7 Essays To Read: When Schools Are Racist, "Depressiongrams," And #ShoutYourAbortion

Although the charges against Ahmed Mohamed have been dropped, the conversation on racism in school continues. Inspired by the 14-year-old, who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock into school, 10 nonwhite Americans reflect on the discrimination they've experienced inside the classroom. In some instances, these minority students were accused of cheating; others had their heritage and culture openly denigrated. Read their stories at BuzzFeed Ideas.

Women have been conditioned to think of abortion as a procedure to feel ashamed of. But Amelia Bonow, the woman who started the #ShoutYourAbortion movement, feels only gratitude for hers. Recounting her visit to Planned Parenthood for Salon, she writes, "I have never been indoctrinated to believe that abortion is anything other than a woman choosing not to default into a life that she doesn’t want. Motherhood was not an option for me, so there was no choice to be made, and I felt certain that I would not feel guilt or sadness about the procedure after the fact." Read the entire essay at Salon.

Generally speaking, Instagram is home to the happy — or at least those invested in documenting the happier moments in life. It's not exactly the most intuitive platform for people like Jamie Lauren Keiles, who battled depression and used Instagram to share something she calls "Depressiongrams." For Medium, Keiles explains depression in a photo essay that hits close to home. Read it at Medium.

Nilina Mason-Campbell had been skeptical of the recent wave of diverse sitcoms — that is, until she landed a spot as a background actor on the season finale of Black-ish. For BuzzFeed Ideas, she reflects on that experience, her most glamorous workday ever, and how it felt revolutionary. Read it at BuzzFeed Ideas.

Growing up, Priya-Alika Elias went to the doctor only as a last resort, when an illness or pain wouldn't go away on its own. For The New Republic, Elias looked into why those in the American South Asian community so rarely seek out medical help. In her essay, she examines mental health specifically and her personal habit of denying her own pain. Read it at The New Republic.

Last week, 10-year-old George Dalton went viral for his cover of Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen" — needless to say, many were outraged. For Pitchfork, Kris Ex pinpoints exactly why the kid-friendly rendition of the song is so disrespectful. "The power of the song is in already its juxtapositions—it's a love song steeped in culling a hard option from dire circumstances ... When young George Dalton sings about making pies with his baby, he's talking about actual pies, not cooking crack, which is a huge poetic step backward." Read the entire essay at Pitchfork.

As a society, we've only been exposed to one image of "biracial" — typically someone tan with light-colored eyes, one who looks not too ethnic but still exotic. To combat this image, Jaya Saxena started #BiracialLooksLike, which she wrote about for The Daily Dot. "There’s the feeling that you don’t quite belong anywhere, or in some cases, explicitly not being accepted by members of your family," she writes, explaining what it really means to be biracial. "There are people who are constantly trying to figure out 'what' you are." Read the rest at The Daily Dot.