The Racial Justice Alliance

Excerpted from the RJA letter to the School Board 1/17/18:

“Raising this flag is a part of a wider campaign to grow awareness and make changes in our curriculum, climate, and shared understanding of the need for racial justice. Over the past year there have been many steps forward in our community including some direct curricular choices, administrative trainings, faculty in-service, a school-wide assembly and the Race Against Racism. And yet, we need to do more to raise our predominantly white community’s collective consciousness to better recognize white privilege and implicit bias. The Racial Justice Alliance believes putting up the Black Lives Matter flag is imperative for both demonstrating our school’s fight for equal education for our Black Students, and modeling a brave and appropriate challenge to the status quo impeding public institutions across the country.

While the protection of all students, including students in other minority groups, is equally important, there is a unique history of oppression and mistreatment of Black Americans that requires its own unique response. The justice and equity of Black Americans is dependent upon justice and equity for all Americans, just as justice and equity for all MPS students is dependent upon that of our Black Students. We view the raising of this flag not as a culmination to our work but rather as a continuation of the work and learning together; a call for action.

We will raise the flag with love in our hearts and courage in our voices. We reject any purported connections to violence or hate that may or may not have occurred under the Black Lives Matter flag. We recognize that all lives do matter, but in this same spirit not all lives are acknowledged for their equal importance until black lives have been.”