2010
Forum
5
West Linn oblivious to racism; it's time to acknowledge discrimination
K iandra A lexander
G uest editorial
In such a privileged
town as West Linn, it seems
unheard of that any students
would be discriminated
against in any way With the
limited amount of diversity
in this school it's very
obvious that the average
student doesn't comprehend
that there is real racism
going on in such a fortunate
environment.
Attending this school for
just a year, I've been through
numerous incidences of
discrimination, whether it
was in sports or just rude
jokes referring to the color
of my skin. In class, we
watched a video called "A
Class Divided" and one of
the people stated that there
were very few times in his
life he was ever discriminated
against. This really stuck
with me because I wish I
could make that statement.
But, sadly at my school that's
not the truth. Over time
I've found that the students
of West Linn High seem to
be pretty oblivious when it
comes to the truth of racism in
our school.
Our school is without a
doubt beautiful. It has new
gyms, weight rooms, and
tennis courts, an auditorium
that any performer would
envy, new baseball and
softball fields and, of course,
new classrooms with all new
equipment. Everyone here is
beyond privileged.
Besides the actual school,
the majority of people living
in West Linn have abundant
wealth. Their value and
self worth comes from
their jobs, cars and the area
where they live. Morals and
integrity aren't a big priority
in this town. I believe that
the environment seems so
"perfect," that the residents
act as if something as harsh as
racism couldn't and wouldn't
occur here.
When you enter the
buildings of West Linn High
School, you look around in
amazement at how beautiful
everything is. As you start
to walk past the students
and hear a few of the
conversations about going to
go smoke weed after school
and party this weekend. They
don't seem to match up to
Twitter "tweets" waste time, naive way to communicate
E mily M c D onald
The internet seems to be
one of the only ways that kids
communicate via technology
these days — it is extremely
Many students spend their
breaks and lunch periods
at school on their Facebook
accounts, constantly updating
their status, adding friends
and playing games.
happening in your world,
make friends with people
you don’t even know, or keep
people posted on useless
information about what you
may be doing at that exact
moment.
If you have a Facebook
account, chances are that
you have quite a few friends.
Go on, check how many
you have. Right, 312. Maybe
more? Now, how many of
those people do you hang out
w ith o n a re g u la r b asis? H o w
Photo courtesy Twitter
Twitter, a blogging site, is among some of the most popular places
to chat with friends. Eighty percent of students at WLHS do not use
Twitter at all; instead they spend time on the ever-growing Facebook.
fast and effective. Facebook
is one of the most popular
methods, along with others
like Myspace and texting.
■
■
m
i
Another form of
*
communication, Twitter is
a blog site on which you
can "tweet" about what is
many of them do you hang
out with at all? How many do
you even know personally?
Twitter is very similar to a
site like Facebook or Myspace,
people make lots of "friends"
whether they are friends with
them in real life or not. Don’t
get me wrong, having lots
and lots of friends is great,
but I think talking to them
personally is much more
effective.
Tiiiller________________ /
continued on page 16
"standards" of our school.
This kind of talk and behavior
does not seem like "Lion
Pride." But you ignore it and
move along to your classes.
This is where you will
start to notice the students'
true feelings and their views
towards people of a different
race. Being half black and
half white, I never really felt
"black," as people here would
call it, until I came to the high
school. Nobody in middle
school seemed to comment
on the color of my skin, but in
high school for some reason,
it seems to be all they see. I've
never felt so discriminated
against as I do at such a
"privileged" school.
My name is Kiandra, but
people call me Kiki, and
because it starts with a K, I get
called "KKK" every day by a
boy in my class. People have
started conversations with me
by saying "what's up nig or
hey, blacky." The comments
some of these kids say are so
offensive to me, like when
they say "damn you got some
ghetto booty” or "damn she
can jump....obviously, she's
BLACK."
I have friends who have a
personal joke in which they
say "negro please!" One of
my friends said to me, "you
only like him because he's
the only other black person
because of a certain "belief"
about the black people. It's
like being black comes with
an automatic judgment. The
sad part is that they think
it's not hurtful. Although
West Linn seems to ignore it,
discrimination occurs here
on a daily basis and in more
ways than one.
The weird part to me is that
people are being taught that
racism is wrong, and yet, still
do things that are so racist and
offensive. The insensitivity of
these people is so frustrating
to me. There's no reason they
need to talk this way, even to
be funny, when they have no
idea what it feels like to be
discriminated against.
We watched a video called
"A Class Divided" where
the students were separated
because of eye color to show
them what discrimination
feels like. I was so angry when
my classmates said there's no
point in teaching about racism
in schools because if you don't
show kids discrimination,
then they won’t practice it
and it won’t exist. Though
the kids in my school have
been taught that racism and
discrimination are wrong,
they obviously don't believe it
because their actions say that
it's okay to make someone feel
different and like an outsider
because of their skin color.
in this s ch o o l." I d o n 't ev en
The naïveté that racism
doesn't exist in West Linn
understand how they can
say these things to me when
I myself barely see myself as
"black."
This is like in the
documentary called "Prom
Night In Mississippi," where
the students at a school in
Mississippi had separate
proms all
hurts us all. We need
to realize that racism is
happening in our classrooms,
in our hallways and in our
community. First, we need to
acknowledge that it exists—
here. Second, we need to talk
about it honestly. Third, we
need to educate ourselves.
And, finally, we need
to stop it.
STUDENTS
n Kûûn io
yruwii
is our
school?
"Compared to other schools
we are doing pretty well,
but we can do better."
—Megan Wakefield,
freshman
"I think our school is
doing a lot better than
it was before. I think we
are making progress.”
—Bryan Steele,
sophomore
"We are trying our best
but a lot of kids would
rather throw away
rather than recycle.
We are one of the only
schools in Oregon with
solar panels."
—Benjamin Martin,
junior
"I think we are doing
the best we can and
eventually I hope the
700 building will be
turned green.”
—Britney Parker,
senior