BSU students celebrate the receipt of a grant from the Yarmouth Educational Foundation (YEF Facebook page).
Hannah Birkett & Alexa Hankins - 1 May 2021
Nearly a year ago, on May 25, George Floyd was killed by a police officer who’s been found guilty of murder and manslaughter. His death sparked nationwide protests, as well as criticism of the police force as a whole. But what effect did these events of last summer have on Yarmouth High School?
According to Junior Amelia Kostin, a co-leader of YHS’s Civil Rights Team, George Floyd’s murder and the resulting protests made her and fellow leaders realize the need for a new type of club. “I think the idea was always there,” said Kostin. “The Civil Rights Team, for our part, tried to cover all the bases, but at the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests I think we realized the necessity of having a group led by Black students for Black students.”
Enter Lelia Tati Pambou and Lerman Waiss. The two girls, both sophomores, collaborated with teachers and administrators last summer to start the Black Student Union (formerly known as the Black Student Alliance). The club was officially formed at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, and was featured at this year’s club fair.
Now the co-leaders of the BSU, Waiss and Pambou also stressed the importance of having a group solely dedicated to “Black issues, Black rights, and Black self determination.”
“We felt the civil rights team was for civil rights,” explained Waiss. “We also needed a safe place for Black people; we felt extremely alone and needed a safe place to connect and bring awareness to how we feel and the issues we and other Black people face.”
At the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests, I think we realized the necessity of having a group led by Black students for Black students.
The Black Student Union serves a multi-purpose club. Not only does it serve as a platform for BI-POC students to lobby on issues that matter to them, but it gives them a community in which they can have honest, open conversations about current issues. The death of George Floyd, for example. Kostin, Pambou, and Waiss cite this event and its aftermath as the reason for the club’s creation, with Waiss saying that she and other Black students felt frustrated by the lack of discussion around the topic.
“We felt as though people weren’t bringing awareness to it, they weren’t talking about it,” Waiss said, “and many Black students needed a place to talk about how we felt about the murder of George Floyd and bring the truth to the protests and why they meant so much to us as Black people.”
Pambou agreed. Speaking about the club’s creation process, she described the events of last summer as the catalyst. “It was devastating,” she said. “It was very difficult for me to process anything that was happening at that time.” As a result, YHS staff noticed and asked her and other Black students about the possibility of a Black Student Union. “I’m really glad it was created,” Pambou said.
We also needed a safe place for Black people; we felt extremely alone and needed a safe place to connect and bring awareness to how we feel and the issues we and other Black people face.
Although a significant number of BSU members are also members of the Civil Rights Team, both Kostin and Waiss think the creation of the Black Student Union got more students involved with civil rights in general. For Kostin and the Civil Rights Team, a membership increase came at the end of the last school year. This was during the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests, and her hunch is that they motivated more students to get involved with civil rights.
Kostin acknowledges, however, one shortcoming of the Civil Rights Team. Alluding to its membership, she surmised that “a lot of people don’t really want to join the civil rights team, and I don’t blame them. Most of our co-leaders are white, such as myself, and sometimes that feels a little bit like white saviors, in a sense.”
The term “White Savior” or “White Savior Complex” comes from the phrase “Savior Complex” and refers to a white person who provides help to a non-white person for self-serving reasons. Examples of this can be found in history (Rudyard Kipling and his poem “The White Man’s Burden) and in works of fiction ( The character Skeeter in “The Help”, a novel written by a white author, which was recently adapted into a Netflix movie).
Certainly, a group of white students tasking themselves with responding to issues of race could come across as white saviorism. But Kostin hopes that working with the POC-led BSU “kind of balances out the dynamic a little bit and makes it a safer place for students of color.”
As a club, the BSU is very focused on current events. Waiss said that “whenever an issue comes up relating to Black people, we always feel the need to talk about, discuss our feelings, and send a letter or bring awareness to it anyway or have a safe discussion to give ourselves closure and voice our opinions. Whether that is something in school, a Black issue in a different country, or America.”
This type of responsive action was apparent following an incident that happened here in Yarmouth. More specifically, in the fall, when someone spray painted a racial slur on the road to Cousin’s Island. Justine Carlisle, the club’s advisor, described how she supported the club’s agenda: “I had suggested writing a letter to the editor, and they wrote the letter, I helped them edit it, and I helped them figure out where to send it. They also wanted to connect with the chief of police, and I helped coordinate and facilitate it.” This letter to the editor ended up getting published in November of 2020. The Portland Press Herald titled it “Black Student Alliance Urges Condemnation of Racist Graffiti.”
Although Carlisle is a member of the School District’s Equity Task Force and played a large role in the initial creation of the Black Student Union, she sees her current role as minimal. “They’re a very strong group of students,” she said. “I really see my role as the listener and the facilitator.”
Fellow teacher, Equity Task Force member, and school librarian Amy Roberson said that “the Black Student Union did a really great job during Black history month this year with different kinds of programming that we haven’t had.” The BSU put a lot of work into their projects to get the best results. Lerman described, “Black history month had lots of planning; we had to focus on what we really wanted to bring attention to”. Waiss said club members chose what they wanted to work on for this project, whether it was “music, planning, art, advisory videos, etc…” in order to have an effective and impactful Black history month.
They’re a very strong group of students. I really see my role as the listener and the facilitator
Long term, the Black Student Union's main goals are all about education and representation. The Black Student Union itself is a medium for BIPOC representation, and they hope to eventually change the history curriculum to be less euro-centric, as well to promote the hiring of more faculty of color.
In addition, Waiss hopes her work will lead to a greater awareness of and involvement in social and political issues important to the club. General compassion among students and staff is their goal. "We just want to try and make every anti-racist to the best of our abilities and to educate others,” said Waiss.
One major recent project of the BSU correlates directly with education and discussion of racial issues. This ongoing project, a collaboration with the Civil Rights Team, is a series of advisory discussions about race.
The students of the Black Student Union also created an informational video, which Kostin described as a “collaborative Ted Talk”. The video is on the use of the N-word and why it's never okay for non-Black people to use it. When asked about what she wants the YHS community to take away from the discussions, Pambou said she hoped non-POC students would “better understand the meaning of the n-word, but more importantly, what the word means to a black person.”
In the near future, the club is already busy planning two major events. First, the group is planning what Kostin describes as a “massive” celebration for Juneteenth, similar to the Black History Month commemoration.
Juneteenth is, as the name suggests, a holiday that falls on June 19. Although President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863, his words could only become true law once the Confederacy was taken. This happened in 1865. On June 19 of that year, Union soldiers arrived in Texas and declared, freeing the last slaves left in America. That date is now a national celebration for when all slaves were emancipated.
In addition to the BSU’s upcoming Juneteenth celebration, they plan to visit an African American museum in Boston this summer thanks to a grant they received from the Yarmouth Education Foundation.
We just want to try and make everyone anti-racist to the best of our abilities and to educate others
Although only formed recently, the Black Student Union’s many initial successes have proven their commitment, dedication and hard work. In a predominantly white town such as Yarmouth, a club such as this one can do an incredible amount of good by bringing awareness to racial issues. Kostin expressed her gratitude that the students of the BSU are tasking themselves with trying to educate the Yarmouth community in the first place. Because in these types of situations, input from Black students within our community is infinitely valuable.
''Just because we live in a white town," Kostin said, "Doesn't mean we can ignore these issues. It doesn't mean they go away, it means we need to put in more work to address them in the right way."