Racial Injustice and Teens Can Still Be Allies.

TeenToTeen
Jun 29, 2020
2 min read

Name: TeentoTeen Leadership Team

Photographer: India Jones

Racism is not a newfound issue on the rise but rather one that has been prevalent for centuries. Specifically, police brutalities against Black people are just a result of years of systemic oppression and white privilege. Within the past few years, police brutality has taken the lives of many African Americans, especially within the past month. TeentoTeen recognizes the unjust violence and victims like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Robert Fuller, Elijah McClain, and countless others. We want to inform our readers about how to continue taking action. A few weeks after the peak of activism and awareness, people have already begun to move on and return to their ordinary lifestyles on social media and in real-time. TeentoTeen, however, aims to keep the momentum and wants to teach others how to be allies as time passes.

It’s important to recognize that police brutality is not a trend. The Black Lives Matter movement is not a trend for one to post about and then forget. Your performative activism is not going to stop these atrocities, and we understand that many of us who can't donate or can't attend protests feel helpless, but there are other ways to help. There are Youtube playlists of Black artists who have announced that all their money earned for the month of June will be sent to support the BLM movement. While the Instagram posts are dying down, everyone has the responsibility to educate, petition, donate, and at the minimum raise awareness.

Educating yourself about Black history is extremely important. Our schooling systems have given us white washed versions of American history while sugarcoating what has actually happened. Schools tell us that Slavery was bad and Martin Luther King Jr. marched for the right to vote. However, they leave out the history behind the Black codes, the Grandfather clauses or the riots after MLK’s death that were crucial to the movement. We need to acknowledge our history and recognize its direct correlation to systematic racism today.

Here are some important terms to understand and research:

Black Codes
Segregation
Jim Crow
Voter Suppression
Police Brutality
War on Drugs
Mass Incarceration
Racial Microaggressions
Redlining
Systemic Racism

A great resource that compiles information can be found at “blacklivesmatter.carrd.co” or simply by googling resources to support BLM. We know many teenagers have already taken action, but it is essential that we keep the momentum.

TeentoTeen encourages teenagers to