issue four volume 54
CRIER
munster high school
8808 Columbia Ave. Munster, IN 46321
Times are changing story by erianna sims graphics by Charlie Hofferth and Mercedez Williams
22 percent of MHS students were racial minorities in 2005. Thirteen years later, in 2018, nearly 44 percent of MHS students were racial minorities.
I
t is heavily avoided in discussion in hopes of not offending others or leaving distasteful impressions. There are traces of it in the past and present alike. It is deep-rooted in our history and culture, yet scarcely embraced as a topic of discussion in society. It is the issue of race. Whether it be casual racism between students on a day-to-day basis, or a more drastic form of systemic racism where discrimination is built into every interaction, behavior or belief, race is an important issue that we should not be reluctant to talk about. Because of the changing face of MHS, in this issue Crier introduces the first part of a four-part series on race in order to create a dialogue about the issue—to help break the silence. “I think it’s difficult to talk about race because some people feel guilty, so they don’t talk about the racist things they have done,” Trinitee Hassan, a black senior, said. “Some feel, ‘Slavery is over, who cares?’ I get that they want to be free and live in a world where we don’t talk about race, but this nation is built off of it, you can’t run away from it.” The growth of Munster’s ethnic populations has experienced major fluctuations throughout the years. These shifts in population are in some cases the result of the formation of a more diverse community, which allows the possibility of racial tension to be an issue. Ms. Bertha Sims, a worker at Inland Steel, and Ms. Dorothy Goshay, an educator in the Gary Community School Corporation, had many occasions where racial hostility left its impression on them. Sisters who were raised and educated in East Chicago, they bought a house in Munster in 1994 after Ms. Dorothy suffered an illness. “Within the first twelve to twenty-four months, we had friends come to visit and they would tell us the police trailed them to the house until they saw them pull up in the driveway,” Ms. Dorothy said. “A minister friend of ours was stopped by an officer after making a wrong turn and asked where he was going. After explaining to the officer that he had made a wrong turn, he was followed to the house.” Growing up and hearing my mother Ms. Bertha and aunt Ms. Dorothy talk about experiencing incidents they felt were racially motivated was an eye opener for me, and made me aware of the issues in our world that I would one day confront in my life as a young black woman. As I became older and endured
in 2005, 78 percent of MHS Students were white.
Story continues, next page
Breaking The
Nov. 1 , 2019
in 2018, thirteen years later, 56 percent of mhs students were white.
h o w do w e ta l k about these changes?
Silence
A four part series on race
Source: Indiana Department of Education Compass