Last Tuesday we had a great introduction to the new Newman policy of seniors being able to present on subjects they feel strongly about. Alexis and Kayshira presented on their reasons for raising their fists during the national anthem during football games. You all saw the assembly so I will quickly goo over the main points. They gave the reasons for protesting (high incarceration rates and therefore an inability to vote in African American communities, and the racist past of the national anthem), the way in which they protest and the symbolism involved in it (raised fist for solidarity, hand over heart for respect to soldiers, and interlinked fingers to represent unity), and they finally ended with a call for everyone to come to the forum during lunch whether they agreed or disagreed. Many people did indeed disagree with the assembly, on the way out alone I heard one person call it “retarded”, and another student complain about the validity of them using conviction statistics in the presentation.
Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, no one at the lunchtime forum expressed disagreement with the ideas presented in the assembly. The forum was very interesting and covered not only the assembly but also a wide variety of topics, I will talk about some of the highlights here. A very interesting idea that came up was the distinction between “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter”, or “Blue Lives Matter”. A student pointed out how the idea of “All/Blue Lives Matter” would be ok if it wasn’t in response to “Black Lives Matter”. She stated nothing is inherently wrong with all lives matter, it is only wrong if it is used to take away from the message of Black Lives Matter. Another fascinating part of the forum was when Dr. Hermann talked about his thoughts on the assembly. Many of you may not know this but Dr. Hermann served in the military, and he believes that their protest is the best way to do it. He stated he fought for rights such as freedom of speech specifically so people would be able to express disagreement with their situation and try to make America better. The forum ended with a slightly troubling idea. The only people who attended the forum were the same people who stood and clapped during the assembly, who go to social justice club, and who already agree with the ideas presented. The student was wondering how we can actually make a difference if the only people who want to learn more are the ones who already believe it. Alexis conceded that this a very difficult question, but she said go out and discuss these ideas with people, confront them if they do something problematic, and try to contribute to your community.
After the forum I talked to Alexis and asked if there was anything specific she wanted me to include in the article. She gave me this list:
– Just because it’s not your lived experience doesn’t mean certain civil issues don’t exist.
-Healthy disagreement is good, but being disrespectful and arrogant about one’s opinions only feeds into some of the issues mentioned (like privilege) and gets no one anywhere. People need to be able to listen and respect other’s perspectives without jumping to defense all the time, especially with a topic as personal and sensitive as social justice. Our goal is to make people understand NOT agree. Our protest is our choice and no one else’s.
– We can’t stand for a country that has NEVER stood for us (i.e. People/women of color) and we won’t support America until it truly represents what it has promised in the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Constitution, the Amendments, etc. We don’t hate the country, we hate what’s going on within the country and want the country to grow and become better. Shouldn’t every true “patriot” want their country to be the best it can be?
-Ignorance is at the root of a lot of misunderstanding or straight up rudeness that we’ve experienced. The more we (and others) can educate on why these issues are prevalent in our country, city, and school, the farther we’ll get.

Overall the assembly and forum were both very enlightening and led to interesting discussions. I set out to make this article as unbiased as possible but since no one at the forum disagreed that was pretty difficult. If you disagree with anything in this article or felt it was one sided you should have come to the lunchtime forum and talked about your conflicting ideas.