PLEASE READ BELOW FOR AN IMPORTANT STATEMENT FROM GEN-Z, MEADOWDALE'S SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ACTIVISM CLUB. BELOW THAT STATEMENT, YOU WILL FIND ANOTHER STATEMENT FROM MEADOWDALE'S LSU CLUB (LATINX STUDENT UNION).
June 11th, 2020
To Our MHS Community,
On behalf of Gen Z, Meadowdale’s social justice and activism club, we, the Gen Z Leadership, would like to extend our support to our black community members. Black lives matter today and everyday, and we stand with you in this fight to dismantle the ideas and systems that enable discrimination and criminalize the existence of black people. Racism is embedded into the fabric of this nation and we can’t sit idly by and wait for it to go away. We want to live in a world where
black people don’t have to live in fear of becoming the next hashtag on a list of names that grows day by day.
It is a shame the world has taken so long to finally wake up to the realities of discrimination that black people have faced for over 400 years. Racial injustice and oppression have not vanished over time as some would like to believe. Our world has only become more creative in it’s execution. As a club, we recognize the prevailing ugliness that both systemically and individually targets people of color, black people specifically, and we pledge to continue doing our part in our
community and improving how we support black lives. While Gen Z is proud to be a club founded by students of color, no one is exempt from taking action. Anti-blackness exists in every community, and needs to be combated from all angles. There is always more we can do to educate ourselves and amplify black voices and experiences. Through sharing educational resources, signing petitions, donating to organizations, attending protests, having those uncomfortable but necessary conversations with family members and friends, and checking our own individual internalized biases, we will actively work to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
To our fellow students, we are the generation that will change this world for the better. Already, youth have dominated conversations on social media and organized countless protests across the globe, as well as in our own community. We are the next generation of leaders, so it’s crucial we continue to educate ourselves and speak out against the systems that continue to oppress our black brothers and sisters. For those who are 18 or older, please, take your anger and activism to the polls--at the local, state, and federal level. If we want legislation that reflects our values, if we want politicians who support people of color, protect people of color, who are people of color, we need to also be a generation of voters.
To staff, parents, and every other adult in the Meadowdale community, your voices matter too. Our generation demands change, but it must be a teamwork between us and you. We need you to also understand the centuries-long struggles and sufferings of black people, and to address the racism and prejudices that exist in your life. Racism is not born, it is learned. It takes on both obvious forms and subtle ones, ranging from police brutality and mass incarceration to housing discrimination and microagressions. Hold yourself, your coworkers, and your relatives accountable. Help us ensure our schools celebrate and support students of color.
We can no longer be complacent with the progress that has been made, because complacency turns into compliance with the powers who maintain systems of oppression. We have to recognize the progress that still needs to happen and fight for it with everything in us. We demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more.
Forever in solidarity with Black Lives,
Gen Z Leadership
Here are links to documents with amazing resources to aid in anti-racist education:
bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES
https://linktr.ee/blacklivesmatter
June 9th 2020
To Our Meadowdale Community,
This statement has the purpose of publicly supporting our Black brothers and sisters. We, the leaders and advisors of Latinx Student Union do not condone in the strongest terms the public, slow and painful murder of George Floyd and all the Black people who have been murdered in the past 400 years.
As members of the Latinx community, we have a long and painful history with colonialism that has left us with deep-rooted colorism within our own community. We understand that we need to work on this aspect of our community and the sentiments of the anti-blackness present in it. That is work that we must engage in, it is no longer an option. We pledge to keep on supporting and centering students of color voices and that we will hold folks accountable on learned biases, microaggressions, and racist actions in our own families and by extension our school and communities as a whole. Our community has suffered from the systematic separation of families by policing systems such as ICE and CBP which keep on traumatizing our communities and systematically target and exterminate the lives of people of color. Therefore, we stand with our Black brothers and sisters and unequivocally say, Black Lives Matter! Tu lucha es mi lucha!
If you wish to show your support, be sure that your voice is heard! There are many ways to show support and speak up whether that be peacefully protesting, signing petitions, or sharing what is going on around the world through social media, as well as correcting the racism going on in your home.
The Latinx Student Union Community will continue to fight for the rights and justice of our Black brothers and sisters around the world and in Meadowdale High School and advise you all to do the same. Staying silent is not an option, we must come together to fight for the change we wish to see happen.
In solidarity, we stand with those who are part of the Black Lives Matter Movements and anyone who combats ANY and ALL forms of discrimination.
-Latinx Student Union Leadership and Advisors