your face every time you walk out of the door to 
     go to school. It is out of control. We can't allow this to 
     continue. Living in a small town is not meant for one race it 
     is meant for all people. We need help. We have to educate the 
     misinformed. The people that don't know any better. We have 
     to figure out a way to teach people that diversity makes our 
     community stronger. We have to open the doors to allow 
     diversity to feel welcomed into the community. I went to a 
     school with over 4000 students, but the faculty has only 1 
     African American principal in the entire building. Imagine 
     what that feels like to as an African American student seeing 
     only ONE African American faculty member in a school of 
     thousands of students and hundreds of teachers. It hurts, 
     it's sad, and we have to correct it. I am looking for change, 
     annual diversity trainings for the teaching staff, more 
     history of different cultures within the curriculum, a day of 
     culture and food, counseling for the victims or even 
     articulate a clear statement of expectations regarding racism 
     within the schools, but don't ignore it and act like it is 
     not happening because it is happening all the time. Today you 
     will hear testimonies from other students from different 
     school districts in Bucks County who had to deal with similar 
     things such as myself. Please have an open heart and listen 
     to these stories and then let's create true change for the 
     next generation to grow in confidence of who they are and 
     what they have to offer, regardless of the color of their 
     skin. As the Constitution states, and I agree like all of 
     you, that ``All men are created equal'' & all we want is 
     equality.

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