By Larasia Vrana –
When you feel like you’re alone with all your struggles it’s important to have someone or even a group of people you can come to. With everything going on and everything that has been going on in the African American society for decades, it’s really important that we as a school have a place for this. African American Caucus is a club/group that brings African American students together to support each other and talk about social issues going on within the African American community. Although they only meet one Tuesday out of the month, they get a lot of things done. Kids involved in this group get educated on a lot in such a small amount of time, information that is very valuable to their future, present, and past. I interviewed Carriemia Thompson, a 12th grade student in African American caucus.
Q: What do you think of this group? Why did you sign up?
Carriemia: “I think this group is important to me because we figure out strategies to make the black community better. I signed up because I feel like my culture and everything in there is important to me and it’s important that we spread it.”
Q: How long have you been apart of this group?
Carriemia: “Since freshmen year.”
Q: What got you interested?
Carriemia: “I always wondered how I could help the black community and be more apart of it so I saw this group as a great opportunity to learn more and help more.”
Q: What is your favorite part about this group?
Carriemia: “My favorite part of the club is the Black Leadership Symposium. The symposium is a meeting we have every year at UNL, not only Lincoln High gathers there but all of Lincoln schools and Omaha schools as well. We, as black people come together and break off into groups and talk about ways to be successful and help us get motivated to make make a move, start something new and for some of us, give us hope. We discuss things like our childhoods, struggles as black men, struggles as black women, things we are good at, and who and what we want to be in life. It is a very beautiful thing they do for us and this will my 4th year attending.”
Q: What would you personally like to get out of this group?
Carriemia: “Actually starting my own group or even going to schools or neighborhoods and speaking to young children about their future and giving them hope. The ones who don’t have that guidance for them. That’s basically what African American caucus has done for a lot of the people I have met in there. We all have a story and the club has all changed us and matured us and I’d like to do the same for others.”
Q: What are you guys currently working on?
Carriemia: “We are currently making shirts as part of a movement. As you all know there is a lot going on with African Americans such as the cop shootings and the black on black crime also. So our quarter one project is unity t-shirts. We plan to sell at least 50 t-shirts to help people understand the meaning of unity, love, and that we are one.”
Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
Carriemia: “I’d like to add that this is a club for anyone you don’t have to be a certain race, anyone can join to learn about the tons of different cultures of African Americans.”
During this interview with Carriemia I learned how important this caucus is for her and many other students. She expressed very strongly that this group has helped her so much and will continue to help her after she graduates. It’s so amazing that our high school and many other high schools offer this caucus to students. The things they accomplish in this group are outstanding to so many.
A lot of people probably don’t realize how important this is to these students, but if you ever took the time to sit down and talk to them you would see the impact African American Caucus has on them. These students work very hard for what they believe in.
