The Media Center held panels on Tuesday, Feb. 23 about the experience of being Black in Lincoln and at LHS. The event aimed to bridge communication into the conversation of justice and race, where panelists and LHS students Lavell Foster, Ja’Reese Lott-Buzby, and Daevion Chambers-Clark shared their experiences in an effort to create understanding.
The panels were held during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th periods. The 3rd period panel included an original poem reading by Foster about his experience being mixed race.
Foster emphasized the need to have these conversations at such a crucial time, in hopes to break through boundaries and keep moving forward. “If you don’t have a conversation you can’t go backwards or forwards,” Foster said. “You sit still.”
LHS staff Trey Anderson and Laura Aten have been sparking these conversations throughout this academic year, as they have been meeting with the panelists as well as several other students within the building to talk about their experiences as a Black males in Lincoln, NE and the United States as a whole.
Foster spoke about the concept of a “fake wall” built on deeply ingrained beliefs and social systems that perpetuates racism. “This wall has been made up over time–it has kept on building, especially with the government, the way that we were built, our foundation, the way we speak to each other.”
The panelists talked about how this “fake wall” affects how they communicate with white people. Lott-Buzby said he sometimes feels like he has to change the way he communicates in order to avoid being judged. “I have to switch the way I talk,” Lott-Buzby said. “Act as if I were a different race so I seem ‘proper.’”
Toward the end of the panel, Anderson asked the panelists what they would like to see happen in order to address racism.
“I feel as though everyone as humans should just love one another and be civilized as one,” Chambers-Clark said.
Foster spoke about the importance of unity in the face of racism.
“I want to see people uniting, especially at Lincoln High…no matter color, race for the fact that we all go to Lincoln High,” said Foster.
