As the sun glared in her eyes, 2020 East alum Olive Henry unclenched her hands to adjust the microphone and scanned her carefully typed speech. She could barely see the hundreds of people at the Prairie Village Black Lives Matter Peaceful Rally beneath the cardboard signs with handwritten messages of “No Justice, No Peace” and “Hate is for the Weak.” She finally had the chance to speak her truth — to say the words her East classmates would’ve brushed off as complaints. She was used to being ignored.
More than ever, Henry wanted people to listen. She wanted them to understand what it was like to be titled “the angry Black girl” on her debate score sheet or have the N-word shouted from across the hall during passing period. She wanted them to see her anger. Her fight. Her pride in her heritage.
While calling out the police for silencing the Black community, roars of agreement and a burst of applause forced her to look up. She finally saw the faces beyond the signs. Her friends sat in the front row to her right, and former teachers nodding in agreement dotted the crowd. Allies surrounded her — white, Black, Hispanic, Asian. All listening.
“It was a turning point,” Henry said. “There were people I knew who came and who spoke to me about what I said afterward. It alleviated a lot of the sense of isolation I had.”
For the first time, Henry felt supported as a student of color by the white members of the East community. Henry, along with some other East students and Prairie Village community members, believe this support is a direct result of the Black Lives Matter movement, which prompted higher support for social awareness and inclusion within the community.
English teacher and Race Project KC coordinator Samantha Feinberg believes that the main result of the BLM movement is the inclusive energy it has created at East, especially through clubs and in the halls. A “Don’t Touch my Hair” poster, flyers advertising clubs like Race Project KC and a floor-to-ceiling periodic table highlighting 90 successful Black figures now plaster the walls.
The participant demographics of race-related organizations at East have also changed, according to Feinberg. In the past, Race Project KC consisted of all Black students. However, this year, nine of the 15 members are white. Feinberg has noticed more white students joining clubs and increasing participation in programs like Youth Equity Stewardship and DEI, as well as higher support among white faculty members.
“We’ve gotten a lot more attention and interest,” Feinberg said. “I think when people realize the movement was grounded in something bigger than just East, people at East said, ‘Wow, in my own school, I have a chance to connect with that movement if I choose to.’”
Junior Afa Akanwanka has felt this support. During his freshman year, Akwanka experienced racism heavily at East — comments of “Where did Afa go?” when the lights went out and the constant pestering of students asking to touch his hair were daily occurrences.
When Akwanka came back to East after a year of fully-remote school, things weren’t perfect, but they were better. He saw programs like Coalition of Racial Equality being advertised by teachers. The microaggressions stopped. He received texts asking if he was safe, well wishes for his family and apologies from friends and strangers for their actions prior to the movement. He saw how far East had come as a student body.
“It gave me hope,” Akwanka said.
Both Feinberg and Akwanka have also noticed greater advocacy at East after the 2020 summer protest. Even if it was simply adding Instagram posts that advocated for social justice to their stories or confronting peers over racist comments, it was clear that allyship was spreading.
Associate Principal Dr. Susan Leonard sees this change in students’ mindsets and feels East as a whole has become more inclusive. Instead of acting defensive after being called out for racist comments or actions, Leonard has noticed a new open-mindedness to conversations about how they can do better in the future — regardless of intention.
“Students feel like they have a role now,” Leonard said. “It’s opened up [thoughts of], ‘What are those action steps we can do?’ and how important it is to see things from a different point of view. The thing that I think is different is a lot more people are voicing it because we know what a microaggression is now, and we’re more aware.”
Beyond East, junior Gigi Smith has seen efforts to include all races within the community. She no longer has to drive to far-away stores for foundation or concealer that match her skin tone. She sees Black models in the media, movies with interracial romances and Black actors playing a variety of roles rather than the stereotypical sassy girl or athletic boy. She feels more included in the simplest of daily events that many white peers take for granted.
According to Feinberg, the continuing rise in the BLM movement was necessary to open East students’ eyes to the lack of social awareness and power of their words.
“When Black Lives Matter came to the forefront with George Floyd, it was like the curtains on a stage opened,” Feinberg said. “All these people finally had a platform and an audience for people who wanted to hear what they had to say. [People] raised their consciousness, learned, grew and considered something from a different perspective.”
Then-second-grader Gigi Smith walked into her classroom with straightened hair, a “don’t-be-afraid” mindset and a wide smile on her first day at Tomahawk Elementary School. She just wanted to “fit in” with her white classmates. Still, the boy sitting at the desk next to her stared.
“Are you the type of person who wears a scarf over your head?”
Smith was speechless. She wasn’t even Muslim.
Nobody would’ve asked that at Académie Lafayette, her previous, more diverse school where she never felt judged for her skin color. Looking around the class of 20 or so kids, she was suddenly aware that she was the only student with dark skin. That uneducated remark from the boy was the first of many she’d receive over the next several years as a biracial student.
“You think that you wouldn’t really remember stuff [from] first grade or second grade,” Smith said. “But [that has] still stuck with me to this day. People look at you like you’re crazy when you walk around and you’re not white.”
Nine years, a nationwide movement, violent protests and a slew of police brutality trials later, now-junior Smith still experiences these ignorant comments and wide-eyed glares from students and faculty while walking through the halls of East. The only difference is that in high school, people should know better.
Smith believes that while the Black Lives Matter movement improved social awareness and advocacy, the movement hasn’t significantly changed all the stigmas, attitudes and microaggressions they experience at East. In an Instagram poll of 195 students, 66% stated they’ve seen or experienced some form of racism at East this year.
For junior Brayden Reynolds, racism comes in the form of strange looks, small jokes and “dark humor” from boys in his grade. On good days, he gets asked if he wants fried chicken, where his dad is or if he stole anything when leaving the grocery store. Some days are worse. Soon after George Floyd died, people told Reynolds to watch where he was walking so he didn’t get shot. Students came up to him and said “I can’t breathe,” then laughed. He was shocked.
He still hears comments like these three to four times a day.
Similar comments follow freshman Kiara Cloughley, who never experienced East pre-BLM movement. As the only Black person in her friend group, Cloughley always thinks about her skin color before she speaks. Or braids her hair. Or paints her nails. Or applies makeup.
Do I look ghetto?
One of her Black friends wore her hair naturally once and someone told her, “Gross, you should hide that, it’s too big.” Now that friend wears wigs, braids and bonnets — even though some of her friends still call her “ghetto” for it.
Cloughley says she hasn’t experienced outright racism, but it gets to her when she sees her friends treated that way.
“If they’re saying that about another Black person, then what are they saying about me?” Cloughley said.
And it’s not just mistreatment from students. She came to class one time in a bad mood, complaining that she didn’t want to read that day. She didn’t mean to, but raised her voice to her teacher — who sent her straight to the office. She questions if a white student would’ve been shrugged off for the same actions.
In another class, when learning about poverty in Africa, her classmates laughed. “They’re poor because they’re Black,” they said. Her teacher told her peers that it wasn’t a joke, but didn’t stop their laughter when they continued mocking her race. Over time, the experiences added up to create a hostile learning environment.
“At this school, I really don’t feel welcome,” Cloughley said.
Former East teacher and Race Project KC sponsor David Muhammad thinks that because many East students aren’t exposed to Black culture firsthand, they make assumptions based on rappers, movie characters and athletes of how Black students and teachers should act.
“When you come to a school like East, many times the white students come in with a very narrow view of what Blackness is,” Muhammad said. “It creates a weight upon [people of color] because you’re already a minority in a population, and that can be very hard to navigate.”
Smith experienced these stereotypes before and after the BLM movement. She grew up quiet. It’s not that she was scared of talking to people, but afraid of being portrayed as the “sassy, ghetto, ratchet Black girl.” She says it’s a fear many young Black students have.
This, however, has changed — nowadays she smiles at new people in the hallway and makes an effort to talk to everyone, but feels like she’s still often seen as “the loud Black girl” just for being nice. When advocating for social justice on social media and in-person, she’s being “annoying.” She can’t confront someone without getting portrayed as a “bitch.”
“You have to be extra nice,” Smith said. “Black people are already portrayed as aggressive, rude and mean. And that’s just, well, horrible. But that’s just the way it is.”
Associate Principal Dr. Susan Leonard thinks these misleading stereotypes can cause teachers to write students off as unintelligent or unmotivated, leading to gaps in test scores between students of color and white students at East and in the district since they aren’t always given equal opportunities. These gaps are still present. She believes that if people made a greater effort to understand Black culture, the discrepancy would be reduced.
SMSD Diversity and Inclusion coordinator Tyrone Bates believes that along with the disparity in test scores, another problem is that people are still unwilling to admit their unconscious bias — even after the BLM movement. Bates believes that cultural awareness is still an opportunity for growth among individuals and that to understand culture, people need to be open to input.
“As people, we’re always growing,” Bates said. “People need to have a willingness to be disturbed. You don’t feed people who are hungry. And I’m not going to eat if I’m not hungry. People have to do the personal journey themselves, to see perspective. We all are responsible for doing something to bring change.”
The Black Lives Matter protests occurred a year and a half ago following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. But after the riots stopped and heated online discussions fizzled out, racism didn’t disappear from the nation, community or East, according to junior Gigi Smith. As students, faculty and East community members grapple with making East and Prairie Village more inclusive, various members of the community share ways that people can grow as allies.
The first step to advocacy is education and exposure to Black culture and history within the classroom, according to Smith. At young ages, students learn the basics — Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Emmett Till — but they aren’t usually taught much further. Smith feels that the attacks of 9/11 get weeks of coverage and education, but the history of slavery and the civil rights movement is taught in a few days and brushed off by teachers.
“I’m sick of learning about the same three [Black] people every year,” Smith said. “We need to dive deeper than just reading the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. If we’re going to learn about those same three people, if we’re going to learn about slavery, let’s talk about the really, really horrible stuff. Let’s talk about the people getting killed, left and right.”
Almost two million slaves died during the transatlantic slave trade and 2,000 Black Americans were lynched during the Reconstruction Era, according to the Smithsonian. These are the types of atrocities that teaching students Critical Race Theory would illuminate, according to junior Afa Akwanka. He believes racism is something learned, not a prejudice you’re born with, and that it can be unlearned through education.
Smith, Akwanka and Former East teacher and Race Project KC sponsor David Muhammad all agree that education about Black history doesn’t have to occur only in the classroom. The opportunities to learn about Black culture are endless, according to Muhammad. They don’t have to only center around racism. Start a book club to read books written by or about diverse communities. Dine at Black-owned restaurants or ask a student of color about their perspectives on hot topics. Research Black excellence within your neighborhood.
“In the social justice movement, it takes people of all veins,” Muhammad said. “It can’t just be the poor screaming at the top of their lungs. It has to be [everybody] saying, ‘Okay, [I] want to scream at the top of [my] lungs.’ Start looking at your responsibilities as a student. And what can you actually do? What can you actually change? That’s an internal question.”
When learning about other cultures, you have to ask the hard questions, according to Associate Principal Dr. Susan Leonard. She explains that it’s uncomfortable to hear a good friend make a racist remark or be confronted for unknowingly making one yourself, and the best way to handle these situations is to discuss with a person of color why the comment was offensive.
“Everyone has biases,” Leonard said. “Everyone has prejudice. Everyone has experiences that have led them to this. And you have blind spots. And so hopefully, we’re learning that having a blind spot isn’t bad. Having a blind spot and doing nothing about it is bad.”
Self-reflection is also key, according to Children’s Mercy Psychologist Ayanda Chakawa, who specializes in Developmental and Behavioral Sciences. She stresses the importance of changing what you can control before trying to change systemic racism.
Questions like “Do my friends all have the same background as me?” can help acknowledge one’s unconscious bias, according to Leonard. Asking “How can I advocate in my community?” can diversify someone’s experiences through conferences, workshops and groups like the YES Initiative at East or Core Group, which offer students of color space to share their experiences.
At the systemic level, a disparity between test scores of students of color and white students also needs to be confronted, according to Leonard. To address the educational imbalance, the district, along with the U.S., could implement an equitable funding approach — giving all schools equal funding regardless of socioeconomic levels — according to Chakawa. Currently, school districts are funded based on property tax and homeownership in the U.S.
This funding strategy especially creates racial education gaps in Kansas City since it has a history of redlining, which pushed white people into higher income areas with past property deeds that restricted Black families from living there. As a result, there are more white families now living in high-income neighborhoods that receive more funding, giving more opportunity to white students. Chakawa believes an equitable approach would help reduce this disparity.
“The way school districts are funded through tax promotes a system of inequality,” Chakawa said. “If that’s how school districts are going to continue to be funded, then the opportunities that are based on racist foundations, long-term, we’re gonna continue to see some of these disparities occur if there’s no shift in regard to that.”
Change isn’t always easy, according to English teacher and Race Project KC coordinator Samantha Feinberg. But anyone can be an activist. Voting is activism, sending letters to elected officials is activism, marching is activism. Feinberg recognizes that speaking out can be daunting, but we must find courage to truly make a difference. She hopes students and teachers learn to advocate for their beliefs without fear of what others will say or do.
After all, Feinberg believes creating advocates is necessary to give Black students a voice. To make them feel noticed. To make East fully inclusive.
“I hope that we don’t have to have an organization that reminds people that the lives of Black people matter,” Feinberg said. “I hope for a world where we can talk candidly about this stuff. It doesn’t have to be painful. Or feel accusatory. It can just be something that we talk about and open our minds to.”