7 minute read
Community honors George
from Issue 5, June 1
by SLP Echo
I feel like (students) really got the chance to understand what the severity and the impact of what actually happened. And I hope that most of them got impacted or more than most of them got impacted.” Symone Morrison, junior
Photo Armoni Monroe George Floyd square: Community members gathered at George Floyd square on the one-year anniversary of his death.
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Round of Applause:
Seniors Hannah Howell and Sadie Yarosh and freshman Josie Bohrod applaud a speaker during the George Floyd anniversary memorial organized by SOAR. The memorial took place May 25.
Photo Oliver Smith Stand up: Freshman Calvin Zimmerman watches as freshman Ruth Kanyinku responds to another student.
Community honors George Floyd on anniversary
SOAR hosts school-wide assembly in auditorium
Talia Lissauer & Jacob Khabie
talialissauer@slpecho.com jacobkhabie@slpecho.com
After a large number of students showed up to the George Floyd memorial, freshman Calvin Zimmerman said he felt it was crucial to continue to hold conversations to improve society.
“We can’t stay silent, especially as people of color we can’t stay silent. We have to speak what’s on our mind and speak out against things that are wrong,” Zimmerman said.
On May 25, the club Students Organized for Anti-Racism (SOAR) held a reflection and memorial assembly honoring George Floyd one year after his murder at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Students were invited to speak, and to answer prompts given by SOAR.
While she came as a way to discuss and listen to student perspectives on racism in school, after hearing a student say he felt it was selfish for protesters to riot, freshman Myriah Humphrey said she decided to speak because she did not agree. She said it made her happy to hear all the students that stuck together in response to that comment.
“I’m here because I am tired of all this racism going on and (how) it is affecting our schooling,” Humphrey said.
Even after the student spoke to clarify his point, his comment motivated many students to speak about the value of a human life, which Zimmerman said he appreciated due to the number of people who spoke up.
“Because of (the comment), we got more people to speak up about the situation and actually speak their truth which is what we’re always for, first and foremost,” Zimmerman said.
For the final part of the memorial, everyone took a 9 minute and 29 second moment of silence, representing the amount of time Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd’s neck. According to senior Olivia Krueger, this moment was an appropriate way to end.
“(The moment of silence) made everyone uncomfortable, and that’s what we all needed,” Krueger said.
Even though she hasn’t seen much of a change in the year since Floyd’s death, Humphrey said she would like to see a major change to the education system.
“(I would like to see) better education, more history about Black history, they need to feel comfortable to talk about color,” Humphrey said.
One prompt given by SOAR facilitators asked students how they want to see Park hold itself accountable. Moving forward, Zimmerman would like to see Park staff members speak about racism in classrooms, without needing guidance from administration in order to do so.
“(I’d like to see) teachers not just reading off of scripts but talking from their heart, expressing how they feel about these situations,” Zimmerman said.
WHAT’S THE POINT
Going maskless is freeing
Gabriel Kaplan gabrielkaplan@slpecho.com
Iknew the pandemic was coming to an end when she sneezed into my mouth. I had just finished shopping at Costco. She was the cashier and I was the customer, both vaccinated and both maskless.
We were schmoozing over olive oil when she spewed tens of thousands of little droplets into my face after failing to cover. It was disgusting, I won’t lie, but also a reminder of how far we have come in the last year. Mass vaccination gives us the chance to hold these normal conversations again — and to get sneezed and coughed on. A trade I’m more than happy to make after a year of hyper-vigilance and isolation.
The Costco visit, along with maskless strolls through Trader Joe’s and Target, felt tantamount to crossing the coronavirus finish line. It was relieving to feel like a normal person again. However, I still found myself glaring at other maskless
What’s the shoppers out of
POINT? habit and caught a
Enjoy your vaccine few frowns myself. That is to be expect ed, though. It took and drop months to habituate the face to masked life, and covering it will take many more months to emerge from it.
I know plenty who struggle to accept the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ruling the vaccinated can lose their masks, which is understandable. But this is freedom! If you have been inoculated, you are as safe as you are ever going to be. New strains may emerge, yes. The unvaccinated are still at risk, yes. But that is out of our control. Let the man-baby anti-vaxxers risk their own lives and enjoy your newfound safety from the virus. Your young family and friends who cannot yet get the shot are at low risk of serious illness, so there is no reason to fret. (Of course, they should still throw on a face covering).
Going forward, I plan to mask up from time to time. I haven’t been sick since the pandemic began, in part due to ubiquitous face coverings. I also very much enjoy not getting sneezed at. But when I’m with friends and family or grabbing a meal or at college next year, I can’t wait to go mask and COVID-19 free. Noam Halpern, freshman
Club reads “How to be Antiracist”
Anna Benishek
annabenishek@slpecho.com
Juniors Semona Robel and Jack Westrup founded the anti-racist book club in hopes of o ering new perspectives on race and identity to students in the community.
According to Westrup, the objective of the anti-racist book club is to provide students with di erent points of views about racism and captialism.
“ e purpose of our club is to educate people on an anti-racist prepective from an anti-captialist perspective because I believe the two go hand and hand,” Westrup said. “ e material we’re going over right now is actually ‘How to be an Antiracist’ and it ties directly into those goals.”
Robel said they started the book club to help the community grow to become open-minded and maintain a safe environment to acquire information.
“We did it mainly because we wanted to see change in our school and our community in general. With everything going on in Minnesota with the death of George Floyd and Daunte Wright, we noticed this trend of people not educating themselves,” Robel said. “We thought that it would be a great idea to sort of provide that space for people to learn and discuss.”
Junior Gracia Rettig said it’s a great environment to talk about controversial topics and be open to di erent opinions.
“Having a space like this, judgment free, where we’re just all kind of coming to learn and understand better is super healthy and super productive,” Rettig said. “It’s also helpful to be reading the book because then it’s di erent and it’s not just hearing people talk to you.”
According to Robel, having clubs like this is bene cial for Park and the community to educate people about racism.
“St. Louis Park is a fairly liberal area and fairly diverse,” Robel said. “A lot of schools near us don’t necessarily have that diversity and it’s harder for them to actually understand racism, anti-racism and capitalism and the way the two sort of interact with each other. And it’s really important to learn about those two things.”
According to Westrup, having the anti-racist book club is important to have in schools because it introduces people to a new standpoint.
“I felt that it would be a good counterpart to SOAR, not only because we’re educating people, but because it also kind of ties into it,” Westrup said.
Robel said it’s necessary to educate everyone about these topics and hopes her club will grow within the community.
“I feel like I’m making a di erence. It might not be a huge thing now or this year but (I) certainly wish it continues to grow, and establish itself in the community,” Robel said. “I truly think that it’s really important for not only high school kids, but also younger children as well to get a anti-racist education. I only hope it continues to grow, and we just continue to make a di erence.”
Photo illustration Anna Benishek
The current book
Ibram X. Kendi out how one can counteract individual and systemic instances of racism and whitesupremacy throughout their life.
Scan to follow the anti-racist bookclub Instagram
Use phone camera to scan QR code
Infographic Gabriel Kaplan Source Semona Robel Art Emmy Pearson
