The students of color at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, want their voices to be heard loud and clear in the conversation about gun violence in America. While the media has given much attention to their white peers and largely framed the faces of the Never Again movement as overwhelmingly white—there are actually plenty of black, Latino and Asian student activists who are speaking out about school safety, gun violence and its impact on them and their community.
In late March, black students from Parkland met to talk about how they’d been underrepresented by the media and to discuss their concerns about increased policing as a response to the mass shooting at their school in February. And they aren’t done yet. On Monday, they launched a new social media campaign aimed at amplifying the stories of black and brown survivors of gun violence that don’t make the mainstream news.
In this tweet, a student briefly describes why this matters and what this group is trying to do.
Though #StoriesUntold is a campaign begun specifically by Parkland students, they are inviting students and young people from across the country to share their stories, experiences and the ways that they’ve been impacted by gun violence.
It is fitting that the campaign launched on Monday, the very day that Parkland students returned after their Spring Break. Monday marked almost seven weeks since the school shooting and these students have found their lives drastically altered. They are now required to use clear backpacks and while there is an increase in the numbers of police officers on their campus, many of them feel more unsafe than ever. This is a sentiment particularly expressed by students of color who recognize the intersection between gun violence, police violence and immigration enforcement. And while these stories often go unheard and are often intentionally silenced, it is the experiences of minority students and communities that are most impacted by gun violence.
As Teen Vogue writes:
Ahead of the March for Our Lives event on March 24, people were quick to point out that the gun control movement extends far beyond Parkland, and that teen activists have been fighting for gun reform for years. Gun violence largely impacts communities of color, and the myriad speeches at the March for Our Lives included gun violence survivors from black and Latinx communities, all urging listeners to pay attention to the ways gun violence affects minority communities, too. Minority students at the high school held a news conference last week to add their voices to the national conversation. The students said they felt left out of the national discussion and wanted their perspectives as students of color to be heard.
“This press conference was held just to say, Douglas does have black students and here we are,” Tyah-Amoy Roberts, a 17-year-old junior, told Teen Vogue after that conference on March 30. “We have been neglected by the media.”
There are many reasons why Stories Untold is relevant and timely. Of course, we know that representation matters and that it’s necessary to hear diverse voices in this conversation. And from a social justice perspective, it’s critical to center the most impacted and marginalized voices in order to facilitate meaningful and longlasting change. But it also speaks to importance of doing intentional and intersectional movement work now and in the future. There are many ways that gun violence is manifested in our country. Mass shootings are one way, and as increasingly commonplace as they are, when you factor in issues like police violence, gender-based violence, poverty, mass incarceration, xenophobia and homophobia, you breed a toxic culture that perpetuates the devaluation of human life. Young people see this and recognize that there are larger systems at work and are pushing back against the silencing of their voices—and they are using the technology of the time, social media, to document their struggle. That is both extraordinary and transformative.
Teen Vogue captures it well:
Founded by MSD student Carlitos Rodriguez, the hashtag is giving a platform to the hundreds of students of color who attend the school of more than 3,000 students and lived through the mass shooting — but whose voices haven’t been as widely heard by the media and its audience. It’s a blind spot that many Parkland activists have been quick to criticize, especially given that MSD’s student demographic is diverse, a fact you might not know by only looking at the way the media focuses on the majority-white activists who have found themselves at the center of the debate.
“After the traumatic events we lived on February 14th, it is critical for us diverse students to share our stories,” Carlitos said in an email. “There are over 3,300 voices that need to be heard ... many of these voices include Latino, Asian, and African-American voices.”
As we approach the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one cannot help but think what he would have thought about this incredible time in our history and what he might have said about these racial and social justice movements (Black Lives Matter, Never Again, Stories Untold, United We Dream) that have been organized and led by young people. Sadly, because he was taken from the world too soon, we will never know. But we do know that these young people are carrying on a rich legacy of activism and social transformation that young people and adults in decades past engaged in. They are anything but apathetic. They are brave, wise and determined and we owe it to them to listen and follow their lead.