Throughout February, we're speaking with SPS high school students who are engaged in their school’s multi-cultural clubs to learn why they're involved and why it's important for our community to celebrate Black history.
At Ferris High School, we met Seniors Heavyn Williams (right) and Jetaime Thomas (left), members of the school’s Black Student Union.
What does the Ferris BSU mean to you?
Jetaime Thomas: My last school was not predominately white. And here it was different, because it is a predominately white institution (PWI). I found comfort in BSU, because it reminded me that I do belong here, and I do have a space.
Heavyn Williams: During my freshman year I didn’t know we had a BSU, because this is a PWI. So, looking around I would only see a handful of people that looked like me. Pastor Shon [Davis, Student & Family Engagement Liaison and Ferris BSU advisor] told me what BSU was about, and at first, I was kind of scared to go. But when I did go, I did find that it was a very welcoming and very comforting space – like I could say anything I wanted to say on my mind. It was like code-switching. We would act one way towards staff and peers, but when we got into BSU, we could talk like we were at home.
Why do you think that barrier exists? Why can’t you be yourself outside of the BSU?
JT: I believe that barrier exists because of the society we live in and how that society was brought up. Black, Indigenous, and people of color, or BIPOC people, were taught to feel as though they were less than or inferior. I always challenged that belief, because I don’t want that to be the case. Taking down a system or rebranding a system is hard, but I feel like it’s what’s necessary to make sure everybody feels safe.
HW: I also think a lot of people want you to be “professional.” So, sometimes the way we speak when we’re talking to each other isn’t the same way we would speak to our bosses. Like, if [someone who isn’t BIPOC] were to say something that we say on a daily basis to their boss, they’d probably take it as a joke. But if we were to do it, it’s now disrespect. Now it’s that we’re ghetto. It’s that we don’t know proper grammar. It’s this perceived notion that all of us are supposed to act this one type of way, and when we break out of that box, it’s uncomfortable for them. That’s the reality of why we have this issue – because people are scared to be uncomfortable and challenged. Honestly, it’s getting old. I will be Black until I die. It’s something that has always been a struggle for me, for my grandmother and my grandmother’s grandmother. Hopefully it won’t be a struggle for my great-grandchildren.
What is something you want the community to know about your culture?
HW: Now more than ever, especially because of everything that is happening right now, we should be learned about and talked about and not pushed to the side. Not even just Black people. A lot of the time people think it’s just Black people that deal with stuff like this, but it’s not. It’s not talked about enough. Like, it’ll just be a conversation about how racism is bad and how we shouldn’t do it, but not what it means and how things you say can impact people. I feel like we should be talking about it way more.
JT: There’s a quote from Tupac Shakur [about] the hate we get and adversity we go through – eventually the little infants, the students, are going to grow up. Some of us will use that for motivation to change this world and how things run. That’s something I feel the community should know. Black children are important.
What is something about your culture or community that you’re proud of?
HW: I’m very proud of how far Spokane has come in general. My granny moved here when she was younger and would tell us stories about how you wouldn’t see anyone of color on the streets. So, I feel like us having an MLK March and us being able to come together as one – not only Black people, but people of other races – is such a big accomplishment. It might seem small to some people, but to me, I feel like we’ve come so far.
JT: Even though we go through stuff every day for simply being a Black woman – for simply being a Black woman with something to say – it’s liberating to me, because so many people before us fought for these same things. It gives me a passion to continue that, because they fought so hard for this to be this way, for us to continue to go backwards. I’m proud that our community has unity. We come together, and that’s a really good skill to have. And I’m proud to be a Black woman, because I hold so much and I’m ready to bring that out into the world.