Gavin Alston tells city council he’s been called ‘monkey’ in heartbreaking speech

A 10-year-old black boy delivered a heartbreaking speech about racism at an Oregon city council meeting, telling the audience that he’s been called the “n-word” and “monkey” by his classmates.

Gavin Alston, a fourth-grader from Redmond, Oregon, decided to speak out Tuesday following a vile incident that has made national headlines involving a dead raccoon that was left outside the office door of the city’s mayor with a message directed at a black councilman.

Reading from a sheet of lined notebook paper on which he had written his speech the night before, Gavin told the Redmond City Council that he has been subjected to racist treatment ever since he transferred to a new school, reported The Washington Post.

“A lot of people have been calling me the n-word or a monkey, even ‘Black boy,’” Gavin said. “One girl said to me, ‘I would hit you, but that’s called animal abuse.’”

Addressing the overwhelmingly white assembly, the student demanded accountability and called for change.

“Why should us black people suffer from racism, when there are other races doing murders,” Gavin said. “When us black people are showing respect, but we still get treated like crap.”

He continued: “We should not get treated like this. We should get treated equally. This is not fair to us black people.”

The youngster’s impassioned plea in a public forum came a week after Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch found a dead raccoon and a sign containing what local police vaguely described as “intimidating language” outside his private law office.

The sign named Fitch and Clifford Evelyn, who is Redmond’s first and only black city councilor in a majority white city of 36,000 residents.  

Evelyn, a retired cop who was elected to the council in 2021, decried the incident as a hate crime but said he has confidence in the police investigation. As of Friday, no arrests have been made. 

Heather Alston and her husband told The Washington Post they decided to attend Tuesday’s city council meeting to show support for Evelyn and Mayor Fitch. When their son Gavin heard about their plan, he said he wanted to go as well.

His mother warned him that if he were to speak at the meeting, “everybody’s going to be looking at you. You’re going to be the center of attention,” she said.

To that the 10-year-old tersely replied: “That’s fine.”

Gavin penned his speech on his own the night before, as seen in a photo taken by his mom and shared on social media.

When he stood up to speak at the meeting, Gavin admitted that he was nervous.

“I felt like I wasn’t going to say the words right,” the boy later recounted.

When he approached the lectern to deliver his address after waiting in line, the pint-sized speaker could not reach the microphone.

“Well, you certainly cut down the average age of our speakers,” Mayor Fitch quipped, drawing a few scattered laughs from the audience.

But the mood in the room dramatically changed as soon as Gavin began to speak, talking about the bigotry he said he has encountered at school and calling out racial inequality writ large.

Gavin’s speech drew applause from the crowd, but as he walked back to his parents, he burst into tears thinking back on the way he’s been treated by his classmates.

“I want people to change and not judge people just because of their skin color,” the fourth-grader said.

Mom Heather later praised her son on Facebook for taking a stand on an issue he cares about.

“I’m so proud of this young man standing up for himself and his people!!” she wrote. “My heart just melts.”