And the Youth Shall Lead Them…
In the aftermath of the horrible, and now all too familiar, occurrence of the school shooting in Parkland Florida, might we have come to the tipping point? And if we have, what caused THIS one to be different?
Unlike the previous horror in Sandy Hook where innocent children were the target. Unlike the PULSE nightclub in Orlando, where a seemingly-marginalized LGBTQ community experienced the profound loss of friends and loved ones. Unlike even Las Vegas, where there was a huge, but disparate group of concert goers, the Parkland victims were part of a vocal, agile and active youth network: the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. These smart, sophisticated, and passionate? students have demonstrated knowledge and media savvy with twitter handles and Instagrams at the ready. The students instantly communicated their outrage, their fear and their determination to make change.
Does It help that they are well-off, urban, and mostly white, so their voices were, perhaps, more palatable to media outlets worldwide? Not to take away from their fortitude, but they also had ready access to financial and social resources to support their cause. Their calls were no different from what we’d heard previously:
MAKE OUR SCHOOLS SAFE.
RESTRICT the access to weapons that wreak such havoc.
LISTEN to the will of the people.
DO SOMETHING.
The students of Stoneman Douglas High School called out their state and federal legislators. While the response to their urgent, compelling arguments are still unfolding, they have already engineered a change. State laws were passed in Florida to restrict sales of so-called bump stocks, institution of a three day waiting period on gun purchases and movement of the minimum age for gun purchases to 21 years. Small steps, indeed, but profound in the face of the all-powerful NRA, who have already filed suit against the legality of these new regulations.
The youth accomplished what state and local elected officials could not. What our 45th president would not. They achieved what so many lawmakers across the nation have failed to do, and they are not finished. The YOUTH have led where our leaders have been reluctant– even fearful to go.
I also cannot help but think how different the earlier, vocal, social media savvy, and well-organized protests by Black and Brown youth in our City against the daily assault on their lives has been received. If Travyon Martin, LaQuan McDonald , Rekia Boyd, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Charleena Myles, Freddie Gray, or Natasha McKenna had been a White, would their stories and the outrage that followed been met with a different response? And what if the Stoneman Douglas youth lifted their voices in support of the Dreamers– also well-organized, passionate, and well-spoken?
And finally, I ponder and imagine what would happen if these distinctly different but deeply intertwined movements collaborated? What would happen if these well-connected and equipped white youth lift their voices in support of Black Lives Matter? If they mounted a sustained attack on the over-policing and ongoing violence against their fellow – if distant and often marginalized- students? About economic opportunity for their generation of diverse youth leaders?
So, I hope that the all these powerful youthful activists will continue to lead; their fierce determination to create change in the face of so many unnecessary deaths may create the political will and legislative shifts that our communities so desperately need. But I also want the Stoneman Douglas students to understand, embrace, and fight for equity in the lives they are hoping to preserve. I want them to realize that the gun violence is only one of the critical issues our nation must confront. I want them to use their voices not just for gun laws, but for real, sustained racial and social equity.
Black Lives Matter, BYP100, and other movements like the recent example in Parklands suggest that it is, indeed, the youth who shall lead us.
Amina Dickerson, Woods Fund Chicago Board Member