A 13-year-old boy from Chicago’s South Side will be first lady Michelle Obama’s guest at the State of the Union address after his letter to Santa Claus pleading for safety drew the White House’s attention.
“All I ask for is for safety,” Malik Bryant wrote to Santa in a letter that reached Barack Obama’s desk. “I just wanna be safe.”
Malik and more than 8,000 other public school students in the city wrote letters for DirectEffect Charities, but his simple, handwritten note caught the eye of the program’s CEO, Michelle DiGiacomo, who sent a copy of it to her congressman, Michael Quigley. Quickly then forwarded it to the White House.
Malik lives in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, a poor area with high crime rates in a part of the city where gang violence is particularly bad. Bryant’s mother told the Chicago Sun-Times that her son sometimes can’t go outside “because he has to cross gang lines and walk past all these gang members on some of those blocks”.
Malik’s letter reads:
Dear Santa,
I would like to ask you sum but first Imma tell you about me. I’m a black African American. I stand 5’10’’ I’m in 7th grade. My favorite subject is math. I have 2 siblings living with me and I’m the only boy on my moms side of my family. But anyway all I ask for is safety. I just wanna be safe.
Sincerely, Malik Bryant.
The letter also lists “scarf, gloves, hat, school supplies” below, though Bryant does not explicitly ask for them.
President Obama wrote back in December:
I want to offer you a few words of encouragement this holiday season.
Each day, I strive to sensure communities like yours are safe places to dream, discover, and grow. Please know your security is a priority for me in everything I do as President. If you dare to be bold and creative, work hard every day, and care for others, I’m confident you can achieve anything you imagine.
I wish you and your family the very bets in the coming year, and I will be rooting for you.
Sincerely, Barack Obama.
“All he ever hears on the news about our neighborhood is shootings, gangs and violence,” his mother continued. Malik told the Sun-Times he would like to play professional basketball or become a teacher, but said that he doesn’t feel comfortable even going outside. He described seeing a teenager dead from a gunshot wound and “jump-ons” of gang beatings.
Guests of the first lady are often called by name during the presidential address to highlight particular points and agendas during the speech. Obama may speak about growing racial tensions between minorities and police around the US, in particular about the police shootings of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.
Michelle Obama also invited a Los Angeles police department captain, Phillip C Tingrides, and a convicted robber and current reform activist, Prophet Walker, adding to speculation that the president will speak about policing and criminal justice reform.
You can read more about the guests at the address here.
