Club Spotlight: Black Student Union and Allies
The Black Student Union and Allies Club creates a safe space for all students to listen to and discuss important topics within and surrounding the Black Community. This year, the club is under new management and is currently led by Peter (’24), an 11th grader in his second year at OHS. In an interview, when asked what inspired this continuation of the club, Peter replied that “it’s interesting because last year the previous leader Kelsey had asked if I wanted to take over because she was graduating. I said yeah sure! I figured it would be a good experience”. Check out more in this interview with more about the BSU+A!
Pixel Journal: What do you like about the club and being its leader?
Peter: I really liked coming to meetings and learning about new things. Before, I hadn’t been faced with many problematic scenarios but of course, in 2020 with all the protesting going on it really made me start paying attention to the news and politics surrounding it. I really wanted to understand more about it, so I joined the BSU and I learned a lot about a lot. When I was then asked to lead, I was excited to help other people get the experience that I got!
PJ: Any specific meetings that you really enjoyed?
P: We talked about discrepancies in health care and that was one of the big ones that hit me. I want to be a doctor and so I definitely sat up and listened closely for those meetings. It was pretty eye-opening and caused me to also look further into research on it.
PJ: What would you say to anyone who’s maybe nervous about joining or nervous about digging into heavier topics?
P: I think I would say that, first off when I run the meetings, I try to make everything as friendly as possible for everyone and always keep everything respectful. I still want to make it interesting and fun–hence the goofy slides at every meeting–but yeah, we do talk about difficult topics and they’re not always nice topics. But I feel like it’s important to note that these discussions we have–especially the ones that might make people uncomfortable–are really the core and most important topics. Basically, if you don’t talk about it–especially the tough stuff–what’s the point of our discussions at all? Again, I try to make everything easier to digest and hear but sometimes a little uncomfortability will happen. Even if it’s not ideal, I think it’s crucial to experience and learn from these kinds of things. And of course, we can always address any problems or uncomfortability in a relaxed way!
PJ: What are some future goals for the club? Any other activities you want to do? Or working with other clubs?
P: In the short term, I’m hoping for more club collaborations and hopefully some exciting guest speakers. In the long term, I’m just hoping to keep what we have going. It's nice to be able to lead the club and have everybody who comes in have a safe space and share their experiences. There are other ideas as well: a National People of Color Convention (PoCC) so hopefully something around that, and of course, black history month is coming around as well so we’ll probably have some events for that.
You can find the BSU+A club through their Instagram here!