Thanks to West Seattle High School teacher Rebecka McKinney for another update on the WSHS Diversity Club, which closed out this pre-spring-break week with a workshop for classmates schoolwide:
The West Seattle High School Diversity Club taught workshops in every language arts class Friday, April 10 on racism, bias and privilege.
The workshops went through why this is important work as a part of the Diversity Club’s #embRACEtheRACE campaign to build understanding and capacity for anti-racist efforts at WSHS. They shared the history of race as a social construct and what the concept of race means in this country.
“I feel like more people are thinking about racism and that’s what matters, they’re thinking about it instead of just ignoring it,” said senior facilitator and Diversity Club member Jahine Wallace.
Next, the club used a well-known game to teach a lesson on privilege and why people need to recognize when they have it and help those who have less.
“I felt that it was great because people were actually engaging and participating,” said senior facilitator and Diversity Club member Essence Cassell. “I felt like they learned a lot and they’ve been listening all year.”
After that the workshops covered different types of racism, individual, institutional, and structural racism along with implicit bias. They talked about what each of these are as well as examples of each.
“It was a work in progress, but successful,” said junior facilitator and Diversity Club member Larenn Dixon. “I feel like a lot of people have more understanding than they did before and it opened people’s eyes to more than just individual racism, but institutional and structural.”
Next the workshop had students go through a scenario on racism in education that the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative developed last year for the RACE workshops that went with the Science Center’s exhibit.
“People actually spoke about racism and didn’t feel as uncomfortable,” said junior facilitator and Diversity Club member Analisa Guerra.
The Diversity Club has done several things this year as a part of their #embRACEtheRACE campaign. They led a challenge to erase the n-word that was featured on KING 5 with a video to kick off the challenge on YouTube and time at class assemblies. They have also taught the school about police brutality against people of color through the school’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assembly.
“I hope more people are aware that racism is a real thing and not just a Diversity Club thing,” said senior facilitator and Diversity Club member Aby Riggins.
The Diversity Club meets twice a week and planned these workshops in response to the walkout that happened after the Michael Brown verdict. The workshops ended with suggestions for how to take action for racial equity.
“I hope people know the different types of racism and know that implicit bias isn’t their fault,” said junior facilitator and Diversity Club member Eryn Johnson. “I hope people at WSHS understand that racism still does exist and that it’s not just a black people’s problem.”
Last month, we featured the Diversity Dinner presented annually by the club – their biggest one yet.
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