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This is the first official Youth Against Prejudice monthly newsletter, in which topics like racism, xenophobia, sexism, etc will be discussed. While we discuss all of these topics in our meetings, the purpose of this email is to keep ourselves updated with important events and things going on in the world. Of course it’s important to continue to inform ourselves outside of school and in our own personal time, and with that we want to open up the discussion to you! Our main writer for the newsletter is Kylie (11th grade) but we would love for students of FIS (regardless of if you are in YAP) to recommend topics for us to write about and maybe even your own submissions of articles!
Our first matter of discussion is the federal trial for the killers of Ahmaud Arbery. On February 23rd of 2020, 25 year old Ahmaud Arbery was brutally shot as he was jogging peacefully on that Sunday afternoon near his neighborhood. He was unarmed, breaking no laws, and undoubtedly doing nothing wrong. Former police officer and retired investigator Gregory McMichael, his son, and William Bryan armed themselves, got in their truck, chased down Ahmaud and shot him immediately. Their excuse was that he had broken into someone’s home, and there was no evidence for this. After the case was brushed off and passed two three different prosecutors and the video of the murder is posted online the men are finally arrested in May of 2020. It takes all the way from May 2020 to November 2021 for the men to be finally arrested, they plead not guilty. They were charged with malice murder, felony murder, and false imprisonment, but the prosecutors were still arguing that the murder was not related to race. On Feb 22nd 2022, 729 days after Ahmaud Arbery was murdered his killers were finally found guilty of hate crimes in federal court.
Information from Arbery family’s official site for information @ https://www.runwithmaud.com/
And Bates, Josiah. "Ahmaud Arbery Killers Found Guilty in Federal Hate Crimes Case." Time, TIME USA, 22 Feb. 2022, https://time.com/6149999/ahmaud-arbery-hate-crimes-trial-guilty/ . Accessed 1 Mar. 2022.
The second matter of discussion is a follow up on the Geoge Floyd trial. On February 24th 2022, the three officers who were with Derek Chauvin and who failed to stop the murder of George Floyd were convicted of murder. Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane were charged with depriving Floyd of his right to medical care when Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes as he was handcuffed and lying face down on the street on May 25th of 2020. Thao and Kueng were also charged with failing to intervene to stop Chauvin. This case is extremely rare, as the Justice Department almost never prosecutes officers for their inaction when another officer is using brute force. The verdicts signaled to police departments across the US that juries may become m
more willing to convict those officers who let the brutality happen in front of them.
Civil Rights." The New York Times, 24 Feb. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/us/guilty-verdict-george-floyds-rights.html . Accessed 1 Mar. 2022.
As we all know, Russia and Ukraine are currently at war. At this point you may be hearing it from all directions, and you might see a common trend in the headlines, stating that Russia is attacking Ukraine. I found a Fox News article titled: “Russia is 'exclusively aiming at civilians, ...'”. This is a great example of the condemnation of the whole country which can lead to assumptions onto all Russians. Saying that Russia as a whole is responsible for all of the devastating tragedies caused by the war is inaccurate since many of the civilians don’t agree with Putin’s decisions on the war. The past couple of days there have been protests across Russia and 2,000+ Russians have been arrested for protesting. Saying “Russians” are to blame is unfair and overgeneralizes the complexity of the situation at hand.. It is important to choose the correct words wisely when speaking about the war as blaming Russian people as a whole demonizes the whole nationality, which can lead to discrimination.
This March 2nd YAP has been given the floor to help hold discussions about prejudice in our daily lives. This discussion will be held in Extended Homeroom for grade 11, since most of our YAP members pertain from this year. We will discuss topics of ableism, classism, homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, intersectionality of prejudice, and calling out. Since some of these issues are also discussed by other service groups, members from GSA and Girl Up will also be helping us carry the conversation. While we want it to be informative, we don’t want it to be super formal, as if we were spitting out a ton of information onto your plate. Instead we want it to be an open conversation where (if people feel comfortable) students can share experiences and thoughts on the subject. We DON’T want it to get offensive and we DO want people to listen to others, so let's remind ourselves to stay respectful even if the opinion is extremely different from yours. The purpose of this meeting is to help re-introduce these important topics into conversation and bring awareness, NOT to “cancel” anyone.
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