Past Newsletters

AWG Book Display

AWG Book Display Project

What better way to welcome the AHS library to its new home in Old Hall than with an engaging and educational book display? The AWG is currently working with Ms. Kitsis and the library staff to put together a book display of texts on anti-racism. The display will feature both nonfiction and fiction works by wonderful authors such as Ibram X. Kendi and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The AWG is planning to create a digital book list with our selected titles, which will soon become available on the AHS library online catalog. Additionally, keep an eye out for artwork, book blurbs, and other displays of anti-racist literature in the new media center coming throughout January.

BIPOC in Sports

Today we look at a new segment in this newsletter. We will be focusing on BIPOC in sports, specifically Noah Lyles, sprinter who recently competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games for the United States. Lyles, who is 24, was recently described as the “next Usian Bolt, ran the 200 meter dash in Tokyo. He ultimately won bronze after an incredible time of 19:74, just about half a second behind Bolt’s record of 19:19. Further than his athletic achievements, Lyles is also an avid advocate for mental health and often shares his own battles with depression and anxiety. He constantly encourages the education of coaches and teachers so they can better recognize issues in their athletes and students. Noah Lyles now looks to improve his time in the 200 meter dash in the 2022 World Athletic Championships where he hopes to bring home a victory and a new personal best.

Affinity Group Meetings

By: Andrea Razi

Beginning this fall, AWG leaders have joined AHS administrators and affinity club leaders for a monthly meeting in the principal's conference room before school. This Affinity Group Meeting includes leadership from several clubs and the Student Council. Clubs represented include the Black Student Union, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, and the Asian American Coalition, as well as the AWG and Student Council. We meet with the goal of collaborating around shared projects and working together to help AHS provide the safest environment for as many students as possible. Inclusion and equity are at the forefront of conversations and planning efforts. Student leaders share each club's update and brainstorm ideas for combined efforts.

In addition, this team of students supports the AHS Heterogeneous Grouping Initiative, an effort to offer heterogeneous classes to all AHS students. They see this as part of a movement toward inclusion at AHS. Students from the AWG are part of an Heterogeneous Grouping Initiative study group and are learning about heterogeneous classes and their impacts. You will hear more about student support for this initiative in our next newsletter.

Despite the early morning meetups, monthly Affinity Group meetings are off to a great start! We have been productive and made good use of our time. Please reach out to me if there are things you hope this group might help you with. Thank you!

BIPOC Women

By: Elsa Willems Cleetus

bell hooks was a Black, female social activist, professor, and author, who used her early life experiences to educate and fight for BIPOC women's rights. hooks was born on September 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville, a small and segregated town in Kentucky. She was one of six children in her working-class African-American family. At a young age she was exposed to the effects of racism. She attended a racially segregated public school, and she said that it was “terrifying at times”.

On December 15 she passed away at the age of 69. She left a profound influence, with her wide-range of books on gender and race that helped push feminism beyond its white worldview to include the voices of Black women.

In her work, hooks focused on in the effects of racism and sexism towards Black women, the civil rights movement, and feminist movements from suffrage to the 1970s. She argued that the convergence of sexism and racism during slavery contributed to Black women having the lowest status and worst conditions of any group in American society. hooks points out that these white female reformers were more concerned with white morality than the conditions these morals caused Black Women in America. This is all to show that the stereotypes that were set during slavery still affect Black women today.

A term that hooks used to describe this was intersectionality. The term was established by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe how systems of oppression overlap to create distinct experiences for people with multiple identity categories. It is the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination and oppression and everything that can marginalise people must be considered. It can be used to understanding how aspects of a person's social identities combine to create different forms of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage. Examples of these factors include gender, race, class, sexuality, religion, and disability. Hooks wanted to broaden the lens of feminism, to focuse on the experiences of women who were both white, middle-class, and BIPOC. Intersectional feminism aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's different experiences and identities.

hooks published more than 30 books and articles. She wrote, Ain't I a Woman?, Feminism is for EVERYBODY, and Feminist Theory from Margin to Center, to address Intersectionality and its effects on BIPOC women. bell hooks passed away but she will be remembered for her immense efforts on expannding feminism and her critical thinking of race.

Welcome Back

Hello and happy November!

Welcome to the AHS Anti-racism Working Group’s first newsletter of the 2021-22 school year.

It’s been a while, so here’s a quick reminder of our mission statement.

We as an Anti-racism Working Group aim to create change to center BIPOC voices and support BIPOC in our community. We are a group of students, staff, and administrators communicating and collaborating to implement effective everyday anti-racist policies at Arlington High School. The AWG is committed to achieving demands outlined by the BSU and supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion at AHS.

This year, the AWG has three subcommittees: the Curriculum Changes subcommittee, the Resources for BIPOC subcommittee, and the Creating an Everyday Anti-racist Culture subcommitee, which, among other things, is responsible for bringing you this newsletter.

Please visit our website or contact any of the student leaders to get involved! We’d love to have you.

Definition of BIPOC

BIPOC is an acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous, People of Color. This is an umbrella term used when discussing oppressed groups.

Culture

By: Caroline Kenneally

The city of Boston is bursting with dazzling art. You just need to know where to look! Whether it be on the wall of a laundromat or tucked next to the highway, Boston’s murals radiate beauty. Artist Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez’s stunning piece titled “Cranes in the Sky,” just peaks over the rail of 1-93, though a walk along the South Bay Harbor Trail allows you to view the piece in full. At New Grove Hall, you can view Ekua Holmes and London Parker-McWhorter’s newest collaboration, titled “Honoring the Past, Seeding the Future.” The artwork spans the 13 by 60 foot wall of Breeze’s Laundromat on 345 Blue Hill Avenue, on view until December 7, 2021. To see a piece in process, check out Soraya “Indie184” Marquez’s street piece at Underground at Ink Block, where dozens of other BIPOC artists have completed their own striking artworks, drastically improving Boston’s urban landscape.

Current Events

By: Elsa Willems Cleetus and Saahitya Yelleswarapu

2021 has been a year of great change. Today, more schools are implementing anti-discriminatory regulations to support minority students, but a lot more can still be done.

Anti racist regulations are regulations put into schools to prevent discrimination and roote principles of equality. Here in Arlington High School, a positive step that is being taken is integrating more diverse literature into our curriculums. This helps ensure accurate information is being taught and makes it known that BIPOC history is American history.

There is a great organization called Loving Little Minds, started by Mr. Buck, that raises money to buy books with more diversity and representation that then are put into classroom libraries in Arlington. The Curriculum Changes subcommittee and the AAC have recently partnered with Loving Little Minds.

Affinity Group Update

By: Sadie Chesloff

There are many different affinity groups at AHS. This year, the AWG wants to help support the affinity groups in their missions.

We spoke with the BSU, who provided a statement about their club:

"The Black Student Union is a club that welcomes everyone but talks about Black history and culture. We meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month during X block. On November 18th, we're having a breakfast at 7:45 to welcome new members."

Follow their Instagram at @ahs.bsu_ and join their Google Classroom with code UMWCBPH

We also heard from the Asian American Coalition, who gave a statement as well:

"The Asian American Coalition strives to spread awareness about issues that impact the AAPI community, to combat racism and cultural prejudice, and to provide a safe space for AAPI students. During our meetings, we have discussions and work on activism projects."

Join their Google Classroom with code O5BYZDF, follow their Instagram at @ahsaac, and email ahsaac@spyponders.com with any questions.

The last group we spoke to was the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), and we got a statement from them:

"The GSA is a club dedicated to learning about and understanding different identities and normalizing queer culture and history to the best of our ability. We meet during X block in room 415, and always have three different rooms going for three different types of activities. New members are always welcome, and we hope to see you there."

We look forward to working with all these important groups this year!

Music

The song you’re hearing is called Mirando La Misma Luna by Renata Flores.This song is sung by Renata Flores who is from Peru. She connects to her indigenous roots by singing in Quechua which is the language originally spoken by the Incas over 800 years ago. She often sings about the issues that indigienous communities in Peru face. This song speaks about everyone being under the same moon and being the same.

Definition of BIPOC

In this newsletter, the term BIPOC is used frequently.

BIPOC is an acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous, People of Color. This is an umbrella term used when discussing oppressed groups.

Get Smart

In Theodore Melfi’s 2016 film, Hidden Figures, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe absolutely shine in their portrayal of the three NASA computers, Katherine Johnson (Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Monáe). Set in 1961, amidst the frenzied fever of the Space Race, when Communism was a larger concern than dismantling racial barriers; Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson work to rise to the top whilst battling a system designed to keep them down. As the West Area Computing unit’s best human computer, Johnson is brought up to work alongside men like Al Harrison and Paul Stafford, only to be met with hostility as the one black female in the office. Meanwhile, Vaughan seeks a promotion to supervisor as Jackson refuses to take no for an answer while pursuing her dream of becoming an engineer. This uplifting film confronts racism with a practical eye and infuses the audience with hope for a better tomorrow.

For those curious, Hidden Figures is available on HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. For those who enjoy an engaging read, the film is based off of a novel of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly.

Current Events

In early April, the French senate voted to ban hijabs in people under 18. This ban also specifies the ban of parents from attending school events, as well as the ban of wearing hijabs at the beach, sometimes called burkinis. This is not the first time that the Muslim community has been targeted like this. Similar bans have been placed on “religious attire” in schools, headscarves, and full face coverings like niqabs in past years in France. Other countries, majorly those in Europe, also have similar bans in place. These bans are not on the basis of safety, or to control expression of religion, as stated. They are a blatant attack on followers of Islam, as well as other religions which include hair or face coverings. More information and resources were posted on the instagram.

BIPOC Spotlight

For this month's BIPOC spotlight, we're focusing on a few local Asian restaurants. Lil Q hot pot, Thai E Sarn, and Szechuan's Dumpling are all family owned, Asian owned restaurants that are all located on Mass Ave in Arlington. From the beginning of the pandemic, the Asian community, including Asian restaurant owners, have suffered the effects of racist mindsets and misconceptions. Supporting local Asian owned restaurants is a great way to lessen the economic effects of this racism, however it is not a complete solution. Supporting Asian businesses needs to be alongside educating yourself about the racism and stereotypes directed at the AAPI community.

Lil Q Hot pot- 196 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02474

https://www.littleqhotpotma.com/

Thai E Sarn- 1377 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02476

https://www.thaiesarncuisine.com/

Szechuan's Dumpling- 1360 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02476

http://szechuans.weebly.com/

What is the AAC?

The Asian American Coalition strives to spread awareness about issues that impact the Asian American Pacific Islander community, to combat racism and cultural prejudice, and to provide a safe space for AAPI students. We frequently post infographics on our Instagram page @ahsaac to spread awareness, and have planned several events to address racism and how we can stand in solidarity with the AAPI community.

This month is AAPI history month and ahsaac will be holding an advisory about it, acknowledging the accomplishments of the AAPI community. We are also working with the AWG to implement more of this AAPI history. If you are interested in getting involved, join our google classroom code with code o5vyzdf, or if you have any questions, email ahsaac@spyponders.com or ayang2023@spyponders.com.

What is the BSU?

Hi, I'm Mia and I'm one of the 3 council members of the Black Student Union. BSU is a space to discuss race, culture, and ethnicity within Arlington High School and the world. Used to educate all students, while creating a safe space for black and BIPOC students at AHS. We meet on Wednesdays during x-block and we hope to see you there!

Google Classroom Code: yhts5n7

Email: jsantil2021@spyponders.com

Instagram: @bsu.ahs

Updates

In this month’s updates section, we decided to dedicate it to some of the things the AHS staff have been doing to promote anti-racism at our school. One ongoing effort is the IDEAS course. This is a class AHS teachers and staff members can take and have taken to learn more about equity and unconscious bias, especially how it pertains to the classroom. Another thing is the Leading with Equity group. This is a central administrator group focused on promoting equity as a leader in the AHS community. We’ll give more updates about this group and what it does in the future! One thing that is coming up is the Staff of Color Hiring Coffee event, which is an effort towards increasing the diversity of the staff at AHS. Dr. Janger will be there and student representatives have been invited as well! Additionally, the district is currently in the process of hiring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator. AHS has requested that there be a student representative on the committee involved in this. Throughout the coming months we’ll continue to give updates on these projects. Please reach out to Dr. Janger or one of the student leaders of the AWG if you’re interested in any of these opportunities or have any questions!

Music

The song you're hearing is "Father Forgive Them" by Ms. Lauryn Hill. This song comes from the album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" that touches on social injustice, racism, police brutality, and sexism.

Definition of BIPOC

In this newsletter, the term BIPOC is used frequently.

BIPOC is an acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous, People of Color. This is an umbrella term used when discussing oppressed groups.

Updates

What is the AWG?

The AWG stands for the Anti-Racism Working Group. It consists of a number of students and staff who are working closely with the BSU (Black Student Union) to combat racism in our school. We are working to support BIPOC in our community and to implement everyday anti-racism policies at AHS.

Here's what the AWG subcommittees have been working on recently:

Curriculum Changes: in accordance with the BSU’s original demands, the curriculum subcommittee is working on planning an effort to help teachers feel more comfortable and capable of facilitating difficult conversations about race in class

Resources for BIPOC: the resources subcommittee finalized a draft of a microaggression report form and they are receiving input from various community members. They have been collecting educational resources for the school's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) website. They are working with Ms. Edison to advertise the accessibility of the internship program

Check back next month for more updates!

What is the BSU?

Hi, I'm Mia, one of the 3 council members of the Arlington High School Black Student Union (BSU). BSU is a space to discuss race, culture, and ethnicity within Arlington High School and the world. It's used to educate all students while creating a safe space for black and BIPOC students in AHS. We meet on Wednesdays during x-block and hope to see you guys there! The information to join is down below. Thank you!

Google Classroom Code: yhts5n7

Email: jsantil2021@spyponders.com

Instagram: @bsu.ahs

Get Smart

Robin DiAngelo’s book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism discusses the concept of white fragility, or the common white response to discomfort stemming from conversations about race or injustice. The book highlights racism as a repressive system of power and elaborates on concepts such as white supremacy. DiAngelo is humble, conversational, and straightforward, making for a digestible but very engaging read. Her message is crucial to aspiring white allies who aim to engage in constructive, meaningful race-based dialogue, and to people of color who want to understand why white people often default to defensive and heated responses when confronted with the facts of injustice.

This Moment in History:

The fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment was the second Afrcian American regiment. They were assembled by Massachusetts governor John Andrew in 1863, shortly after they had their first victory in the Sea Islands of South Carolina, repelling a confederate attack on James Island. Two days after the attack on James Island the Regiment was met with a stronger confederate force at Fort Wagner. The 54th infantry lost half of its men and, for his bravery at Fort Wagner, William H, Carney became the first African American to earn the Medal of Honor. This vigorous performance at Fort Wagner played a pivotal role in convincing more northern leaders that African American soldiers were an effective asset. When the government went back on its promise to pay black soldiers the same as white, the regiment led more African units to refuse money from the government. Letters from the African American soldiers as well as antislavery organizations worked in tandem to force the government to finally grant equal pay in June 1864. By the end of the Civil War, more than 178,000 African Americans had served in the Union army, playing a crucial part in the Northern victory. The feats of the fifty-fourth Infantry are depicted in the 1989 film Glory, starring Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman.

BIPOC Spotlight:

For this month's BIPOC spotlight, we are looking at an app called Miiriya. This app creates an easy way to access hundreds of products from black businesses all in one place. Search for your clothes, hair care, shoes, art or anything all while supporting small business. If you need another reason to use this app as an alternative to large business chains, the creator of the app ensures that 100% of the profits from sales go directly into the pockets of the small businesses selling on the app!

Get Involved:

Here are some ways you can get involved in your community this month!

First off, Arlington Fights Racism (AFR) is looking for youth to volunteer with them! They’re looking for help with putting up flyers for upcoming town elections and data entry. You can get community service hours for this as well! Reach out to Lynette if you’re interested! Her email is below.

lynettemartyn@gmail.com

The AHS mural project is underway! Submissions have been collected and 2 winners will be announced very soon! Once these are selected, they will be painted throughout March and April. Once the winners are announced, reach out to Mrs. McCulloch if you would like to help paint the murals!

nmcculloch@arlington.k12.ma.us

Arlington Reads Together is a project run by the Robbins Library that encourages the town of Arlington to read a book on diversity, equity, and inclusion and then come together in a town-wide discussion. This March, Arlington is reading Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum. The Arlington Education Foundation is sponsoring this year’s community read by bringing Dr. Tatum to Arlington to host a Zoom meeting discussing her book. The event will be on March 21st at 3 pm, so you’ve got time to get reading! For more information, see the link on the AWG website!

Arlington Reads Together Link

This month’s full group AWG meeting date will be chosen soon! Join the google classroom with the code below to attend. As always, if you need more information you can dm our Instagram @ahs_awg or email one of our student leaders!

Google Classroom Code: 3VL6HHX

Instagram: @ahs_awg

Definition of BIPOC

In this newsletter, the term BIPOC is used frequently.

BIPOC is an acronym that stands for Black, Indigenous, People of Color. This is an umbrella term used when discussing oppressed groups.

Updates

The AWG stands for the Anti-Racism Working Group. It consists of a number of students and staff who are working closely with the BSU (Black Student Union) to combat racism in our school. We are working to support BIPOC in our community and to implement everyday anti-racism policies at AHS.

Here's what the AWG subcommittees have been working on recently:

• First off, we had a meeting for new members! We went over some of the goals of the AWG as a whole, as well as the goals of individual subcommittees. We welcomed 15 new members! If you weren’t able to make that meeting or still want more information, see the info in this month’s Get Involved section. Thank you to everyone who helped make that event happen and to all who attended.

• The Curriculum Changes committee is going to start collaborating more with the core class department heads to help enrich student learning through an anti-racist lens as AHS moves into the second semester. This focus is mostly in the English department, but they are working with other departments as well. They are also in the final stages of approving multiple core texts to be piloted in English classes next fall.

• The Resources for BIPOC committee is finalizing the confidential micro-aggression report form. The form will be present on the AWG website soon. They are also working on a more accessible internship program and updating the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) website.

Check back next month for more updates!

What is the BSU?

The BSU (Black Student Union) is a space to discuss race, culture, and ethnicity within Arlington High School and the world. It's used to educate all students while creating a safe space for black and BIPOC students at AHS. We meet on Wednesdays during x-block and hope to see you guys there!

The Google Classroom code is yhts5n7.

Email Jordana at jsaintil2021@spyponders.com for more information.

Get Smart

For this month's edition of Get Smart, I'm highlighting Just Mercy, an award-winning movie released in 2014 that follows Harvard grad and lawyer Bryan Stevenson as he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly convicted of crimes. His first case is that of Walter McMillian, who was sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder of an 18 year-old girl, despite overwhelming evidence proving his innocence. In the years that follow, Stevenson encounters racism and must try multiple legal maneuvers as he tirelessly fights for McMillian's life. This movie is built on extremely important topics such as prison reform, fair legal representation, mass incarceration, and race relations. It is incredibly eye-opening and emotional, and puts a stark spotlight on the disparities built into our criminal justice system.

Source: Just Mercy film synopsis, Google

This Moment in History

The Montgomery Bus Boycott is one of the most well-known examples of nonviolent protest from the Jim Crow era. Here’s a refresher on this historically critical event.

In Montgomery, Alabama, along with many other places in the American south, African Americans faced discrimination through Jim Crow laws, or pieces of state and local legislation which legalized segregation. The Alabama chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) had been wanting to stage a protest against the treatment of Black people in Montgomery for a long time, and they took their chance when Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955.

Though Parks was not the only Black woman arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus, she became the face of the bus boycott movement because she was a highly respected, model citizen.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the boycott and his speeches on the issue garnered national attention. The bus systems were hit hard by the boycott, because the majority of bus patrons were Black.

Boycott leaders were arrested and threatened, but the boycott continued as they tried to negotiate with the Montgomery government for fair treatment. In 1956, a district court finally ruled in favor of the boycotters, and the Supreme Court upheld the decision, removing laws requiring racial segregation on public buses.

The boycott lasted 381 days in total. It is considered successful not only because the protesters accomplished their goal, but because the solidarity, nonviolence, and organization of the boycott translated into the Civil Rights movement of the 60s.

BIPOC Spotlight

Tucked away on Gardner Street in Arlington, MA lies an important historical landmark: the Prince Hall Cemetery. In 1864, the grand master of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge dedicated the land he bought on Gardner Street to to be used as an African American Masonic burial ground. This gift was important, because during this time, Black Americans were searching for a place to bury loved ones. Prince Hall Cemetery is now the only remaining African American Masonic cemetery in the United States.

The Prince Hall Cemetery was in use until 1897. In 1987, the Arlington Historical Society learned about the cemetery and recognized its historical significance. The Arlington Historical Society joined with the Prince Hall Grand Lodge in Dorchester, MA to form the Prince Hall Mystic Arlington Cemetery Association. This group is tasked with maintaining the upkeep on the memorial and the small park it sits in.

In 1998 the Prince Hall Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places, further emphasizing how important the cemetery is in American history, especially in Massachusetts. History, especially from perspectives that are not often shined upon, needs to be shared. Every person in America has a story and every story is equally important. To recognize its historical significance, the memorial was rededicated on Memorial Day, 2014 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the memorial. People came from near and far to celebrate the memorial. Even Dennis Lloyd from Atlanta, GA came to the rededication. His ancestors were some of the first people buried in the cemetery. Now, every Memorial Day in Arlington, people gather at Prince Hall Cemetery. The memorial is led by the masons from the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. The history and people buried at Prince Hall Cemetery are and will not be forgotten. If you have a chance, you can pay your respects and say thank you to the people who came before us. Click here for directions: https://goo.gl/maps/eG3s3jrz1qCqWNbS8.

Sources:

Prince Hall Cemetery rededicated. (2014, May 29). Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://arlington.wickedlocal.com/article/20140530/News/140539878

Prince Hall Cemetery. (2019, August 15). Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://arlingtonhistorical.org/learn/prince-hall-cemetery/

Prince Hall. (2020, December 10). Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Hall

Get Involved

Art possesses the power to evoke social change. We invite you to participate in creating a school culture where diversity, equity, and inclusion are faced and celebrated by submitting your original art to potentially become part of a series of murals hung around our school. Submit a digital image of your own art with a description about the idea, how it applies to the theme, and a title to the link below. More details can be found on our website and by reaching out to Mrs. McCulloch with any questions. All submissions are due by January 31st . If you want to get more involved, join our google classroom (code: 3vl6hhx) or email me (mpatel-masini2021@arlington.k12.ma.us), and please check out our instagram @ahs_awg. Also, shoutout to ACMI for being super helpful with creating this newsletter.

Updates

Black Student Union

The BSU meets from 12pm to 1pm every Wednesday via Zoom. Please reach out to them via email if you would like to join the club: blackstudentunionahs42@gmail.com

Anti-Racism Working Group

The AWG has been working hard and passionately to make as much progress as possible on the demands that the BSU presented in June. Here's some of the cool stuff we have been able to accomplish:

• We have made an instagram account now! Give it a follow: @ahs_awg

• The Resources for BIPOC Subcommittee is creating a confidential and anonymous report form for acts of microaggressions or other acts of racism. They are also working on a mentorship and internship program for BIPOC students in partnership with Arlington's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEI).

• The Curriculum Subcommittee has been closely working with the English and History Departments to make more immediate curriculum changes through adding more diverse voices via the books students will read in class, incorporating black and POC history, and fostering more in depth conversations in a safe and productive classroom environment to ensure non-surface level discussions.

• The Staff Hiring Committee now has representatives on the Superintendent Selection Committee and will make sure that promoting diversity and inclusion is a priority for the new superintendent.

Get Smart

On our very first edition of Get Smart!, let’s talk about Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism, and You, a book by Jason Reynolds detailing the complex history of racist ideas in America. Stamped is a remix of Ibram X. Kendi’s wonderfully detail-packed Stamped From the Beginning. Reynolds consolidates Kendi’s major points to make this remix more suitable for young adult readers. I highly recommend reading Reynolds’s Stamped to introduce yourself to powerful figures like W. E. B. DuBois, Frederick Douglass, and Angela Davis, and to understand how racist ideas are rooted in and perpetuated throughout American history. Afterwards, if you’re up for it, definitely crack open Kendi’s Stamped for a more in-depth read.

This Month in History

As one of 16 children and a daughter of former slaves, Mary McLeod Bethune had a difficult life. She was the only child in her family to receive an education, walking miles every day to a school built for African Americans by missionaries. Bethune obtained a scholarship to Scotia Seminary in North Carolina and later attended Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago. Her experience in Chicago fueled Bethune to become an educator herself, specifically teaching Black women. Bethune founded the Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona, Florida, which later merged with another institute to form Bethune-Cookman College.

On top of her educational achievements, Bethune was an active civil rights and gender equality leader. By 1924, she was president of the National Association of Colored Women, leading it to become the first Black-run association headquartered in Washington D.C. Bethune was appointed to the White House Conference on Child Health by President Herbert Hoover in 1930, founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, and co-founded the United Negro College Fund with William Trent and Frederick D. Patterson in 1944. She was the only Black woman present at the founding of the UN in 1945. Bethune was posthumously inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 1973. Unfortunately, despite Bethune’s accomplishments and strength, many people remain unaware of her impact on the advancements of Black equality and feminine equality. She is truly one of America's unsung heroes.

Love Is In the Hair

Nestled next to the UPS store in Arlington Heights lives RepHAIRations, the town’s newest- and one of its only- Black owned businesses.

Heidi Bailey, Yvonne Adams, and Sipho Mangcu -three friends who live in the Boston area- own RepHAIRations. “We wanted a shop for us, and for people that we know… who are constantly… having to travel significant distances in order to get hair products,” said Bailey.

RepHAIRations sells shampoo, conditioner, hair butter, and weaves, as well as books, clothes, hand sanitizer, and COVID-19 masks. They strive to obtain all of their products from other Black owned businesses, even sourcing their argan oil from a Black, female-owned business in Morocco. “We don’t just want any products here. We only want… high-quality products that work,” said Bailey. They eventually hope to carry everything a Black woman might need to texture her hair.

Contrary to what some people believe, RepHAIRations is a hair shop, not a salon. “In Boston, if you say you're going to the hair shop, everyone would know… you’re going to get your product. It’s interesting because here, people don’t believe that there [can be] just a hair shop- it has to be a salon [too],” explained Bailey.

“I didn’t know that hair shops existed before I was friends with them,” exclaimed Yvonne Adams, who is white and a co-owner of RepHAIRations. “People in this community don’t [always] get what we are.”

As an aspiring new business, the coronavirus threw a huge wrench in their plans. Instead of opening a brick-and-mortar store when they planned to, they began selling products online until Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the United States, when their doors officially opened. Because of the current situation and their commitment to buying only high quality products, it has become harder for RepHAIRations to find vendors and buy products to sell.

Although small businesses everywhere have been dealing with the immense challenge of COVID-19, RepHAIRations has quickly acclimated to Arlington’s business scene. Neighboring stores have been welcoming, and they have received support from the community. They were braced for difficulties as a Black-owned business in a predominantly white town, but so far have not encountered overt racism.

Being on the corner of Mass Ave and Park Ave, they have seen the Black Lives Matter protests every night. “The murder of George Floyd woke a lot of… white people up to what has been going on for forever,” Adams said. She appreciated the support, but a part of Bailey felt fearful. “You know, could there be a rock through the window?” she wondered at the time.

As the sole white woman in the trio, it is Adams’ role to “be the white face that can walk into the bank, that can meet with a realtor with way fewer questions.”

When Adams opened a business account for RepHAIRations, she discovered a shocking disparity. “Dealing with transferring money to the business account… has been so much more difficult. I’ve encountered so many more obstacles dealing with the banking stuff. In my personal life, my banking is so much more smooth.” One United, their bank of choice, is Black owned and has predominantly Black customers. “There’s just a suspicion, and everything takes a long time,” Adams explained. “They put a hold on every deposit, every check you write… everything is double-checked, and triple-checked, which is not scrutiny that I encounter as a white person in my personal life.”

“Which Black people are used to, and encounter on a daily basis,” added Mangcu.

Realtors will often show Black customers different spaces than white customers, or deny that a space is available at all. Although they didn’t personally experience this form of racism, Bailey, Adams, and Mangcu felt discrimination by the realtor of the property because they are women. “Thank goodness… we had a white woman, because if it had been just Black women, there would have been no chance,” joked Adams.

Despite the challenges they have faced, as a Black owned business and as a business in general, Mangcu, Bailey, and Adams are enjoying their experience as new entrepreneurs, and trying not to take themselves too seriously.

“This is for the kids. You guys are the future. You guys are different… the kids deserve to have a place where they can see themselves,” Bailey said. [Change] starts with an acknowledgement that there are different voices. Arlington is no longer just white.”

Get Involved

As students at AHS who have been taught the power of art, we know that art can get people to see other perspectives on a story, and it has had this effect on communities throughout history. There is a new opportunity to engage in art activism with local artist Cedric Douglas and discuss current events involving racism using the artistic lens. Cedric "Vise1" Douglas is a Boston artist and designer who has been working on social justice themes and community empowerment for many years. He has been illuminating the scope of violence directed at Black citizens in the US through a group of projects that reinvent memorial language. “I call these Street memorials,” Douglas explains. “As someone who got my start as a graffiti artist, but also studied art and design at Mass College of Art, I focus on reinventing and remixing motifs and conventions, giving new meaning to what we see on the street every day.” The panel is always growing and always in need of new participants. If this is something that you are interested in, contact Ms. McCulloch at nmcculloch@arlington.k12.ma.us.

Another opportunity for change through art is a mural that has been organized by Ms. McCulloch. Students are invited to collaborate on an art piece which people with any or no art skills are able and encouraged to join. Students can join this project by contacting Ms. McCulloch via email. In this project, students will be able to work on the mural at specific times, masked and socially distant from their collaborating peers. The project is expected to be completed by the end of November! The main goal for the mural is to show AHS’s support of the BIPOC community in the fight for a more antiracist and welcoming environment. Getting involved in a project like this is a great way to be an active part in creating an anti racist community. A link to the mural inspiration photos and mission statement can be found here. A symbol of how the AHS community can still come together to contribute to the fight against racism even when physically not together, these two projects are just waiting for you to get involved!