Focus Magazine | September 2020

‘I CAN’T BREATHE’ Focus Magazine –––––––––– A ReMarker Publication –––––––––– September 2020

America in the post-George Floyd era

STAFF Editor-in-chief: Cristian Pereira Senior Editor: SeMaj Musco Contributing Editors: William Aniol Jack Davis Jamie Mahowald Henry McElhaney Luke Piazza Robert Pou Cooper Ribman Siddhartha Sinha Sai Thirunagari Writers: Toby Barrett Ethan Borge Morgan Chow Trevor Crosnoe Ian Dalrymple Shreyan Daulat Jack Gordy Axel Icazbalceta Arjun Khatti Keshav Krishna Peter Orsak Will Pechersky Matthew Reed Will Spencer Austin Williams Dillon Wyatt Darren Xi Jonathan Yin Photographers: Luis García Collin Katz Ekansh Tambe Jerry Zhao Editor’s Note: Focus Magazine, in keeping with policies set forth by the Associated Press, will be capitalizing Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense.

Cover Photo Illustration: Jamie Mahowald

RIgHT NOW 8 Government

How are U.S. governments tackling the issues that have arisen?

12 Timeline

What does history tell us about the today’s situation?

14 Rebranding

Companies have come under fire for their logos depicting people of color.

16 Social Media

How impactful has social media been to spread information?

RIGHT HERE 20 Protests

In downtown Dallas, thousands of protesters have rallied to make their voices heard.

28 St. Mark’s

Diversity and inclusion throughout St. Mark’s history, beginning with the story of Lee Smith ‘65.

32 Sonic Drive-In

A Dallas incident involving a group of Black teenagers who were told to leave a Sonic fast food restaurant.

34 Family

What is it like to raise Black children in the United States?

36 Roundtable

Community members give their take on the state of the country after George Floyd’s death.

38 Mark Cuban

Owner of the Dallas Mavericks describes his and his team’s involvement with the movement.

40 Opinions

Viewpoints from the magazine staff, including insight from a Black student.

42 Aftermath

We try to answer the difficult question: what’s next?

Photo Luis García Protestors rally at City Hall to oppose police brutality. Police chief Reneé Hall would speak there later.

Focus Table of contents

3

George Floyd, 1973-2020

WHY HERE? WHY NOW?

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Rayshard Brooks.

Ahmaud Arbery. Tony McDade. Dion Johnson.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis after allegedly attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a grocery store. After being handcuffed face-down on the street, officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. For the final several of those minutes, Floyd was unresponsive and had no pulse.

None of the four police officers present attempted to revive him.

Following this, amidst a global COVID-19 pandemic, an international surge of protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement ensued, organized in all 50 states, over 60 countries and across every continent except Antarctica.

People want change.

They not only want to see an end to police brutality, they’re also protesting what they believe is systemic racism in the United States.

This magazine attempts to not only tell their stories but also shed light on this movement, a movement with ancient roots yet new ideas, a movement that will not subside until change is made.

We stand with the Black lives in this country that are hurting and have been hurting for generations.

Because Black lives matter.

We understand the great responsibility and

challenge that producing a magazine of this nature entails. It is our hope that the hard work and effort of the Focus team is reflected in every page, every paragraph, every word.

The St. Mark’s community is comprised of a diverse group of students, faculty, staff and alumni.

The school has done an admirable job building awareness and has made successful efforts to increase the diversity and inclusivity of its community.

But the world is changing. And with that change, we ourselves are called to change. We ourselves are called to be more aware of the struggles of other people and better embrace their value.

As journalists, part of our job in facilitating this change in giving people ways to inform themselves and expose themselves to new, sometimes frightening perspectives outside their community bubble — outside their comfort zones. Which bring us to this magazine.

Our goal as the Focus staff is to expose students to the complicated world that lies just outside 10600 Preston Road — and to encourage them to think. Think about the world, about the people around them and about themselves.

And to never be satisfied with the knowledge they have. There is always a new perspective, a new idea, a new story to embrace.

Cristian Pereira Editor-in-chief

ARTWORK Cooper Cole Focus From the editor

5

RIGHT

NO Our national community has seen sweeping changes to life this year. As all 50 states hold protests, our country’s government, corporations and citizens are joining in. Here’s what’s going on across the country.

6

Right Now Focus

OW

We sit down with citizens of Seattle and Minneapolis, two national protest hotspots, to discuss the local scenes and the gubernatorial changes they are seeking. Page 8

A timeline featuring notable social justice events in Black history and an in-depth chronology of events from the last few months. Page 12

Aunt Jemima. Washington Football Team. Mississippi state flag. Just a few of the noticeable companies, logos and symbols that have rebranded in recent months. Page 14

From protest organization to Blackout Tuesday, a look at social media’s impact, both positive and negative, during this iteration of the movement. Page 16

Focus Right Now

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Looking for National Change

Story Cooper Ribman, Jack Davis Photos Jerry Zhao

Protests broke out all across the country, from downtown Dallas to New York City, but cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota and Seattle, Washington also saw violence between police and protestors with the use of tear gas and rubber bullets.

Seattle

F

Across Dallas Two protestors take part in the marches in downtown Dallas, one holding a sign with a quote from George Floyd’s daughter, the other wearing a mask with “I can’t breathe” written on it.

8

Right Now Focus

ollowing the death of George Floyd in late May, protests and riots began in every state in the country.

Some areas felt the effects more than others, with major cities being most impacted by the demonstrations.

Dylan Clark ’14 has lived in Seattle for two years, and has experienced the atmosphere around these protests and riots.

“The first Saturday after that killing there was a huge protest downtown that turned pretty violent,” Clark said. “There were cop cars being torched, police using tear gas and rubber bullets, so there was a lot of chaos that first weekend.”

As the weekend progressed, the chaos continued.

“The Sunday after that, there was another protest downtown,” Clark said. “I actually went to that one, and luckily, that one did not turn violent. I wasn’t really in the crowd because of coronavirus so I was staying back with a mask but I was proud to be able to walk with everybody. For the most part at the start, police were escorting people, but then unfortunately at some point they decided they’d had enough. Two blocks ahead of where I was they started tear gas and rubber bullets and everything.”

Following the violence towards protesters, the demonstrations grew even larger, eventually centering on a police precinct.

“I think the protesters were really upset at the way the police were escalating to tear gas and rubber bullets and violent arrests.” Clark said, “When I was there, at least on Sunday, I didn’t see anyone doing anything that required, in my opinion, that type of action.

For 10 days after that, every single night at the Seattle east precinct there were massive protests.”

Clark lives only eight blocks from the targeted precinct and experienced the surrounding chaos daily.

“Just because of concerns about the pandemic going on and also concerns about not wanting to be tear-gassed, I didn’t go to any of those protests,” Clark said.

The precautions taken against COVID-19 at the protest were varied, as social distancing in such a crowded environment was difficult.

“Almost everyone was wearing a mask,” Clark said, “but during the protest itself, there was a large cluster of people just like we’ve

seen across the country. I think a lot of people have decided they’re willing to wear a mask and take the risk of being close to someone in order to express their right to protest.”

Having experienced the situation first hand, Clark has witnessed the differences between the events occurring in Seattle and the media coverage.

“Everyone in the media and in the world and on social media views what’s going on through sort of a biased lens,” Clark said.

“They come into it with preconceived notions of what’s right and what’s wrong, and then they look for things to confirm those opinions.

I think I saw a lot of people on either side looking at that first day’s protests and digging in deeper to what they thought already.”

Early in June, protesters created the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, an occupied protest and autonomous zone in the Capitol Hill area.

“The autonomous zone is up the hill about eight blocks from me,” Clark said. “At first, it was interesting because portions of the media were saying, ‘these people want to secede from the US and make a lawless zone and they’re crazy’ and, at least at first, that was a misinterpretation of what was going on.”

Clark says what started as a good idea slowly evolved into a disaster, taken advantage by ill-meaning individuals.

“At first, it was street art everywhere,” Clark said. “Murals and graffiti like ‘Black Lives Matter’ beautifully painted in the middle of the street and people in the park enjoying themselves. There were therapists there talking to people who had been traumatized. Unfortunately there’d be more and more reports of small bad things happening. People posing as security guards holding guns and telling people whether or not they can go there. I think some people took it as an advantage to exercise power.”

The autonomous zone continued to devolve, until it was cleared by Seattle authority on June 8.

“What’s unfortunate in my opinion,” Clark said, “is that the people who originally organized the protests like the Black Lives Matter organization in Seattle, and other organizations who are leading the protests, after a while pulled out because they realized the protest was losing its meaning and the Hitting near home Protestors march though the streets of downtown Dallas hoisting signs that read “Defund the Police” and “Silence doesn’t lead to justice”.

The former is a common phrase protestors have shouted and put on signs.

force that motivated these protests lost its focus and it more became a bunch of people just hanging out. In the last week of it, there was a string of shootings that happened there, so it became a place that people wanted to avoid.”

Minneapolis

G

ary Lundgren, associate director of the National Scholastic Press Association, has lived in Minneapolis for 20 years, and has experienced the growing tension between the Minneapolis Police Department and the community for years.

“Black Lives Matter has been protesting in Minneapolis for quite some time,” Lundgren said. “A couple years ago they would protest and shut down the freeway.

While the riots were very troubling, facing the issue itself was not surprising to people in Minneapolis.”

Lundgren believes the amount of time with these issues in the spotlight will bring about change.

“I think there’s going to be changes made because there’s certainly the perception that the Minneapolis Police Department has a lot of work to be done in a lot of areas, especially dealing with the AfricanAmerican community.” Lundgren said.

Unlike many cities across the country, Lundgren says the protests in his area have remained mostly non-violent.

“Even during the time the riots were happening in the national news, there were some pretty large protests happening in downtown Minneapolis that were peaceful and made the news,” Lundgren said. “While the protests have calmed down some, the whole community realizes that big changes have to be made, and they just can’t ignore this, or it’s just going to keep happening. No one wants there to be another George Floyd.

Unless something changes, I’m afraid there will be.”

Lundgren says local media covered the peaceful protests in addition to the scattered violent ones.

“They covered both, but the night the riots were happening, they were live

‘The whole city of Minneapolis is going to have to reinvent the police department.’

– Gary Lundgren

covering it because when your city is burning you have to cover it,” Lundgren said, “The peaceful protests were covered, but a peaceful protest never gets as much coverage as a riot.”

Lundgren hopes the newly renewed interest in the movement will help spark serious change in the local government.

“The whole city of Minneapolis is going to have to reinvent the police department,” Lundgren said. “While there’s general outrage about the whole George Floyd situation, I do think people in Minneapolis are reasonable and educated and realize that every police officer is not a bad cop. There certainly are good law enforcement people trying to do their very very best job and people respect that. Most everyone in the city would say there’s some problems here that have to be fixed. That may be the good thing that comes out of all this.”

Lundgren recognizes that while many face difficult times right now, police are under very huge scrutiny.

“It’s not an easy time to be a cop,” Lundgren said. “In Minneapolis and across the whole country there’s distrust for police. It would be really hard to be a really good cop who cared knowing how I was perceived by a lot of citizens.

Lundgren also recognizes general confusion around the “defund the police” idea.

“There’s confusion since Minneapolis is one of the cities that talks about defunding the police department.” Lundgren said, “That in itself kind of sends a wrong signal because they want to study how their money is spent and study different approaches. The mere fact that the phrase says ‘defund the police department,’ sounds like the people that support that are saying ‘let’s shut down the police department and take all their money,’ which is not the case at all.”

Taking to the streets Wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts and George Floyd masks, protestors carried signs with phrases such as “Black Lives Matter” and “justice for Breonna Taylor & George Floyd” throughout downtown Dallas.

Focus Right Now

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AT THE TOp Dallas Chief of Police Renée Hall spoke to protestors and reporters outside City Hall about the Dallas Police Department, defunding the police and working with protestors.

Renée Hall: We understand that law enforcement plays a major role, not just in the death of George Floyd, which was absolutely tragic, but in multiple deaths across this country and some even in this city.

We know that in law enforcement, it is not enough for us to stand here and say that it doesn’t represent all of us, and it doesn’t. I will say that over and over and over again because what we have Dallas Chief of Police to remember is that 27% of the Dallas Police Department, I’m not sure what numbers in other agencies, are black and wear blue, and so these things come very close and dear to our hearts.

We know we have lots of work to do.

We can’t continue to fight because fighting doesn’t get anything done. We are willing, in the Dallas Police Department, and have been since 2017 to get multiple things done. There are more body-worn cameras in this police department because of the administration that you see right now. We’re here to work.

The Dallas Police Department is doing the work.

We’re working with multiple agencies. We’ve made changes in our ‘I don’t agree with organization, and we will defunding the police continue to make those department. The city changes. It is difficult to needs the police. Are heal those things that are there things that need broken, but we have to work together. to be done? Yes. There We are putting together are, but defunding the all footage, all information police is not the answer.’ relative to the protest, – Renée Hall and we will reveal that to you very, very shortly.

Everything that we’ve done, if it’s right, we’re gonna own, if it’s wrong, we’re gonna own it.

I do want us to be very clear that the Dallas Police Department has not today and in the past come out against our peaceful protesters. My message to you is that we’re here to work.

Renée Hall

Interviews Jack Davis, Will Pechersky Photos Jerry Zhao 10

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A mass of signs Reneé Hall was met with mixed reactions by protestors, with some even booing her throughout and after her speech in front of City Hall.

Proposing an answer Dallas Chief of Police Department Renée Hall speaks with reporters and cameras in support of her police department.

FRom the students

With younger generations participating in many of the protests, students detailed some of their own opinions on our police departments.

Will Pechersky: Do you think defunding the police could be a viable option to solve some of the problems that we have in our world today such as systematic racism?

Henry Morgan: Reducing funding is definitely a viable option to solve a lot of the problems. While most police officers are amazing people, police departments need some cuts as a way of saying Americans won’t put up with the status quo anymore. The vast minority of officers who are violent racists need to be held accountable more.

WP: In what ways do you think redirecting current police funds will help to improve the current problems and help us grow?

HM: Redirecting the funds has a lot of potential. If you look at city budgets, it’s astounding how much funding the police get at the expense of basic services, such as education, healthcare, etc.

There are so many vital services — such as public schools — that are drastically underfunded.

Jack Davis: Do you think defunding the police could be a viable option to solve some of the problems that we have in our world today, such as systematic racism?

Jacob Bell: It’s important to come up with a general idea of what defunding the police means. People throw it out there, and only some people know what it means. They want to take cuts out of certain aspects of the budget, and they want to give police less deadly force options.

Some people do know what defunding the police means, and then you’ve got people who are just screaming ‘defund the police’ and have no clue what it means. They truly believe in abolishing the police and establishing some sort of weaponless police force run by civilians.

I don’t believe in it that much. It’s a slippery slope you go down when you start defunding the police.

Jacob Bell Senior

WP: Where should we direct funds that currently go into police forces?

HM: The best area to direct the funds to, in my opinion, is public education. Childhood years are incredibly important for the formation of good adults, and so many teachers have to pay out-of-pocket for basic supplies. Some students rely on school to prevent them from going hungry or to shelter them from a rough home life. Schools are incredibly important, and it’s time they were treated that way.

WP: Is the aim simply fewer police officers or could we eventually become a policeJunior less society?

HM: Theoretically, policing isn’t a bad thing.

Without policing or law enforcement, society would be lawless. Fewer police officers, however, is a great idea.

There is a lot of legislation that has led to the problem of over-policing and overreporting in neighborhoods where there are more [people of color]. If there were less police in these neighborhoods, it would lower the brutality rates and help curb the mass incarceration of [people of color]—especially African American men. There needs to be a strong police force in every neighborhood to keep everyone safe, but the over-policing in majority [people of color] neighborhoods must stop.

Henry Morgan

JD: In what ways do you think redirecting current police funds will help to improve the current problems and help us grow?

JB: There are obviously areas of our society that need improving. Education’s a big one. I don’t think money is the root or the solution to all problems. You’d have to do more than just divert money, but education’s always a good one. Establishing programs for [underprivileged] communities.

I don’t agree with just giving money to people. You have to establish programs and set up solutions that will last if you are going to divert that money to other places.

There are obviously places in our society that need improving and could use the money. I just don’t think it should be taken from the police department necessarily.

JD: What other ways do you think can be implemented to help prevent problems relating to police officers?

JB: We’ve had an ego problem. There are people in positions of power who feel like they have the ability to harm people and get away with it. If they’re charged, then we give them the proper punishment. But we’ve seen historically they haven’t.

If you do that, we will see some improvement by simply giving them the punishment someone would get if they did the same. If I went out and shot someone, I would obviously be sent to prison. If we ensure people are charged and sent to prison in all instances, that would definitely help.

Police Funding The Austin City Council unanimously

$80 million

voted to cut one-third of the Austin Police

$49 million

Department’s $434 million budget after calls for defunding the police in Austin.

$21 million

The change totals around $150 million.

Social SErvices (Immediate)

Here’s how that money was redistributed.

Source Associated Press News

Social SErvices (During 2021)

Reimagine Safety Fund

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The History

America has a long and complex history of race relations and events from 17th century slavery to the 21st century Black Lives Matter movement. Here’s a look at the timeline of racial events since the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of chattel slavery.

Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in rebel states and ensuring that a Union victory would abolish slavery.

pre-2020 Mobs of white Americans attack Black communities in the Tulsa Race Massacre.

May 31, 1921

Jan. 1, 1863

Aug. 9, 2014

19161940 More than 5 million Black Americans move from the South to cities in the North and West in hopes of job opportunities.

Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first Black president of the United States.

Jan. 20, 2009 In Baltimore, 25-year-old Freddie Gray dies following injuries in transport in a police vehicle, prompting an uprising there.

Apr. 19, 2015 12

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Dec. 24, 1865

In the First Great Migration, 1.6 The Supreme Court rules in Plessy million Black Americans move v. Ferguson that racial segregation from the South to Northern was constitutional, as long as cities in hopes of jobs. facilities were “separate but equal.”

19401970 18-year-old Michael Brown is fatally shot by police officer in Ferguson, MO.

The First Ku Klux Klan is founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six former Confederate officers.

Congress passes the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, abolishing slavery and defining equal protection under

the law.

18651870

May 18, 1896 Brown v. Board of Education overrules Plessy, ruling segregation unconstitutional and “separate but equal” institutions unequal in practice.

May 17, 1954 Following the acquittal of four officers charged with abuse against Rodney King, riots break out in Los Angeles, killing 63.

APr. 29, 1992 Five police officers are shot and killed in Dallas by veteran Micah Xavier Johnson, angry over police shootings of Black men.

July 7, 2016

Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

July 2, 1964

July 14

Aug. 11

Civil Rights leader and US Representative John Lewis passes away from cancer in Georgia.

July 1

June 20 CHAZ is cleared in Seattle amid safety concerns.

June 19

Trump holds a rally –– originally scheduled for Juneteenth, the previous day –– in an arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Protests form outside the arena.

June 8

June 1

Floyd’s funeral service is held in Houston. June 9 is declared “George Perry Floyd, Jr. Day” in Floyd’s hometown of Houston.

Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) is established in Seattle

Derek Chauvin is arrested and charged with Floyd’s death. As a result of the violent protests, large cities impose curfews.

2020

Minneapolis City Council votes to disband their police department.

The National Guard is mobilized in Minnesota.

May 25

Breonna Taylor, a 26-year old Black woman, is shot and killed in her home by police in Louisville.

Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed Black man, is shot and killed by two white citizens in Glynn County, GA.

June 12

May 28

Mar 13

Feb 23

Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the end of slavery. Colorado strips police officers of qualified immunity.

June 9

May 29 President Trump clears protesters to pose for photo at a church in front of the White House.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden chooses Kamala Harris as his running mate. Harris is the first Black woman on a major party ticket.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, is killed by police officer Derek Chauvin, 44, in Minneapolis.

May 26 Protests begin to spread around the country.

The PResent

Since George Floyd’s death May 25, the timeline of events has moved at lightning pace as protests have continued to surge across the United States.

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Finding A new identity

After years of persistent criticism faced for the depictions and connotations of their logos, several brands are undergoing changes in their identity as a result of the rising momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement across the United States.

A

unt Jemima syrup, Land of Lakes butter… Both are recognizable brands that many use daily without a second thought.

However, recent events such as the death of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests have helped to increase sensitivity towards injustice in America.

In a matter of weeks following Floyd’s death, hundreds of petitions had flooded the internet demanding the removal of offensive logos and names. Even past controversies like the naming of the Washington Redskins were reignited at full force.

In the corporate world, businesses have needed to become hyper vigilant at addressing prejudice, whether it be in the workplace, or more recently, their products. Countless brands deemed offensive have already been shelved or rebranded, and with many more to come, it’s time to ask what this rapid change means for our country.

–––– The movement begins with Aunt Jemima.

Owned by Quaker Oats, Aunt Jemima was the first pancake mix in America and a pioneer in the breakfast industry.

In 1966, Quaker Oats introduced Aunt Jemima syrup, which would take the nation by storm, eventually becoming their top selling product.

The brand’s logo, created in 1893 and depicting a stereotypical antebellum African American woman, was suddenly representing the most popular syrup company in America. Controversy was inevitable.

Surprisingly, Quaker Oats themselves were the first to address Aunt Jemima’s problematic logo. In 1989, the logo was rebranded to have a more “sophisticated look,” which is the one seen on packaging today.

The company removed stereotypical accessories like Aunt Jemima’s pearl earrings and white collar. During the 21st century, Aunt Jemima had managed to slip by with relatively little controversy regarding their logo, however; everything changed in 2020.

On June 17, less than a month after the death of George Floyd, it was announced that the logo would be removed from all items by 2021.

Many were surprised by the brand’s sudden change as Aunt Jemima hadn’t been the target of social media pressure to change 2 2 38 2 14

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Time to change Quaker Oats announced its intent to change the name and logo of its Aunt Jemima syrup in response to backlash the brand faced for hiring a former slave to represent Aunt Jemima.

their logo.

However, the company decided to do what they felt was best for their brand in the current political climate, and many more would follow.

As Aunt Jemima’s rebranding caused a multitude of companies such as Chiquita bananas, Uncle Ben’s rice, and Cream of Wheat cereal to announce changes to their offensive logos and names, it also drew attention to organizations that were less likely to rebrand.

The Washington NFL team has been a massive source of controversy throughout the last decade, not only because of their name, which some consider a racial slur, but also the team’s outspoken owner, Dan Snyder, who at one point told the media that the name would never change.

However, in a testament to the power of social justice in today’s America, even Snyder was influenced, announcing a name change on July 2 after investors worth $620 billion had called on corporations to boycott the team.

As the rebranding movement grows, its

influence spread, even beyond the business world.

On June 28, after receiving pressure from multiple collegiate athletic organizations, Mississippi legislature passed a bill to change the state’s flag, which had previously been adorned with a Confederate symbol.

While the sudden enthusiasm from corporations to shelve offensive brands has been refreshing; one key factor must not be ignored: money.

Were organizations like these not pressured by large sources of revenue to make a change; it probably wouldn’t have happened. However, while profit may be the main motivator behind the rebranding movement, it shouldn’t detract from the changes made in the direction that many activists were fighting for.

Story Trevor Crosnoe Photo Creative Commons

&

BEFORE AFTER Everything from state flags to football mascots to food products have rebranded themselves as the Black Lives Matter movement has brought a renewed sensitivity to racial images and depictions. Here are three well-known entities which have changed their public image.

A new era The state of Mississippi legislature voted to redesign the state flag, which previously resembled the flag of the Confederacy. Although a new flag is yet to be chosen, the state has narrowed its options down to nine proposals.

Former Mississippi state flag

Proposed new design

Making the switch After facing criticism for displaying a Native American on its packaging, the Land of Lakes butter brand removed the percieved racist depiction.

Former Land O Lakes packaging

Newly-revealed design

Rebranding The Washington Redskins ultimately decided to change both their name and logo, identifying as the Washington Football Team for the 2020-2021 NFL season while they search for a new, permanent name.

Former Washington uniform

Now, Washington Football Team

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Breaking News MINNEAPOLIS — Almost from the moment George Floyd encountered the police on May 25, with a gun pointed at him, he appeared terrified and emotionally distraught, according to police camera footage that was newly made available for viewing Wednesday at a courthouse in downtown Minneapolis.

Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter

BLM is an affirmation & embrace of the resistance & resilience of Black people.

Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter

Funds for Floyd

7 years of fighting, growing, loving and winning. Everyday we have shown up for Black Lives and we will continue to. Deep bow of gratitude all the chapters Black led groups We areto once againand asking for your financial showing up for Black Life. #BLM7YearsStrong

support.

Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter Trayvon should still be alive. So should countless other Black people who have been murdered at the hands of police and vigilantes. We won’t stop fighting until justice is done. I’m honored to be the smallest part of this beautiful, vibrant, complex movement.

Protest Tomorrow

10 am in front of City Hall. Bring plenty of water!

Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter

Make sure we all remember the names of those who lost their lives unjustly. Its time to save all lives not just the privileged few. Its time to treat people as people and not things, we cannot evolve and move forward as a nation til we fix this egregious error.

#BLM

Mr. Floyd was visibly shaken, with his head down, and crying, as if he were in the throes of a panic attack, as he put his hands on the steering wheel in response to a frantic order from an officer.

He told the officers over and over that he was claustrophobic, as two officers struggled to push him to the back seat of a police vehicle. Throughout the video, he never appeared to present a physical threat to the officers, and even after he was handcuffed and searched for weapons, the officers seemed to be more concerned with controlling his body than saving his life, the footage showed. #blackouttuesday of the tragic events around Mr. Floyd’s

Black Lives Matter @Blklivesmatter

Everything you need to know about what you can do.

He would also still be alive if he didnt already have a record a mile long from drug possession to theft to vandalism too destruction of private property... would also be alivenif henwasnt purchasing stuff from a store to make home made alcohol, would also be alive if he had

Story Siddhartha Sinha, Axel Icazbalceta, Shreyan Daulat ARTWORK Jonathan Yin

I

n 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the killing of 17-yearold Trayvon Martin in Sanford, FL, a Facebook post coined the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”

In 2014, after a medical examiner determined Eric Garner’s death was caused by asphyxiation, the hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter” was used in 146,000 tweets.

In June 2020, after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, after Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and killed in her Louisville apartment, after a jogging Ahmaud Arbery was chased down and killed in residential Brunswick, Georgia, the hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter” was used in more than eight million tweets.

Instagram is a new protest location.

Facebook is a new petition hub.

Twitter is a new fundraising platform.

The movement has taken a new form — a life of its own on social media.

–––– When it comes to the NAACP’s usage of social media, Texas NAACP Youth & College Division President Shevann Steuben 16

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says a lot of the organization’s activity is meant to raise awareness.

“What we do with social media is mostly regarding campaigns or distribution of information,” Steuben said. “Gathering all of our units, talking about a specific topic, giving notice to an upcoming voter registration deadline, promoting a specific campaign. We’re able to use our voice louder or more consistently. Social media is generally the first line of defense for us.”

Especially in this iteration of the movement, Steuben says social media has been an effective means of communication, but it transcends hashtags and reposts.

“When it comes to justice for Ahmaud Arbery or Breonna Taylor or George Floyd, you’re seeing that influx happening on social media. I don’t think it’s always

connected to a catchy hashtag. Hashtags are something that’s new, but we are also working in the background, whether that’s litigation, legislation or even conversations.”

Perhaps one of the most notable — and controversial — examples of social media action in recent months was Blackout Tuesday, a day when many users on Instagram posted a black square with the caption “#BlackoutTuesday.”

Although Steuben appreciates the intent to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, she is among many people who have found issues with the event, citing its involuntary drowning out of communication.

“For the sake of information,” Steuben said, “I think it was negative for those people protesting, looking for information, attorneys, whatever they may have been in search of.”

However, Steuben doesn’t want to diminish As the Black Lives Matter movement adapts to the meaning of a new situation, activists have used social media the event, and she welcomes the to enhance their reach, but have hashtags and opportunities it retweets enhanced their message? provided.

going viral

“There was so much good intention there,” Steuben said.

“Showing solidarity in this movement, working towards progress. I think it was a great moment for individuals to teach their friends, their community members or whoever they felt the desire to do so.

Because they were able to say, ‘Hey, I’ve noticed you’re posting this. You want to show solidarity. You want to be an ally. This is how you can do this more effectively.’”

Where Steuben takes exception is when people solely engage in social media, ignoring the other opportunities they have to support — a behavior Steuben calls “slacktivism.”

15 million

#BlackoutTuesday posts on Instagram June 2

616,000 489,000

ahmaud arbery

Number of Instagram Posts using #JusticeFor...

733 233 227

“Everyone plays a part in the movement,” Steuben said, “but when there’s discussion around just posting a square for Blackout Tuesday, there’s so much more you can do, and you’re not doing that. If you can do more and you’re purposely not, if you’re just signing a petition because you feel like that’s your good deed for the day, that’s where it becomes slacktivism or just complacency.”

Steuben says one of the ways to do more is through petitions, but their abundance has worked against their effectiveness.

“I think signing petitions is a good form,” Steuben said, “but it’s also just difficult because there’s so many out there. You might see one petition about increasing rights for international students, and then you’ll see another one by a completely different person. The impact is drowned out because it’s so hard to get an entire nation on the same page.

That’s our issue now.”

Calls for unification — in petitions and messaging — are something NAACP Garland Unit Youth Council Advisor Joyce Miller advocates, and she believes it’s the responsibility of large organizations to do so.

“You have to be unified in terms of message and generation,” Miller said.

“For young and old. That’s where organizations like the NAACP and large organizations that have a wide audience can help with getting more about the right message, a unified

2 million

Breonna taylor

– Texas NAACP Youth & College Division President Shevann Steuben

Trending

A by-the-numbers look at trending hashtags over the summer.

George floyd

‘Are you just posting a black square because it’s trending, or are you posting it because you truly mean it? If you are posting it because you mean it, what more are you doing to support the movement?’

message. There’s so many [petitions].

You have to be a critical thinker, looking and thinking and not just clicking indiscriminately.”

Looking to the future, Steuben sees social media as a staple of reform movements.

However, she says it needs to be managed wisely to maintain powerful messaging.

“I think [social media] will be a very large component,” Steuben said. “While it is so great that we have social media to monitor and document things that are happening, it’s also numbing. If you were to hear the same thing every day, eventually you’re going to drown that noise out.

That’s what I would be concerned about when it comes to social media.

As social media is increasing, as technology is more widely used and developed, there will have to be an insane amount of marketing and strategy.”

Regardless of possible social media numbing, Miller hopes this movement and future movements thrive on empathy.

“I’m just hoping the human element — because it is a person to whom these things are happening — will touch our hearts,” Miller said.

“It will help us really understand this feeling of humanity. To really come to grips with what we’ve done over the years and what we do to each other and help us avoid those things.”

Having lived through the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Miller sees parallels between today’s movement and the movement nearly 60 years ago, and she hopes today’s generation takes advantage of social media as a new platform for activism.

“I would compare it to the 1960s,” Miller said. “It’s your opportunity.

The younger generation. You know how to use it. It finds a place with you. It’s at home with you. Through social media, you can reach a whole bunch of people all over the world just by sitting at your home and being diligent about it. I’m hoping that will be the new Civil Rights Era for our young people.”

Steuben credits social media for strengthening the Black Lives Matter movement through awareness, and she says the ability for media to go viral has enhanced the reform movements taking place today.

“What’s the difference between George Floyd’s death and Breonna Taylor’s death,” Steuben asked. “[People] were able to see it because of social media. Because someone recorded it. They posted it. It went viral. People had a reaction to it. If it wasn’t for social media, if it wasn’t for the age of technology that we’re in today, I don’t think that could have happened. It would simply be a wordof-mouth situation. There’s nothing you can say to refute what we saw.”

George Breonna ahmaud floyd Taylor arbery Number of people on Facebook talking about #JusticeFor... (thousands)

Focus Right Now

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RIGHT

HE

Images and stories from protesters at four local demonstrations over the summer. Page 20

Sitting down with Lee Smith, the school’s first ever Black student to discuss his experience in 1965 and looking at the future of increasing diversity at 10600 Preston Road.

Page 28

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Seniors Trevor Gicheru and Marlon Henderson detail an incident at a local Sonic, the rally they organized in response and the change they hope to see. Page 32

Paul Quinn Coll Michael Sorrell into his practice parent. Page 34

ERE

lege President gives us a peek es as a Black

While bigger pictures show change happening across the United States, our communities are filled with stories pertaining to the situation. Here’s how we’re handling it locally, from our school community to the greater Dallas community.

Members of the community gather in a roundtable setting to address the police experience, confederate imagery and what it means to be Black in America. Page 36

After initially endorsing a strict approach to the national anthem, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has changed his stance. Page 38

Reflecting on his own upbringing, Focus editor SeMaj Musco defines his experience growing up in America. Page 40

Focus Right Here

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Let us pray

Burning down buildings. Destroying property. Rioting in the streets. Many have protested police brutality loudly and violently, but some choose to protest in other, more peaceful ways: singing and praying for lives unjustly lost.

A Gathering Although the organizer of the prayer protest was unknown, various activists discovered the Black Lives Matter protest online and felt inspired to attend the rally June 7. “Somebody posted on Facebook yesterday [June 6] that there was a rally today, and the prayer rally was on there,” protester Tiffany Crawford said.

A

middle-aged woman named Susan Burchett –– blonde, white, clad with sunglasses and a black t-shirt –– stands before a crowd of about 75 people in front of the Frank Crowley Courts Building and the North Tower Detention Facility in Downtown.

At the beginning, the throng of protesters is mostly white, though as the eversweltering morning progresses the group diversifies.

Burchett yells, but not with anger –– her volume is high to be heard, not to enrage, and the crowd punctuates every phrase with quiet grunts of approval, every sentence with applause.

“If we memorize one verse today, we need to memorize this one,” Burchett proclaims.

She then begins quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14, and the crowd recites along with her with a half-second delay: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

––– Burchett, a member of Valley Creek 20

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Church in Lewisville, works with CourtAppointed Special Advocates (CASA), a volunteer organization that matches trained, judge-appointed advocates with abused or neglected children.

“There were times in my past I have seen racism, whether it was really bold or not, and I felt like at that time I didn’t step forward.

I see a disproportionate number of AfricanAmerican kids [in foster care], and I felt if we can keep kids out of foster care, we can keep kids out of prison, and if we can keep kids out of racism, then that solves all our problems.”

Nobody knows exactly who organized the Prayer Protest, as it was called. But with the attention of nearly a hundred people of faith who were active in their anti-racism beliefs, Burchett found an opportunity to amplify the voices of whoever needed to speak.

“I’m loud, and I think most people want to come [up] and talk, but you have to be one of those people who just steps up and do it,” Burchett said. “That’s easy. What Black people deal with every day is hard. I just decided if I’m going to do it, let’s do it.

People want to come and worship and give a word of testimony, and they did –– I just had to help them step forward.”

Among those who volunteered to speak

was Tiffany Crawford of Pleasant Grove, whose testimony consisted equally of thanks to God and rebukes to those who defame Him in their racist beliefs.

“There are buildings and ideas that are

Tiffany Crawford Protester

needing to break, my God,” Crawford said.

“Thank you, Jesus, for everything you do for us. Thank you, my God, for everyone around me, for all Black lives that do matter but cannot matter, to Black Lives Matter, my God.”

For Crawford, being in the midst of a group who wants the same things as her –– to express strong emotions through prayer –– compelled her to actively involve herself in protest.

“I have a brother, I have uncles, I have nieces,” Crawford said, “and for me, being the color of my skin, I would want them never to live through what I’ve seen anywhere. My inspiration to come out comes from my own family, not wanting them to go through anything like that. If somebody’s doing a wrong, I have to make sure I check them. And vote! We have to vote our own people into office. We can’t just wait for the presidential election every four years. If we want change, we have to get the right people –– our people –– into office.”

Several others stepped up and spoke, some with pride, some with anxiety, all with a spiritual message.

One man thanked God for “allowing us to be here together in the body as we are with one another, loving, singing and praising, honoring You. For we are not out there causing chaos, we’re causing love, Lord, for this is a love riot,” just as an armored military vehicle drove down Commerce Street.

Another led the group in singing “How Great Is Our God.” But few gave a testimony as emotional as Joe Evarts, a white man from Oak Leaf.

“There are white people who hear their grandfathers say things every day,” Evarts said, “who hear their grandmothers, and it’s in our heads. If every day, I told you that you were stupid and ugly, on day 30 you would believe you are stupid and ugly. We cannot be silent anymore. White people can smoke weed in the safety of their homes, but if a

‘If more people who look like me would speak up, then maybe we wouldn’t have to go to that degree to get attention for an issue that isn’t made-up.’

– Joe Evarts

Black person does the same thing, they spend ten years in jail. It’s not right. It’s not right. In Jesus’s name, Amen.”

Evarts identifies a consequential issue in the way white Americans are raised to make undetected and implicit biases based on race, even if one identifies his or herself as opposed to racism.

“When I show up in a room, and I say, ‘Where do you think I’m from,’ they’ll say I’m from somewhere like Colleyville. And what about me says ‘I’m from Colleyville,’ except for the fact that I’m white?”

In fact, Evarts grew up in an impoverished neighborhood in South Los Angeles, where he vividly remembers the riots of 1992, the conditions of government housing and the scenes of his neighbor wielding a handgun as she walked her daughter to school.

Taking charge Protester Susan Burchett led the prayer protest by standing in the middle of the crowd, delivering speeches, inviting protesters to come forward to speak, choosing hymns to sing and reciting prayers.

“I’ve been told I look like I’m from Ohio –– no one’s ever thought I grew up in the poverty and in the desperate situation I did just because of how I look.”

Nowadays Evarts works in the banking sector of Uptown Dallas, where he’s come to the tragic understanding that society places every individual into various sets of groups.

Two groups Evarts –– and everybody else –– have no control over are gender and race.

“I was in a leadership training session, and one of the things they kept having me say was, ‘I’m a dominant white male.’ And I got pretty pissed off about that, because I was far from dominant growing up. I didn’t get a lot of help, besides that I was adopted when I was 15.”

But later in the session, the leader of the program, whom Evarts recalls was a Black woman, approached him.

“She said, ‘Joe, you’re really talkative right now, but why didn’t you say anything earlier today?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m pissed off, because you’re telling me I need to say I’m a dominant white male, and that’s not how I feel, and I don’t want to be judged like that.’ And she said, ‘Well that sounds hard.

And as a Black woman, I don’t want to be judged liked that every day, either.’”

And for Evarts, a fiercely political approach to issues of racism is problematic, because, according to him, many white Americans are raised in “casually racist” atmospheres in which older generations tend to get a pass for offensive comments.

“That’s now in your psyche as a part of the next generation,” Evarts said, “and that might manifest itself down the road.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a bad person, unless you buy into it. But it’s unconscious, and that shows up in things

like ‘I’m not racist, but...’ and ‘all lives matter.’ You’re feeling threatened, so you say things like that. This is about growing up in a country that’s supposed to be the best country in the world and being able to go outside, being able to run in the morning, being able to run at night, no matter what the color of your skin is. “

Joe Evarts Protester

But as protests wane in intensity and real claims of policy fade, Evarts calls upon younger generations –– especially those of faith –– to remain active in anti-racist conversation.

“Lord, please don’t let this die,” Evarts said. “Please don’t let it be one week or one weekend. I call on people of faith everywhere, hiding in their churches right now, saying things like ‘all lives matter.’ It’s not that all lives don’t matter, it’s that I’ve never had to tell my kids how not to get shot.”

Story Jamie Mahowald, Sai Thirunagari PhotoS Sai Thirunagari Focus Right Here

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Leading the crowd Dancer Quinton Winston addresses the crowd at the dance protest he and other members of the Dallas dance community organized.

Winston invited leaders in the dance community to speak.

H

ip-hop music blaring through the speakers in front of the J.F.K. Memorial Plaza, behind the makeshift white dance floor taped onto the concrete with black electrical tape, three dancers emerge under the sweltering sun.

Holding posters reading, “Black Lives Matter,” “I can’t breathe” and “Say their names,” the crowd of protesters cheer as they start to breakdance. After a flip, a headspin and a handstand, the dancers walk back behind the dance floor to join their fellow dancers who organized the protest, applause echoing.

Wearing a dark blue t-shirt and light blue jeans, 29-year-old street dancer Quinton Winston walks forward holding a microphone in his hand, and, suddenly, his voice rises above the music. The crowd is silent. The music stops.

This is your Dallas dance community out here. We’ve got your attention now, right?

We got their attention. So what do we say with their attention? What do we put out there?

Say his name!

The members of the crowd lift up their signs, and yell through their masks, “George Floyd!”

Say his name!

“George Floyd!”

Say her name!

“Breonna Taylor” Say her name!

“Breonna Taylor!”

Now shout out a name I didn’t say. Shout out a name I did not say!

The protesters’ voices clamor together as they shout “Ahmaud Arbery,” “Atatiana Jefferson,” “Botham Jean” and many more.

The crowd falls silent once more.

This ain’t about us. This ain’t about the dance community. Those people, that’s what it’s about.

There’s so many of them. I only said two.

It shouldn’t even be two — it should be none.

It should be none! But there’s so many of them.

This has to stop. If I can use some moves to get your attention to say this, then I will.

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Moving for the Movement

Four dancers who helped organize the dance protest at J.F.K. Memorial Plaza in downtown Dallas June 7 discuss their backgrounds and support for Black Lives Matter protests.

If we can dance, and then y’all hold up signs, then that’s what we need to do. That’s what we’re here for.

––– Then, Winston breakdances on the floor, making his arms and legs seem to bend as if they were jello.

Afterward, he describes how the Black Lives Matter movement inspired him to organize the dance protest.

“It was a community effort — that’s how I did it,” Winston. “A lot of us leaders, we got together, and we said we want to do something. We all got our crowds and put them all together.”

A native of Chicago, Winston grew up in Arlington, TX, and moved to California when he was 21 to travel the world and professionally dance.

“I was Black before I was a dancer, so that movement has already been a part of me,” Winston said. “It wasn’t like an idea that just popped up. It was, ‘something happened to my people,’ and that first side of me, before dance came out, that said I need to be a part of this.”

Although the protest featured multiple dancers, Winston says the goal went beyond displaying their talents.

Winston explained that dance was the medium through which his dance community chose to protest police brutality, citing the deaths of Botham Jean in Dallas, Christian Taylor in Arington and Atatiana Jefferson in Fort Worth.

“That wasn’t in Minneapolis,” Winston said to the crowd. “That was here in Dallas-Fort Worth. So that’s why we gathered. That’s why we have the right to protest, and that’s why we should be here today.”

Winston offers multiple methods citizens can effect change.

“Moving, coming to these events, voting, attending local city hall meetings — those are the things we can do,” Winston said. “Those are ways to ‘move,’ literally. Get out of your seat, go somewhere and do something to be a part of the change.”

O

riginally from New York, dancer Tanjim Rahman, known as “Taj,” performed and spoke at the protest, and for a number of years, has been involved in the dance community that Winston brought together to organize the event.

Tanjim Rahman Founder of Dancing for a Cause

“I created a dance organization called Dancing for a Cause in 2008,” Rahman said. “It’s a nonprofit, and it’s a fairly prominent dance organization, so I’ve grown to learn and get to know a lot of dope dancers from our community of all generations. I know Quinton because he’s also a community leader in our dance community. He reached out to all of us because he sees that we all have been active about [protesting police brutality], too.”

Rahman ties dance and

hip-hop to the Black Lives Matter movement as tools for protest, saying both are forms of self-expression.

“Hip-hop was birthed out of this system,” Rahman said. “It’s our ghetto communities speaking out against the system. They graffitied, they deejayed, they [breakdanced], they emceed. Dance can help you understand better because it helps people connect on a human connection level.”

Rahman says his background as a firstgeneration American who comes from a family of Bengali immigrants has played an important role in motivating his activism.

“We’re blessed to have a good life here, and that’s due to my family being here,” Rahman said. “And my family being here is due to the civil rights movement. It’s a part of me understanding my privilege here and how many people really don’t get that.”

Learning about the repercussions of slavery in U.S. history inspired Rahman to take a stance against racism.

“Really empathizing with that made me realize I have to fight, I have to help, I have to contribute,” Rahman said. “I can’t leave this world like this. Allah gave me a voice, He gave me a soul, He gave me instinctual right and wrong to understand that something wrong is happening, and you need to contribute. This is not ‘their’ problem. This is a world problem.”

H

aving moved to Plano from Cameroon in 1999, dancer Geena Driven was one of the dance leaders who worked with Winston to put together the event.

Driven founded the Dallas Hip-Hop Dance Festival and owns Hip Hop Heels, a dance program.

“This is my first protest or rally attending and is one that I can get behind,” Driven said. “This one hits me to the core because it’s something that’s near and dear to my heart. I actually opened my speech today by saying the only way I know how to fight: I’m a praying woman, and that’s what I do.”

Driven addressed the crowd to express what she believed to be the purpose of the protest.

“Dance is not the only way we communicate, but today it is our weapon of choice, and a very powerful one at that,” Driven said.

“Movement doesn’t only have to be the politic to communicate emotions, but it has the power to change lives and hearts. This is an issue of racism. This is an issue of the heart. And the only way to fight heart issues is with love.”

The nonviolent nature of the protest was essential to Driven’s participation. “[Winston] made sure it was a peaceful protest,” Driven said. “I can’t get behind anything that’s going

to be violent, hurt people or hurt property. As long as it’s a peaceful protest and people are dancing and getting their message across in a peaceful way, then, I want to be a part of that to make sure that people understand the gravity of what’s actually going on in the world today.”

Driven finds solace in

Geena Driven

Dancer, choreographer and instructor

dance as a way to express her emotions.

“This resonates with me because whenever I’m happy, sad, angry, whatever, I d I dance, and that’s how I solve my problems for the most part,” Driven said. “When I start moving, it’s easier for me to think through stuff.

I don’t know how that is, but that’s just how it works.

Dance out your frustration, dance out your hurt, dance out whatever’s in your heart right now.”

Hitting the floor As the crowd stands around the dance floor with various posters in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, various members of the Dallas dance community perform and breakdance to hip-hop music blaring from speakers.

Story and photos Sai Thirunagari, Jamie Mahowald

F

ounder of Fenton’s Dance between the anger that you have Factory in Plano, Fenton and what they’re carrying? It’s all Fulgham is another dance about love. Once you understand studio leader who worked that, then no one can stop you from with Winston to organize the doing what you want to do.” protest. He spoke to the crowd His experiences from his about his motivation to support youth made Fulgham feel more the Black Lives Matter movement determined to pursue his dreams, based on his own experiences so he eventually founded his own facing racism. dance studio and has worked with When celebrities, Fulgham including ‘My studio is a hub. All of used to live in singer Demi Virginia, he Lovato and the community can come would frequent Glee actor in and enjoy what I have.’ a dance club Kevin McHale.

– Dance studio founder despite being a “My studio minority there. is versatile, Fenton Fulgham “I used to with different always go to cultures, this club, and everybody knew me and that’s what I love about it,” and accepted me,” Fulgham said.

Fulgham said. “That’s why I “I was probably the only Black wanted to have my own studio. I [man] in that club. It didn’t matter could bring in whomever I wanted to me because I loved dancing, and to allow everyone to enjoy the that’s what I was there for.” culture of my studio, and that was One day, a new customer came important to me. The culture of to the club, objected to Fulgham’s my studio is to lift everybody up. presence and confronted him Edification and love are what I’m outside the building. all about — loving my students “He saw me dancing with and edifying them.” different people — white people — Fulgham has found dance to be and he didn’t like that,” Fulgham a tool against police brutality. said. “He called me the ‘n’ word, “We’re all creative beings, so he cussed me out and he said what can I do creatively to show something that was so significant the injustice that is around in this to me: ‘I know you can kick my world right now?” Fulgham said. butt, but I don’t care.’”

“You can show it through dance, After hearing those words, music, songs. It’s a very important Fulgham felt there was no point stance for us as choreographers, in retaliating against the man dancers and whatnot to express even though he felt hurt by the ourselves as we always do, but encounter. express ourselves in a positive way “I just took it, and tears were of what’s happening in this world running down my face because he today.” doesn’t know me, and he’s judging me and telling me because of the Studio color of my skin,” Fulgham said. leader “By me walking away, everybody Dance around started applauding me. studio That was what it was all about founder right there: self-control. I’m not Fenton going to give into what you’re Fulgham trying to do — bait me into worked something.” with Additionally, Fulgham Quinton remembers an instance in which he Winston and his family faced discrimination and other members from a restaurant’s staff when he of the was younger and lived in South Dallas Carolina. dance “When I was a kid, we walked cominto a ‘house of pancake’ type of munity place,” Fulgham said. “We looked to put around, and they told us there together were no more pancakes. I’m like, the dance ‘What in the world? This is ‘house protest. of pancakes,’ and you’re telling His own us all these people are not eating encounpancakes, [even though] I see it.’ ters with And so we had to leave.” racism Although these experiences have inspired hurt him, Fulgham says he’s him to grown stronger by moving past his support encounters with racism. the Black “You get over it, and that’s the Lives key: you go through it,” Fulgham Matter said. “If you allow it to affect you, movethen you become angry as much as ment. they are. Then what’s the difference Focus Right Here

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Where it happens P

olice officers and vehicles stood halted, blocking off lanes, streets and entire city blocks of downtown Dallas.

Protesters marched beginning at Klyde Warren Park, turning onto Harwood Street, then right onto Ross Avenue, then left onto Akard Street. The group of more than 100 marched past financial towers, apartment high rises and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

Their destination was city hall, and the tension between protesters and police was palpable.

But instead of quelling an uprising, the police vehicles were helping lead a protest against their own department.

–––

Zachariah Manning, the organizer of the June 14 protest, decided to put the event together after learning about the death of George Floyd.

“When I saw the video of the officer on Mr. Floyd’s neck, I just said, ‘Hey, I’ve got to do something,’” Manning said. “I’m all about things that are right, and it really tore at my heart to see an officer just kneeling in a pose on a gentleman’s neck. I could not believe it. It was as if he had just hunted down a game animal and was doing the photo op. It was sickening.”

A real estate investor, entrepreneur and business owner, Manning hasn’t been particularly involved in civil rights in the past, but George Floyd’s killing spurred him to take action.

“I’ve always been an advocate for children,” Manning said.

“I was PTA [parentteacher association] president for one of the Dallas ISD schools. I was a candidate for county commissioner in Dallas, and I’ve always wanted to make a change some other way.”

Manning worked with the office of Dallas Police Chief Renée Real Estate entrepreneur & candidate Hall and

Zachariah Manning for Dallas County Commissioner

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Not unlike the rest of the nation, Dallasites turned out to a series of political protests throughout June.

We spoke with the protest’s organizers and a Texas political candidate.

invited her to speak to the crowd, and he worked with the Dallas Police Department to have downtown streets blocked off to traffic so that the protesters could safely march through their designated route starting at Klyde Warren Park.

“I literally just formed everything in a week and went through the proper channels to get permission to be at Klyde Warren Park — proper permitting with the Dallas background Police Department,” Manning said. “I was in law pleasantly surprised that I got a response strongly from Chief Hall’s office that they would like qualifies to come, speak and address the crowd.” her to run In his speech to the crowd, Manning for Texas discussed legislation he would like to state reprepropose to require more accountability for sentative.

Criminal Defense lawyer & Texas House of Representatives Candidate law enforcement. One change he suggests She’s an is to make it possible for police officers who attorney unjustly kill citizens to be charged with who’s been capital murder. licensed to practice law in Texas, Arkansas “The police officers that were standing and federal courts for the past 14 years, there in the presence of that police officer primarily handles criminal defense cases, that committed the crime should also be including capital murders, aggravated sexual held for capital murder as well,” Manning assault, burglary, drugs and civil rights said. “If this law is passed, then it’s going to behoove a police officer that’s witnessing Real Estate something like this happening entreto try to prevent the death of preneur another citizen going forward Zachariah in the future.”

Manning Manning’s legislation delivers a would give officers who have speech on witnessed the crime a certain his proposed bill on law number of hours to report the enforcement crime. accountabil“If that police officer ity. “We’re does not report a good faith proposing report, then that officer that legislation witnessed it and did not report that will it can be held liable as if he make a difor she committed the crime ference and hold police themselves,” Manning said. accountable “What I would like to see is — not only protection for those police the police officers that blow the whistle on that commit situations like this. There needs the crimes, to be protections put in place but it’s for those good officers who see going to hold the police bad things go down in their officers that department so that they’re not witnessed retaliated against.”

Jasmine Crockett

––– Jasmine Crockett, a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer who also delivered a speech to the crowd, says her unique

the crime accountable.

That’s the most important part right there: holding everybody accountable.”

cases.

“When we’re talking about criminal justice reform, people never know what that really looks like, tastes like, feels like,” Crockett said. “But I’m that person who’s lived within this area, so I know what needs to be changed. Right now, what we end up getting is a lot of lip service and a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, this sounds like a good idea.’ But they don’t understand how laws need to be written so that they can actually have some effect.”

If elected as a state representative for Texas House District 100, representing much of South and East Dallas, Crockett would like to propose legislation that requires law enforcement to be insured by Dallas.

“If the city has to insure a police officer — which they should have to because they’re walking out and have a deadly weapon on their hip,” Crockett said. “That way, if we have a problematic officer, that officer starts costing the city too much money. So we can get rid of that officer, just like when you’re a bad driver, your insurance premiums go up.”

Crockett says because the municipality is not a for-profit agency, it always receives money to fulfill its budget through taxes.

“We can’t just shame them into doing the right thing,” Crockett said. “They’re going to make their money no matter what. You still have to pay your property taxes even if you disagree with how they’re running the city government. But if we do other things that can uniquely get to their actual budget, then number one, we’re protecting citizens.”

For example, if Crockett’s legislation were applied to the case of Botham Jean, in which Dallas police officer Amber Guyger entered 26-year-old Jean’s apartment and fatally shot

him in September 2018, Jean’s family would be able to receive monetary compensation from the government because of the incident.

“In addition to that, if Guyger was consistently having issues prior to this, Guyger probably would be let go because she would be too expensive to just have as an officer,” Crockett said. “It’s just about truly understanding how all of the pieces of the puzzle work that makes me uniquely qualified to come up with legislation that’s out of the box to get the things that we really want done. At the end of the day, we want to get bad officers off the streets.”

Crockett says citizens should demand transparency from elected officials who create the policies that govern law enforcement.

“If we elect you and put you in that position, then we need to start knowing that we can come to you and get answers from you,” Crockett said. “A movement doesn’t happen over a day, two days or weeks. I want people to stay engaged and make sure that they’re consistently asking the hard questions — asking people, ‘Hey, I elected you. What have you done? Even if you didn’t get legislation passed, what did you fight for?’”

Manning says having young people vote is crucial to instituting change.

“I would say to young people that the actions are great, the talk is good as well, but we have to keep fighting,” Manning said.

“The only way we’re going to keep fighting is by having young people vote to get people in place who are going to do the things that, as a whole, the community and the public want done. We need younger people to get out and actively vote.”

A protester and teacher marches with a homemade sign at the corner of Main Street and South St. Paul Street, adjacent to Main Street Garden Park several blocks from City Hall.

Manning and several protesters cross Commerce Street down South St. Paul Street holding a bold banner bearing UnitedJusticeLeague.org, an organization of full- and part-time volunteers.

Story Sai Thirunagari, Jamie Mahowald Photos Jerry Zhao

Police chief Renée Hall (right) stands with armed guards, anticipating giving a speech before a crowd of protestors.

For coverage of Hall and other governmental reporting, see pages 10-11.

A girl marches down Akard Street toward City Hall with a sign reading, “You know it’s time 4 change when children act like leaders and leaders act like children.”

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A woman raises a “Black Lives Matter” sign through her car window. “[I’m] just trying to spread positivity the best way I can,” she said.

Outside of City Hall, teeenagers raise their fists and honk their car horns in support of the Juneteenth protest, surrounded by motorcyclists gathering for an ensuing protest.

An American flag with clenched fist symbols soars above a sea of yellow umbrellas, given out by the Umbrella Project.

Independence June 19 — or Juneteenth — commemorates a different

kind of Independence Day. Dallasites of all backgrounds celebrated the holiday in solidarity and in protest at City Hall.

Story and photos Jamie Mahowald

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oday is Juneteenth. June 19, 2020.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Sept. 22, 1862, freeing more than three million enslaved Black Americans in the secessionist Southern states whom the Union was still embroiled in a Civil War against.

But almost three years later, with the war clearly won, small enclaves of slaves –– who had not yet heard the news of their freedom –– still existed in Southern Texas.

June 19th marks the day Union General Gordon Granger announced to the last slave that he was now free, and nationwide emancipation was now a reality.

It’s Independence Day –– a day of protest.

Mercedes Fulbright Texas Organizing Director for Working Families Party

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The Umbrella Project, organized by public relations officer Teresa Nguyen, is a group of volunteer activist artists based in North Texas. Modeling the Hong Kong “Umbrella Movement” of 2014, volunteers wrote on each umbrella in bold, black paint the name of a victim of police brutality. The names were provided to the organization by Mothers Against Police Brutality (MAPB), a nationwide organization with a Dallas chapter advocating for police accountability and reform.

“Seeing a sea of yellow out here gives me so much hope, because that’s exactly what the color yellow represents,” Nguyen said.

“Seeing their names out here multiplied like this is inspirational, because our purpose is to carry them through the movement, even when they’re gone, and this is what we’re doing.”

Nguyen carries an umbrella bearing the name of Salvado Ellswood, a 36-year-old man whom an officer shot and killed in an altercation in Plantation, FL, on July 12, 2015.

“We initially started this because we wanted to amplify the movement,” Nguyen said, “and we wanted something to protect peaceful protesters from tear gas and rubber bullets, but it turned into something more beautiful and impactful because MAPB asked us to put their loved ones’ names on it, so now, we see ourselves as guardians of these umbrellas, because it’s someone’s loved one.”

For Nguyen, the umbrellas and the names

borne by them are a highest sign of respect and remembrance for victims.

“We’re learning about each person, and we’re very respectful,” Nguyen said. “We make sure we say their names, and we learn about their lives, because these people were people, and they had personalities and childhoods and loved ones, and that deserves to go on, even when a lot of the time we just see them as figures in a movement.”

The holiday of Juneteenth bears special relevance to Nguyen and the Umbrella Project given its unique position in the timeline of Black Lives Matter events.

“Juneteenth was the day the last slaves were freed in 1865,” Nguyen said. “That’s a little more than a century and a half ago.

When people say that there’s no systemic racism, slavery didn’t end that long ago. It’s embedded in our American culture, and we can change that starting here.”

–––– Ian Nix, an activist who had come to Dallas after brief protesting stints in Orlando, Tampa, Washington DC and most recently Anchorage, took a leading role in the momentum of the marching portion of the Juneteenth protest.

“Juneteenth commemorates the day that the slaves in Galveston were freed,” Nix said. “They were freed two years later than the others, because they didn’t get the word.

So across the country, people like me, people of color, we’re starting to celebrate it more, because this is our day –– this is our day of freedom.”

According to Nix, the Black community has a responsibility to celebrate and maximize visibility on Juneteenth, a holiday many white Americans were previously unfamiliar with.

“Across the city, you’re going to see a lot of people coming together, expressing themselves in protest at the same time,” Nix said. “This is a mass protest, and we use our day, the day that we know as our freedom day, to show ourselves, to be visible and vocal. So that’s why we say across the country that Juneteenth is the day we protest.”

Protests like those on Juneteenth struck a chord with Nix, whose diverse background made him all the more vocal about his Protestor beliefs.

Ian NIX

“I’m a biracial man in America,” Nix said.

“I’m half-native and half Black. Even before my ancestors came to this country, my other ancestors had everything taken from them, so this is personal on both sides.”

Nix, not originally from Texas, believes the state has a unique opportunity to become a leader in civil rights in a way it has not been historically.

“My people out here in Texas aren’t too late, like they were last time,” Nix said.

“They’re going to be in the know, just like everyone else is going to be in the know. And after the protests, we’re going to the ballot box. We’re standing in solidarity. And the revolution is on social media, baby. Quote that.”

–––– Among the principal organizers of the Umbrella event is Mercedes Fulbright, the Texas Organizing Director for Working Families Party, a progressive, grassroots, multiracial political party founded in New York in 1998, whose primary platforms involve universal healthcare, lower student debt, high quality public education and environmentalism.

“I came up through activism at UNT,” Fulbright said. “I was a campus organizer, and my commitment to the anti-police brutality movement has been, through my own lived experience of being assaulted,

of being a victim of the Dallas Police Department in 2014 for peacefully protesting.

I’ve been committed for about eleven years, since I was 19, and we’re winning.”

She is also a member of In Defense of Black Lives Dallas, a protest and social media campaign against police violence. Like Nix, Fulbright sees Juneteenth as a celebration of Black joy, a phrase popularized in the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s and ‘70s as a form of resistance against the spite of racism.

“We’re one of the member organizations of BYP [Black Youth Project] 100 [a Black youth project founded in response to the 2013 killing of Trayvon Martin]. In the midst of oppression and violence, state-sanctioned violence, our folks will always continue to practice and to learn to manifest joy in our lives. They can try to take our people, but they can’t take our joy.”

Rejecting prevalent historical narratives about the Civil War on the agency of the War’s main figures, Fulbright believes Juneteenth is also a day to celebrate Black victory over the institution of slavery.

“Juneteenth –– it means we fought for our freedom, for our community, for our dignity. Lots of people think of the Civil War as the white man’s war, and us Black people were the beneficiaries. But we fought just as hard. And we’re still fighting today, that the police not be the judge and jury –– we’re fighting against oppression, that the chains be broken.”

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More than 50 years ago, the first Black student to ever attend St. Mark’s arrived on campus. His name was Lee Smith ‘65, and he changed forever what it means to be a Marksman.

1965

Story Cristian Pereira, Robert Pou Photo Courtesy Development Office, Lee Smith

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his school used to be a school only white boys attended. That’s what the charter said. And that’s what happened. But that changed as soon as Lee Smith ‘65 stepped foot on 10600 Preston Rd. in 1964.

It wasn’t easy for him to get in.

And it was even harder for him to stay.

–––– In the 1960s during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, segregation in Dallas was rampant. Movie theaters, restaurants and schools had different rules and regulations for white and Black citizens. There were white neighborhoods and Black neighborhoods, white colleges and Black colleges, white parks and Black parks.

But integration was on the horizon.

Some institutions in Dallas had already started breaking down barriers. And the school’s administration was discussing the possibility of joining them.

Enter 17-year-old Lee Smith.

A junior at all-Black James Madison High School, Smith participated in science fairs, winning awards from NASA and the Air Force. An accomplished chemistry student, Smith wanted to continue studying science. He entered into the St. Mark’s Advanced Chemistry summer program — which was integrated at the time even though the school wasn’t.

During his time with the program, Smith met former Science Department Chair Christie Drago.

Drago noticed Smith’s superior academic abilities and had him take a St. Mark’s entrance exam — Smith scored very well.

“Those who were not in favor of integration at St. Mark’s had made the point consistently that there was no one coming out of the Dallas black schools who would be qualified, so there was really no internal discussion about next steps,” Smith said. “When Drago presented me as a candidate, with the accolades I had plus my admission test scores, for those people who were interested in that [integration] conversation, that moved the needle.”

After much discussion, St. Mark’s made the decision to start its integration process with Smith. After a charter change 28

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and discussions with the board, Smith was called in to meet with Headmaster Christopher Berrisford.

“They thought I would be a good addition to the school,” Smith said. “They offered me a place. Also, they knew cost was an issue, and there was a person who wished to remain anonymous that had offered to cover all my tuition expense.”

It wasn’t an easy decision to up and leave James Madison. Smith was a top student, academically gifted and a community leader.

“I was very active in civic things and community things. I wasn’t unhappy where I was,” Smith said. “But I also understood that looking down the line at college there were things at St. Mark’s that would benefit me. And it would be foolish not to take advantage of that.”

The St. Mark’s community reacted to Smith’s arrival in different ways. Some were excited and happy with the decision to integrate, believing that St. Mark’s as a reputable institution should be among the pioneers of Dallas integration.

But it was Texas in 1965, however, and some were vehemently opposed to Black students at St. Mark’s. Smith was sent home multiple times throughout his senior year out of fear for his safety, one time just for dancing with a white girl at a house party.

“Somehow somebody had promised the parents that no matter what happened, there would be no interracial dancing,” Smith said. “And that I would be told not to dance with white girls. I didn’t get the memo.”

Smith’s dance with a white girl led to certain parents threatening to withdraw their funding of the Davis Hall expansion going on at the time.

“They wanted me out of St. Mark’s,” Smith said. “I was called to the headmaster’s office and told I needed to go home for my safety. I guess the boys were counting on me showing up on Monday so they could do their part, and I guess they needed to be called in and counseled or whatever.”

These sort of things happened to Smith often within the St. Mark’s community and also within the greater Dallas community.

“I could understand what was going on with the boys because these boys were

Back in time Students mill about outside Wirt Davis Hall on a normal school day in the ‘60s. Wirt Davis Hall was an iconic building on campus until it was torn down in 2008 to make room for Centennial Hall.

Photographed Senior Lee Smith (left) in the 1964-65 yearbook.

School play Senior Lee Smith (right) acted alongside Tommy Lee Jones.

products,” Smith said. “Dallas had an active Nazi party. These people used to parade downtown periodically. There were a couple of people in my class who were very proud of the stars and bars on their license plates.”

But Smith had resilience — without it, being the first Black student at an all-white school would have been nearly impossible.

“I was thrust into that environment,” Smith said. “But I had tools to deal with it. The people at St. Mark’s, with the isolation they had, had no tools to deal with me. Their perspective was that I had crashed their party, and I was the one causing

everything.”

Smith would have to be sent home five times throughout the school year over safety concerns.

Many parents, students and other community members never agreed with the decision to allow Smith at the school. But he remained unphased.

“Growing up in Dallas during segregation, you’re not unfamiliar with white people who hate Black people,” Smith said. “I learned you can’t wear your feelings on your sleeve.

You don’t let other people define you. If you know what you’re doing, you just cut your own way. They’re going their way, and you’re going yours.”

And at the end of the year, Smith’s perseverance paid off and his achievements earned him an acceptance letter from Harvard University, where he would be one of about thirty Black students in his class.

As described by former headmaster Arnie Holtberg, Smith’s journey is a remarkable one.

“He’s a man of sincere and real conviction,” Holtberg said.

“To achieve what he achieved in the mid ‘60s took a lot of courage.

10600 Preston Road was not like the St. Mark’s today in terms of its population of students. Back then he was more or less on his own.”

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W

hen the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS) from the Southwest came to accredit the school in 2019, the committee asked Headmaster David Dini why there was no diversity director. Dini cited Focus Magazine as an example of one of the ways the school exposes students to new perspectives.

“One of the questions that was asked was, ‘Well, if you don’t have somebody that’s designated as a director of diversity and inclusion, what does that say about the school? Is it not a priority?’” Dini said. “And I said, ‘If you want to know about St. Mark’s and how we think about issues around diversity and inclusion, rather than making sort of a superficial judgment without really knowing the nuances of the culture of the school, you need to read what our boys say about it.’”

Dini spoke to newspaper adviser Ray Westbrook and collected a sampling of

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newspaper and magazine issues that have dealt with topics like race, diversity, gender identity and sexual orientation and inclusion.

When explaining its accreditation, ISAS specifically mentioned Focus Magazine and The ReMarker as great publications which offer differing view points to students.

–––– From high school, the school’s first Black studdent, Lee Smith ‘65, graduated from Harvard, earned a law degree at the University of Washington and began practicing law in Seattle.

“I wanted to represent regular people,” Smith said. “Seattle had a problem with cops that liked to shoot Black people. I would sue bad cops. I learned that they’re expensive to pursue and you’re not gonna win, but I used

money I was making from other cases to make that statement.”

Smith also helped lower the failure rate among Black students taking the University of Washington admissions test. He then moved back to Dallas, where he was a chief regional civil rights attorney, enforcing civil rights laws at schools and hospitals in Texas and surrounding states. He was instrumental in removing a statue of Jefferson Davis at the University of Texas. One of his biggest projects was helping fund Black colleges in the Texas school system in the 1980s.

“We’re almost 15 years past the Civil Rights Act and this gigantic endowment for the University of Texas only went to white schools,” Smith said. “I was the head of that, and a change in the constitution in the ‘80s turned on the tap for initially 24 million a year more to these Black schools.”

Lee smith ‘65 Active alumni and attorney

Present day Centennial Hall, a building that didn’t exist when Lee Smith attended the school, stands tall at the south end of the Perot Quadrangle.

Fast forward to 1993. Arnie Holtberg becomes headmaster. Before then, Smith had not been invited to alumni visits and campus events. But Holtberg had a new philosophy that would drastically change the school — a philosophy that continues to affect the St. Mark’s community today.

“Arnie’s overall climate of inclusion included me,” Smith said. “And that is when it felt different.”

This style was intentional. Holtberg believed in the importance of diversity.

“My objective was to have the very best student body we could have,” Holtberg said. “To enroll the most talented, accomplished boys and young men we could from every background imaginable. Inclusivity fits into that because you bring different people from different backgrounds together and you have different opinions expressed by definition.”

This mentality carried over to how Holtberg’s St. Mark’s treated Smith.

“I made sure that he understood that I valued him,” Holtberg said. “That he brought something obviously very special to the school, that his character stood out for me and that he was a full fledged member of the alumni body like any other graduate of the school, no questions asked, no argument, just a full fledged member.

Let’s not think anything else or question anything, he is a Marksman through and through.”

Smith sees how Holtberg’s approaches to diversity and inclusivity affected the school and moved it forward. These changes not only affected the overall school community but also Smith’s personal relationship with the school as well.

“When I left St. Mark’s, my friends were my true friends,” Smith said. “But I did not feel like the school was my true school. It felt like I was a footnote. St. Mark’s is my true school now, but that took many years. And I think Arnie had a lot to do with this change in how the school saw me and my own pride at St. Mark’s.”

Today, Dini continues to lead the school with the same principles that led to Smith’s admittance and a similar philosophy that Holtberg governed the school with.

“I’m grateful that there are people that

have stood in those positions over time and made difficult decisions in the face of opposition and disagreement, but believed firmly and strongly that it was the right thing to do,” Dini said. “What a brave and courageous young man Lee Smith was coming here at the time and forging a new path for the future, for our school and community.”

Dini recognizes how different the school is today versus what it was in the 1960s.

“I think there’s no question that the school has grown and changed and evolved — so many of the principles and values that were instilled in the school from its founding have led to significant growth and improvement with time,” Dini said. “In this past quarter century plus, the school has become a far more diverse community than it was when I arrived.

And I think we will continue to become an even better school.”

Smith occasionally visits St. Mark’s, and Dini is proud that St. Mark’s can call him a graduate of the school and that he can share his experiences with younger Marksmen. Dini says that Lee’s perspectives and life experiences shared through chapel talks, alumni events and newspaper interviews have been beneficial to new Marksmen and important to the school’s history and future.

Looking ahead, Dini wants to continue increasing diversity among all categories.

Goals IV, a list of long-term goals for school improvement, for example, states an increased push to maximize socioeconomic inclusivity among the St. Mark’s student body.

“We need to break down barriers of access to even more boys in the future,” Dini said. “A lot of enthusiasm about that as we go forward is to make sure that any boy with promise and ability that could thrive and make a difference here, that we can remove barriers of access for those students.”

Dini also wants to continue to hire increasingly diverse faculty members to help enrich the lives of students.

“It is also important for the boys to have opportunities to see lived experiences in their teachers that are similar to their own,” Dini said. “And that matters and is certainly a major priority going forward for us.”

2020

Story Cristian Pereira, Robert Pou Photo Courtesy Lee Smith, Ekansh Tambe

More than 50 years after the first Black student graduated, the school still feels his impact and the legacy he left behind.

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THEIR OWN FIGHT As protests against bigotry spread across the country, seniors Trevor Gicheru and Marlon Henderson take a stand.

T

he Sonic Drive-in was not an unusual destination for seniors Trevor Gicheru, Marlon Henderson and five of their friends from Booker T. Washington High School, Greenhill School, Plano East Senior High School and Parish Episcopal School, as the group searched for a place to hang out one evening in late May. They had just left a nearby graduation party, and the group of Black teenagers were all in high spirits as they celebrated their new status as seniors in anticipation of their own graduation the next year.

The Sonic at Inwood Rd. and Willow Ln. was a teenage hotspot. Each of them had visited many times without issue, usually accompanied by white friends.

As they pulled into the parking lot, they noticed a few other groups of high schoolers talking and waiting for their food.

They got out of their cars. Some ordered food. Others hung out in the ordering bays.

Not five minutes had passed when Gicheru, Henderson and their friends –– all gathered together calmly –– were approached by a member of staff.

“I need you all to get back into your cars,” the employee said. “And if you don’t, I’m going to call the police.”

––– An hour later, Shonn Brown –– mother of a member of Gicheru and Henderson’s friend group –– drove to Sonic to address the situation. There, she saw another group of teenagers, all white, parked at the

Hanging out beside their cars, Trevor Gicheru, Marlon Henderson and their friends were told the police would be called if they didn’t leave, despite making no mention of the police to white students behaving in a similar manner to the group. According to a 2012 survey by North Carolina State University, 52.8% of servers have seen fellow employees discriminate against Black customers, while 10.5% claimed they had never perceived racial discrimination.

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adjacent Chick-Fil-A, standing in the street nearby.

“I saw this car in the ordering bay and I saw teens that were outside of the vehicle,” Shonn Brown said. “I drove around to the drive through and knocked on the window and said, ‘I understand you have a policy where kids can’t be out of their cars and hanging out, but are you going to say something? Because I drove by two groups of kids.’”

Brown drove around the parking lot to

‘That was a really special moment for me because it showed how much my community actually cared about that situation. They were willing to take time out of their day to come and support me.’

– Senior Marlon Henderson

see if the employee would stay true to his word. She remembers the employee acting slowly.

“It took them a moment, but the carhop came out and he spoke to the two groups,” Brown said. “By this time the group who had been over at Chick-Fil-A was standing in an ordering bay. They were not in a vehicle at all, their vehicle was parked

by Chick-Fil-A. Those two groups of individuals were all white.”

He made no mention of the police, and

Story Toby Barrett, Austin Williams Photo Lars Ochs, Courtesy Ray Quezada

Brown noticed. The carhop told Brown that employees mention the police when teenagers are being loud or causing a commotion.

“That’s not what my son and his friends were accused of doing,” Brown said. “I have actually now seen the videotape and know that all they were doing was exactly what I observed the other kids to do. Standing outside their cars.”

Gicheru had been to that very Sonic in a group that was not solely Black only three days prior without being asked to leave.

“It was the same as every other time,” Gicheru said. “One of our friends had ordered food, so it wasn’t like we were just hanging around. Nothing was going on.”

That very night, May 29, protests prompted by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis had begun in Downtown Dallas. Henderson believes the role of police in Floyd’s death and modern incidents of over-policing made the situation more frightening.

“Especially with the times we are in now and what’s going on, even hearing the mention of cops is kind of scary,” Henderson said. “We weren’t doing anything wrong. We were just hanging out outside our cars.”

On June 7, protesters held a rally at the Sonic in objection to the racist treatment Gicheru, Henderson and their friends had experienced. Brown saw this as an opportunity to help her son and his friends

Trevor Gicheru Marlon henderson Senior

Senior

grow in the face of adversity.

“The rally was really amazing,” Brown said. “There was a sense of healing for the kids… we wanted to come up with a possibility of healing.”

Henderson remembers the rally in a positive light, but Gicheru and Henderson believe more change is needed, specifically with regards to education and understanding of the Black experience.

Gicheru is a member of the Student Advocacy Coalition of Dallas, a student-led organization founded with the intent to unite students across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in the pursuit of racial and cultural justice. He attends meetings and sees it as a great way to be an active supporter of Black initiative and maintain an opposition to racist problems.

“I feel like most of the issues surrounding race happen because people don’t know better,” Gicheru said. “It’s not because they hate a specific group of people. It’s just because some of them haven’t been educated.”

Henderson maintains the importance of empathy in interacting with victims of racism.

“Support your friends who are minorities going through situations like this,” Henderson said. “It helps you gain another perspective. That’s the main thing.

Understand the other person’s perspective and what they’re going through.”

For Brown, Sonic needs to change on a chain-wide scale.

“There’s a training piece they can implement,” Brown said. “There’s internal issues they likely should look at on the board level. They’re owned by a private equity company, which doesn’t appear to have any diversity. I think there’s lots of ways to attack this, and that can be overwhelming because it’s such a big issue.”

Sonic management issued a statement of apology in the week following the May 29 incident, highlighting specific measures to be taken in response to both the protests and to the wider national conversation.

“To that end, we are revising our policy to ensure the appropriate level of manager is involved in handling matters with our guests. We are also bolstering our training program to include consistent unconscious bias training, with a focus on the African American experience, as we foster a more inclusive environment for our team members and guests.”

Ultimately, as a community Brown wishes to see intentional social outreach among families of different backgrounds.

“I think there needs to be an effort among us as parents, particularly white parents, to engage in real relationships with families that don’t look like theirs,” Brown said. “Look at your friend groups as a parent.

If you have a pretty homogeneous group of friends, yet you’re so happy your school is diverse and has lots of students of color, then you’re not really demonstrating what you would implore your child to engage in.”

Working together, seniors Trevor Gicheru and Marlon Henderson, Greenhill students Zoe Purdy and MJ Ward, Booker T. Washington High School student Elle Grinnelle, Plano East Senior High School student Milan Patton and Parish Episcopal School student Evan Brown coordinated a protest outside of the Sonic at which they were discriminated against.

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the protesting students elected to keep the gathered crowd to a small number to lower the risk of spreading the disease. Instead, the students reached out to their communities asking families, classmates and friends to drive by to show support.

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Preparing the next generation It’s a challenge every parent of Black children must face — introducing their children to the hardships they will face solely because of the color of their skin.

Story Henry McElhaney, Morgan Chow Photos Courtesy Michael Sorrell

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arents of Black children in today’s world wonder what impact race will have on their child’s sense of belonging and their child’s sense of identity.

While gazing towards a hopeful tomorrow, parents of Black children must confront the problems of today; they will need to have difficult conversations.

Conversations about how other people may see their child’s skin color and perceive him or her as a threat.

Conversations about how their child should stay visible while in a store, so he or she won’t be mistaken for a thief.

Conversations about how their child shouldn’t play after dark, so he or she isn’t mistaken for a criminal.

––––

To Dr. Michael Sorrell, Paul Quinn College president, no parent can cover these complicated concepts with just a few talks.

As a father, he has always been having these conversations with his children.

“There is a level of explicitness that changes as [my children] grow older,” Sorrell, parent of fifth grader Michael Sorrell, said.

“It’s having to explain to them that there are some things you’re not going to be able to do because of your race, and Daddy and Mommy simply can’t take the chance because of what might happen to you. It’s how you manage the loss of one’s innocence.”

Sorrell says confrontations with the police are only a fraction of what he needs to discuss with his family, especially his children.

“I think one of the interesting pieces folks assume is that Black families have this one talk about how to deal with the police,” Sorrell said. “That’s just one small part of the larger talk of how to survive as a Black person in America.”

Sorrell says that’s the larger, more comprehensive discussion, because the amount of time anyone will engage with the police is probably low in comparison to everyday interactions.

“You have to navigate how society looks at you every day,” Sorrell said. “It’s a very Passing it down Michael Sorrell has had to choose how he introduces today’s challenging realities different challenge than for other parents. to his children and has had to help shape the attitude his children should confront them with.

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For us, we have to talk to our children about how forcefully to respond when someone calls you the n-word at school, because there’s no universe where that will ever be acceptable.”

‘Teaching my children to navigate being Black in a country like this one doesn’t make me un-American.’

– Michael Sorrell

Parents of Black children have to confront and converse about this reality, knowing the way they teach their children will shape how the new generation will view and tackle racial injustice.

“I was raised with a consciousness of what it is like to be Black in America, what it was going to be like to be a Black male in America, because my parents thought that was an important perspective for me to have,” Sorrell said.

Sorrell believes this consciousness he was raised with shares similarities with the consciousness embedded in Jewish families.

“One of the things people don’t know about me is my very first school was a Jewish day school inside of a temple near our home in Chicago,” Sorrell said. “From that time, I’ve just had a unique appreciation for the way in which many million Jewish families ensure that a cultural consciousness is embedded in their children. My mother, father, grandparents did the same thing for me in terms of my Black culture. What I really appreciate was that they did it without leaving me bitter.”

Sorrell says his parents taught him to move past bitter, hostile emotions. They taught him to hold his head high and not allow racism or his racial past to restrict him.

“They’ve done these things,” Sorrell said.

“They helped ensure that I had the ability to exist in a variety of environments and feel comfortable, feel at home.”

Sorrell, who spent the majority of his youth in predominantly white schools, learned to feel comfortable, even when some schools never offered a comfortable environment for Black students.

“From fifth through eighth grade, I went to a grammar school that did not get [its environment] right,” Sorrell said. “I then went to a high school where they got it right. They worked hard to try to get that right.”

Through parental teaching and guiding, Sorrell hopes to instill an inner strength in his children.

“I see my role as someone who teaches my son,” Sorrell said. “He must always stand up straight. Never apologize for who he is. Embrace his culture. Appreciate other people’s cultures, but never apologize for Role his. Be a voice for the models voiceless. Provide hope Sorrell for the hopeless.” and his Sorrell ties these wife, beliefs into teaching his Natalie, strive to children how to navigate serve as being Black in the United examples States. to guide “Teaching my their two children to navigate children, being black in a country Michael like this one doesn’t and Sage, make me un-American,” and help teach Sorrell said. “It doesn’t them make me radical. It’s fine how to to be proud of where you confront come from and who you issues are. Everyone should be. they may Doing so does not make face at a you any less American young than anyone else. It’s age. important to have the

ability and the right to tell the truth where it needs to be told. It doesn’t make you less of a team player. Maybe it makes you the best kind of team player because you’re someone who helps your team work by being honest.”

While Sorrell has had conversations in his own family, he encourages all families to have their own conversations about tackling deeply seeded racial issues in today’s America.

“People need to ask themselves, ‘do I really even care?’” Sorrell said. “Do you care beyond the surface level? Are you willing to take that next step to go from indifference to advocacy? How comfortable are you willing to become? Fundamentally, what are you willing to change?”

John Lewis: A generational leader Story Henry McElhaney

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he youngest speaker at the March on Washington.

Head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

As a Freedom Rider, protest leader and Congressman, John Lewis lived his life inspiring and motivating those around him. His stirring leadership transcended his generation. He advocated for the disadvantaged until his last day on Earth.

John Lewis passed away July 17 at the age of 80, but left a lasting legacy that will be remembered for generations.

The son of Alabama sharecroppers, Lewis attended segregated schools in the deep Jim Crow South. While at the American

Baptist Theological Institute and Fisk University, Lewis began studying nonviolent protest and participating in sit-ins at segregated public places.

In 1963, he was elected chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and held that position until 1966.

Lewis also played a vital role in the famous 1963 March on Washington.

Although only in his early 20s, Lewis became known as one of the “Big Six” — joining Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young as the leaders of the civil rights movement.

On March 7, 1965, Lewis helped lead one of the most famous marches in American history, guiding some 600 peaceful

demonstrators on a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL. While leaving Selma, they were confronted by state troopers, deputies and deputized “posse men” armed with riot gear who had been ordered

by Alabama’s governor to “take whatever means necessary” to stop the march. Lewis suffered a fractured skull in the conflict.

Lewis entered an elective office as an Atlanta city councilman in 1981 and became a U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district in 1987 and served until his death.

On the day of Lewis’s funeral, per his request, The New York Times published an essay in which Lewis advocated for the Black Lives Matter movement and offered advice to future activists and lobbyists.

Accolades Lewis‘s life work was recognized by Former President Barack Obama when Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Lewis was also featured on the cover of an August 2020 issue of Time magazine.

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living black in america

The Black experience in America is vastly different to that of other races. But how different? We sit down with members of our community to hear their thoughts.

Interviews SeMaj Musco, Luke Piazza

After recounting old memories and checking in on everyone’s quarantine beards, Black students, faculty, staff and alumni sat down to share their experiences and opinions on important topics like national pride, police brutality, systemic racism, cultural appreciation, school experiences and more.

samuel eluemunoh Junior

On national pride

“My parents are from Nigeria originally, and I’m a first-gen American in my family; I look forward to the future. From what’s going on right now, it is upsetting. It is. It is discouraging to be proud of your nation, but at the same time I look at it like this: “We’re in a bad time now, and although a lot of people are starting to see and hear us, still a lot more people are coming up and starting to disagree with us. But at the same time, you do see people are trying to understand that there should be progress made in multiple areas. And it’s not about being proud. It’s more being hopeful for the future of the country.”

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Marwin brown Class of 1990

On racism in America

“I got arrested for trespassing, and apparently trespassing looked like me showing up at the neighborhood park pool. So the police came and asked me questions. I was scared. I was in eighth grade. They took me to jail, gave me a citation. I ended up having to go to court.

“I had a St. Mark’s t-shirt on when I went to court. There are people there for assault, felonies, some real hard crimes. I’m there with my grandmother, and the judge called me up and said, ‘So where do you go to school?’ I say, ‘I go to this school called St. Mark’s.’ The judge looks at the bailiff or whoever and is like, ‘Get this kid out of my court.’ Just on the reputation of the school. That’s the only thing like that that I had that kept me out of the system.”

Enoch ellis Junior class president

On making real change

“I’m just concerned with people saying they’re for the movement, but then they’re not actually doing anything. You look at all these companies saying we’re changing this and that, and sure some of that I understand, but some of that nobody asked for.

“Even when George Floyd got killed I was concerned from the start that it was gonna die over and we’re not going to see any real change come from this. We need to put the focus where it really needs to be.

Actually start the conversations, actually start doing things now instead of just saying, ‘I’m pro-Black Lives Matter, I support the movement, I’m your ally.’ Okay, so what are you going to do?”

moving forward

‘

Director of Human Resources Lorre Allen and Zach Gilstrap ‘18 give their thoughts on how the school should bring racial issues into its education.

I’ve been in St. Mark’s for three years, and I’ve done a lot of work in the area of pushing out our available postings to groups that probably never have thought about St. Mark’s in their career opportunity searches, meaning sending it out to organizations that specifically are for people of color. So I say don’t give up.

Hang in there, I’m working on it.

Director of Human Resources I’ve been in the inclusion diversity work for such a long time. And what I’ve noticed is that when you split off the conversation, there’s something lost in that. So having an inclusive conversation creates opportunities, and that’s what I see.

So I ask that you think about that as you decide the path you want to go, because we need everyone at the table, having a conversation. If it’s just us, can we move forward just by ourselves. And if we can’t, then we’ve got to have someone else at the table and who is there someone else.

I’m looking for someone that’s going to be there and partner with me to move forward. Because you can have an environment of people of color, but if they don’t feel included in that culture, in that environment where they are, then it’s for naught.

So having that inclusivity and understanding what that means and creating a culture where people feel included is just as important as having the peace of having diversity, having people of color coming into the school. Because if they come into the school and they’re not happy because of the environment, then they will leave and go somewhere else, and then we’re starting all over again.

It’s building an environment for students or faculty or staff that we need to do. That’s the piece that I am working on. I hear you, and I’m going to take your voices with me as I continue to do this work to get a broader diverse applicant pool.’

Lorre allen

Korey mack

Admissions Officer and Class of 2000

On proper policing

“I’m actually a volunteer in patrol, and I deal with our neighborhood police officer on a weekly basis. He comes and gives us crime stats in our neighborhood.

“I really have a lot of respect for Officer Lamar Glass. He went to Skyline [High School], grew up in the neighborhood. But he’s an anomaly. He’s a police officer doing this in the community he grew up in, and building relationships with the community is very important to him. I wish he weren’t the anomaly.”

ronald turner Athletic Equipment Manager

On protests over time

“Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I saw the movement. I didn’t experience any protests, but I saw the movement. I remember Dr. King, Malcolm, Reverend Pete George Allen here in Dallas.

“I experienced all of that, and the same thing that they were striving for then is what we’re doing now, but it takes difficult conversations to realize that equality isn’t here. I don’t applaud all the rioting, but I applaud the movement, the people out there protesting. I hope I live to see change, I really do.”

‘

On helping boys grow into men, I feel like you can’t do that fully and in good faith if you’re not showing up for St. Mark’s boys in all ways.

The administration feels as though St. Mark’s is a level playing field, and it is in many ways because we’re all getting the same education. You have to impress all facets of our experience.

There are still many, many, many, many factors that make St. Mark’s a lot harder for certain people than it is for others, and you can’t fully say Class of 2018 you’re fulfilling this mission statement without addressing and listening to the complaints and the stories of Black students at St. Mark’s.

I think that the school needs to care more about how are we serving our boys, how are we serving our students, how we’re making sure that they have good role models, how are we making sure that they feel comfortable in their own skin. How do we ensure that, and how do we also take into account not only the academic success but the mental health of our students. I can speak from my experience of coming to St. Mark’s in the sixth grade when I went to public schools beforehand. It was a completely different experience. There was an onslaught of people making fun of me because of my economic and my racial background.

I don’t know how exactly you can fix it, but I feel like that has to be something that the school can at least acknowledge and address and talk about. And I feel like if you start from there, at least just from the administration saying, ‘Okay, this is a problem, and we need to do something as a community to fix it,’ something good will come of it. We are obviously there to get a great education, but there needs to be some sort of acknowledgement and some space where black students and other students of color feel comfortable to say, ‘I may or may not feel comfortable with this, and I want my community to address it.

zach gilstrap

Anthony Andrews Class of 2020

On current tensions

“I have a best friend, Paxton Scott, who lives across the street from the police station, so I’m down there a lot. I went down there during the protests, and as I was leaving, his mom said she would watch me as I drove away. She even offered to drive with me.

“I felt like that spoke volumes about the time that we’re living in right now, that I can’t even drive down a street maybe a mile long and feel safe.”

Trevor Gicheru Senior

On local support

“In the midst of all the riots going on, I actually had a couple of classmates reach out to me and ask, ‘What are some things I can do to help with the issue of racism in our school,’ and I was impressed because that’s something that I didn’t really expect to have come out of this.

“The fact that there were people who reached out to me that I wouldn’t expect to reach out to me before about asking how they can help, I thought that was impressive, and it made me hopeful.”

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Bigger than basketball

Moving society along Surrounded by hundreds of protestors fighting for racial justice after the death of George Floyd, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban walks the streets of downtown Dallas alongside his players May 31.

Cuban and the Mavericks organization as a whole have continued their push for social justice at the NBA’s Restart in Orlando, which began July 30.

Mark Cuban utilizes his platform as one of sports most influential owners to push for social change and combat racial inequality.

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eptember 2017.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban publicly expresses his desire for his players to stand, hand over heart, for the National Anthem before tipoff.

Fast forward three years later.

Now, he’s protesting alongside his players, immersed in crowds of hundreds of people, standing in solidarity against the systemic oppression the Black community feels each and every single day in this country.

Now, he’s encouraging his players to kneel for the Anthem, even hoping to be right there with them on the court.

Now, he’s tweeting that the “National Anthem Police in this country are out of control.”

Such a dramatic shift in his stance on the nation’s anthem coincides with all that has transpired in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and many others.

–––– Mask on, Cuban –– along with Mavericks Dwight Powell, Maxi Kleber, Jalen Brunson and Justin Jackson –– walked the streets of downtown Dallas May 31 to protest the institutional racism plaguing America today.

While the vast majority of professional sports owners released a statement condemning racism, Cuban felt a responsibility to back up his words with action, choosing to protest alongside his players.

“The Mavs are a part of the North Texas community,” Cuban wrote to Focus in an email interview. “When the community feels pain, we want to be part of the process to start the healing and help where we can. This wasn’t just about being involved in protests but more importantly about creating solutions that we can offer to those in need.”

As many view the NBA’s Restart at Disney as a strong platform to push for social change, Cuban and the Mavericks organization are fully supportive of any statement a Maverick player chooses to make.

After the NBA announced it would allow players to wear a statement on social justice on the back of their jerseys, the Mavericks opted for a single, unified message: each player is wearing “Equality” in lieu of his last name while in Orlando.

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“The NBA will have control of all messaging in Orlando,” Cuban wrote. “That said, we fully support our players’ ability to use their first amendment right to stand up for what they believe in.”

‘I always try to learn. Over the last three years, I’ve learned much more about the Black experience and systemic racism in America. That led me to change my perspective [on the National Anthem].’

– Mark Cuban

Twenty years into his tenure as an owner in the NBA –– a league whose player pool is around 80% Black –– Cuban is still making a concerted effort to better understand Black culture along with the challenges of being Black in the United States today to help strengthen his relationships with Black Mavericks players.

Simply put, Cuban believes the same approach should be applied here at 10600 Preston Rd.

“I listen,” Cuban, whose son Jake is in fifth-grade here, wrote. “I try to talk to our players privately and hear their personal stories. I think St. Mark’s should enable their students to not just do community outreach but truly listen to the experiences of their Black peers to truly come to understand how their lives are different.”

Cuban, understanding that white people will be counted on to evolve for tangible social change to occur, believes the school needs to openly welcome more conversations about race.

“White people are not comfortable talking about race,” Cuban wrote. “There should be conversations among students about how the Black experience in America is vastly different than it is for whites and how white people can recognize and change the systemic racism that Black people face. We need to teach our white students to ‘see something, say something’ when it comes to even the most subtle racism. I think kids at St. Mark’s can truly be leaders in this area.”

Story William Aniol, Peter Orsak Photo Courtesy Miles Hearne

Uncomfortable Conversations With A black man

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hree months ago, Emmanuel Acho ’08 was simply a sports analyst.

As a retired NFL linebacker, he chose to take the route of sports media as many former professional athletes do. Growing up here in Dallas, Acho was one of few Black students on campus. He heard time and time again, ‘you talk like you’re white’ or ‘you’re pretty smart for a Black guy.’

Because Acho was surrounded by both Black communities at home as well as predominantly white communities at school, he was uniquely prepared to be a voice for racial justice during this trying time. Combine that with his platform as a former professional athlete, and now, Acho is educating millions of Americans on the persisting systemic racism in the United States through his “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” video series.

Acho’s first episode, in which he addresses how white people can be a part of the solution, caught the nation by storm, reeling in nearly 28 million views across all platforms.

‘

In order to stand with us, and people that look like me, you have to be educated on issues that pertain to me, and fully educated so you can feel the full level of pain.

If the white person is your problem, only the white person can be your solution.

[People] need to say ‘you know what, maybe I’m a part of the problem. Maybe I can fix this issue not just by being not racist but by being anti-racist.’

We understand all lives matter, but right now Black people are dying at the hands of white people, and I can’t change that.

Only you, my white friends, can change that.

Throughout his episodes, Acho has included a variety of outside voices from a wide-range of backgrounds and experiences, namely actor Matthew McConaughey, NHL defenseman P. K. Subban and HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines. Alongside these collaborations, Acho has partnered with TV host and billionaire Oprah Winfrey on continuing the conversation through a book deal, including two titles: “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” and “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy.” In addition, Acho appeared on The Oprah Conversation, Good Morning America and Late Show with Stephen Colbert, among others.

Although Acho recently landed a hosting position on Fox Sports’ Speak For Yourself, continuing to share his opinions and analysis on sports’ biggest storylines, he has undoubtedly risen to a position of influence greater than that of his previous role as just a sports analyst –– he is now a voice for the unheard.

White privilege is having a head start of hundreds and hundreds of years due to systematic and systemic racism.

I navigate America as a visitor, whereas for white people, it’s home.

If we truly want to bring forth change it starts not only with you and I, but it’s also about the next generation.

Don’t feel guilty, just acknowledge.

And so what can white people do to help?

Understand what Black men and Black women are going through and help alleviate some of our pain.

Emmanuel Acho ’08 3 39 Focus Right Here

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COMMENTARY

Senior Editor SeMaj Musco and the Focus staff reckon with personal and institutional approaches to racial equity.

AMERICA TO ME s

ince I was around five years old I remember every year around my birthday and Christmas I would get the Toys R Us and Target toy books, and I would always beg my parents for a Nerf gun.

My friends have them, why can’t I get one?

I remember asking this question multiple times over the years. I never understood why she was so adamant in her denial to allow me to buy one.

In 2014 I found out why.

On Nov. 22, 2014, Tamir Rice was killed by a police officer less than 2 seconds upon the officer’s arrival. His crime? Playing with a friend’s airsoft gun. Rice was 12.

I was 12. The moment I heard about the shooting and saw the video I was mortified. I easily could have been in the same situation.

Trayvon Martin had already happened two years prior, so I had been wary of police and the legal system’s not protecting people who look like me. This case was especially difficult for me because this kid was a middle schooler, just like me.

For the past eight years, this is the fear I have had to live with. Over the course of my short 17 years on this planet, I have seen Trayvon Martin killed by a man cosplaying as a police officer and getting away with it.

I have seen Tamir Rice killed by a police officer within 2 seconds of the officer arriving at the scene.

I have seen Eric Garner choked to death while telling the officers he can’t breathe.

I have seen Michael Brown shot and killed by police who then left his dead body in the street for four hours.

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I have seen Laquan McDonald have 16 shots sent through his body in 13 seconds and then have the Chicago Police Department attempting to lie about and cover-up his murder.

I have seen Alton Sterling shot five times at close range while being pinned down.

I have seen Philando Castile killed while in the car with his girlfriend and daughter in the car.

I have seen Sandra Bland die while in police custody.

I have seen Walter Scott killed after the officer pulled him over for a broken tail light.

In my own city, I have seen Botham Jean killed in his own home while eating ice cream.

I have seen Ahmaud Aubrey killed while jogging and it taking the police over a month to arrest the men.

I have seen Breonna Taylor killed in a botched drug raid at the wrong location of a man who was already in custody. Four months later, her killers still haven’t been arrested.

I have seen George Floyd killed in Minneapolis while gasping, “I can’t breathe” and crying for his deceased mother, while an officer nonchalantly kept a knee on his neck with bystanders yelling that he can’t breathe.

This isn’t even considering the instances of police brutality I have seen that didn’t end fatally.

For the majority of people reading this, these are events and fears that you will never have to live with that I and people who look like me live with daily.

You will never worry about driving and being stopped simply because you “fit the

description.”

You will never send your son out to play and worry if he will make it home safely.

You will never drive and worry about losing your life over something as simple as a broken taillight.

You will never tell the people around you to call your family before the police if you need help.

You will never worry about someone saying you look suspicious while waiting for your parents after an away game.

You will never feel terror driving through Senior Editor a city full of the rebel flags of people who wanted to enslave you while insisting you were sub-human.

You will never have to think that if an officer were to see your son with a toy gun, he might consider him a threat. And you will never have to see a fellow 12-year-old murdered by someone who took an oath to protect and serve and realize that regardless of what you do, because your skin is darker, you will always be seen as a threat.

SEMAJ MUSCO

OPINION SeMaj Musco

Editorial

SOLID APPROACHes TO RACE ON CAMPUS NATIONAL DISCUSSIONS on the stubborn

continuity of racism and bigotry, especially toward Black Americans, have generated needed conversations on issues of race in the United States. The St. Mark’s community –– diverse in race, ethnicity, ideology and socioeconomic background –– deserves to participate in these active and honest conversations, and its diversity affects the ethos of the school and its students for the better.

We commend several specific actions taken by the school in recent weeks, months, years and decades to facilitate diversity in the student body and to reject and expunge the ideological immorality of racism from the school. These actions include statements by the administration to assert the school’s mission of inclusivity, directives by the administration and admissions office to diversify the student body, and movements by students to repulse bigotry wherever it exists.

We understand that there is always room for improvement and respect those who speak up. But we felt it was also right to acknowledge areas where the school has succeeded.

Goals for St. Mark’s IV, the fourth statement of specific objectives for the school adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2017, continues the mission of administrations in the last several decades to transform the school from a place with only one student of color in 1965 to more than 400 –– 46 percent of the student population –– in 2020. In the span of a half century, this noticed change has led the school distinctly away from an archetypal image of a segregated private school for white students to a community that looks more like the country, a microcosm of our nation’s valued diversity.

But among the school’s objectives is the expansion of its resources to accommodate qualified students in diverse backgrounds not only in terms of race but also in terms of socioeconomics: according to Goals IV, the school aims to “[i]ncrease the available financial aid budget by at least fifty percent above current levels to support a greater number of students and families.” We likewise commend the school’s directive to expand access to a St. Mark’s education to students across the socioeconomic gamut.

Now is not the first time in recent memory the school has been confronted with a national issue regarding race.

While the echo of white nationalist Richard Spencer ’97 remains in our minds, the swift and strong “reject[ion of] racism and bigotry in all its forms and expressions,” as pronounced in a resolute statement by the school in the midst of the 2016 incident, gives us all the more reason to take pride in our institution.

Furthermore, the Class of 1997’s remarkable response to reaffirm the school as a place that denies Spencer’s xenophobia and to raise funds for financial assistance for refugees well represents the attitudes of the student body both before and since that moment. Among the greatest gifts of a St. Mark’s education –– higher than excellent study habits or writing skills –– is the ethical instruction to actively renounce racism, bigotry and immorality wherever we may find it in our lives.

The decisions and actions made by the school in response to our national issue of race show a thoughtful and appreciated care and concern for these most dominating issues in our country today, and we laud the school’s rejection of bigotry and its embrace of diversity.

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What’s next?

The death of Civil Rights icon John Lewis reminded us how different the United States looked in the 1960s.

Before Lee Smith ’65, the school’s first Black graduate, came to St. Mark’s, he lived in a Black neighborhood and attended a Black school. He was not allowed in many restaurants, movie theaters and stores.

As a senior here, Smith faced racism from classmates and parents, having to be sent home multiple times throughout the year over safety concerns.

Fast forward to today, where the country finds itself in the midst of one of the biggest American civil rights movements of our generation. This movement is far from over.

But how will these pleas for change manifest themselves?

Well, it’s already starting.

On Aug. 11, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first Black woman on a major party ticket. The NFL team in Washington D.C. officially changed its once-controversial name to the Washington Football Team, marking the end of a decades long debate.

Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Land O’ Lakes butter and other brands are changing their logos over concerns of racial stereotyping.

And the state of Mississippi is currently in the process of changing its state flag to remove symbols of the Confederacy.

Furthermore, city governments across the country are working to reform their police departments, lowering funding and changing rules and regulations.

What a long way this country has come.

But what a long journey ahead it still has.

Because Lewis’s fight for racial equality has not ended. His death was also a reminder that there is still unfinished work. There is still change to be made — individually, collectively and nationally.

As we enter an unprecedented era in America’s storied history, only time will tell what the effects of this movement will be.

But we do know one thing — they will be profound.

Cristian Pereira Editor-in-chief

ARTWORK Cooper Cole 42

From the editor Focus

Ahmaud Arbery, 1994-2020