Point of You - Black History Month

Jordan Anderson,

In this episode, host Jordan Anderson speaks with the president of Northview's black History Club about celebrating Black History Month and continuing the recognition and celebration of Black excellence throughout the year. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music!

Jordan: Black History Week was instituted by Carter Woodson in 1915. To address the lack of information on the accomplishments of black people, and reinforce that Black history is American history. A black history week later became Black History Month in 1926. held during the month of February to coincide with the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Black History Month is an annual recognition and celebration of Black excellence. It is a time to reflect, honor and empower the achievements of the black community. At Northview, Black History Club celebrates and supports black empowerment, with various activities year round. Hello, welcome to Point Of View where we give students a place to listen, learn and lean in. I’m your host, Jordan Anderson, and today I’m speaking with Aaliyah Guthrie, who is the president of Northview’s Black History Club.

Jordan: So you've been in the club all four years of high school now. And you're also the president. So tell me about the club. What are meetings usually like?

Aaliyah: So yeah, I've been Black History Club ever since I was a freshman. So it's mainly a discussion group, right? So we all get together, all the members of the club, and we just discuss various topics, whether it's current events, or just general topics that concern the black community, we just come together and talk about it.

Jordan: Okay, so how do you think since you were here from freshman year, and you're now senior? How do you think the evolution of the experience in the club has changed for you? Or maybe in general?

Aaliyah: I think we've definitely seen maturity and every single member that's been a part of the club, like you see that. You see that kind of? We've become more involved. We, we've just learned more, we've understood how to discuss and approach different situations.

Jordan: That's good. So coming back, would you say talking about like different discussions that you guys talked about, do you think that these discussions should be placed more in the classroom as a common type discussion, not only for this month?

Aaliyah: Oh, yeah, for sure. Because I mean, at the end of the day, it's all about bringing awareness, right?

Jordan: Yeah.

Aaliyah: We're just trying to let people know, like, Hey, this is what's happening. Like, if there's no awareness, there's no change, right? We can't expect people to change if they don't understand what's going on. Like, say, for instance, colorism, something that is literally black on black crime, like, it's a serious issue that needs to be discussed, because nobody talks about it. And then it just gets skirted over. And, you know, it's like, No, nobody's gonna change if they don't know what's going on. If they don't know it affects us. Same thing with microaggressions the little sly comments, oh, you're pretty for black girl. You know that. That's not, that's not okay. And, you know, like, just certain things that we just want to make people aware of, that's exactly what we try to focus on in the Black history club.

Jordan: So what type of discussions do you guys discuss about other than colorism?

Aaliyah: And okay, so, black, the Black Lives Matter movement was a huge thing over the summer, right. So we focus a lot of our comments on what happened in so the George Floyd incidents, the the Breanna Taylor, things like all these different events, we want to discuss them, like they're affecting us as a community because they make us uncomfortable. Now, we're going out in the world, and we don't know if the same thing is gonna happen to us just because of the color of our skin. So we just want to make sure that we focus on really heightening on those discussions, because, you know, it's just our the community that we've built, so that we feel comfortable discussing those things.

Jordan: Do you think that Northview, how do you feel about Northview demographic? Do you think it creates a more cohesive supportive community? Or it doesn't?

Aaliyah: I feel like I it does. I think that because North view is so diverse. People can almost relate, like, we have a lot of minority communities within this group, you know, Northview. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, we're all kind of experiencing similar if not the same things. So I feel like we can garner that support, because they can be like, hey, that kind of happens to me too. I mean, obviously, it's in a different way because they may not be black, but they kind of experienced similar things, stigmatism on, you know, the Asian community, they happen, stereotypes same thing. And we all go through similar instances. And that is the Black History Club show, which we perform every every year during Black History Month at the end of the month. And we put together this show, dependent on whatever the theme of is of the year Just to kind of make that, you know, we talk about these things, but it's more of like a visual thing. Can we show Northview? What goes on in our community, that's our way of showing it is producing a show. So I mean, it can, you know, we joke around and we, you know, we play about it, but it does get really intense. So the show is a good way and kind of showing what we do all year in Black History Club.

Jordan: So do you guys, so the theme, what's the theme for this year's show?

Aaliyah: The theme for this year, and Black History club is Civil Rights 2.0, we feel as if we're kind of piggybacking off of the sunrise movement that obviously happened back in the 60s. Just it's kind of our way of saying, hey, like they paved the way for us, we still have a lot more change to do. Right. So that's just kind of what we were focused on this year, is, especially with Black Lives Matter movements, that happened over the summer, it was really important to kind of emphasize the fact that we're not done with this movement is still a lot to learn a lot more to do a lot more change to happen.

Jordan: Building a foundation for us to make more changes.

Aaliyah: Right.

Jordan: Right. So why do you think that conversation specifically right now, since the past couple of years, have a lot of different riots and protests and stuff like that? Why do you think that's important, now.

Aaliyah: I think it's just important to mainly emphasize that current generations are electing change. So when we see all of the police brutality incidents, the accidental tastings, and you can't see me but quote accidental tastings. You know, like these things, you know, these things still occur. And it's important that we show people because awareness is key awareness is everything, every issue, every problem has, you know, that awareness because you need to let people know this is still happening. And this needs to change.

Jordan: People starting to open their eyes more.

Aaliyah: Right.

Jordan: See the real world. So what do you feel like North you can do to more actively participate in Black History Month?

Aaliyah: I honestly think that listening is really important. Just sitting and listening to what other people go through and trying to understand. I know it's difficult because you know, you're not necessarily in their shoes, but just sitting and listening. And it's like, you know, you're taking in and kind of absorbing that in, it'll, it'll really help because, you know, knowing that people are really understanding like, Hey, this is what they go through, you know, it may at least shed some.

Jordan: Understanding a little bit.

Aaliyah: Right.

Jordan: Because even though they might not really fully understand, right, they at least have some clue or sort of idea. Okay so, people, how do you think people should continue the conversation for Black History, black history in general, not just because it's February and it’s Black History Month. How do you think people should continue this conversation throughout, like the years and stuff like that.

Aaliyah: So Black History Month was actually intended initially, to teach people about the history and facts that they fail to learn in school. Right now. It's here to celebrate Black excellence. I think we should just continue that. So there's different black innovators, black inventors, black entertainers that we just don't know about that we don't celebrate, we don't acknowledge, I think that's just still happened. Black History Month is one of those months where you see, you know, hundreds of Instagram posts and quotes and everything by black educators black, you know, just black notable figures. And, you know, that that needs to continue happening, because it's so much we just don't know, because we're not taught this in school. We don't, we don't see it in mainstream media. So I feel like now, you know, with social media and everything that can be carried out.

Jordan: Especially since the other summer, I just learned what Juneteenth was. And I never knew like what that was until I heard on the news. I was listening to this one guy he was just talking about on Instagram because my mom sent it to me. And I was like, really? I'd never heard about that. In the 10 years. I've been in school.

Aaliyah: Right. Exactly. And that's the thing. It's Juneteenth has been a thing for hundreds of years. Nobody know about it. It just became a federal holiday this year. Its crazy.

Jordan: So definitely feel like we should incorporate that more into our history, especially the the more the younger generations, because we don't understand like, we never really experienced fully what they went through in the 60s and stuff like that.

Aaliyah: Right.

Jordan: And it's good for us just understand, like where we were and where we are now. Difference and stuff like that.

Aaliyah: Right.

Jordan: So essentially, your senior you'll be leaving high school soon. How do you think while you take any of these like different things that you do outside of the high school into the real world?

Aaliyah: Oh, yeah, for sure. Um, my biggest thing is that I mean, I've never been, you know, I've never had a lot of experiences where I've been traumatized, like a traumatizing black experiences, I feel like I've had a definitely a great life. My parents built that for me. I'm learning just as much as any other person would. But had I not, you know, I'm black, I've definitely experienced some things. But I'm learning so much about experiences that other black people face, we can learn from each other. So I'll definitely take that with me, because I learned so much I learned so much in this club being having been in this club. So yeah, I hope to take all of that knowledge.

Jordan: So last question. So when you're gone? And what do you hope the Northview continues to do with the club or Northview as a school in general.

Aaliyah: I just hope North United was actually put in place this year, just to create and diversify, create an open community for students to help diversify the community, help them become more aware, help just include other cultures, because we have so many. I hope that that soars and excels and we utilize that resource that is, you know. Northview United is a direct source to the administration here at Northview. We can use that to make change. I hope that black history continues to collaborate with them continues to make change just within our community, because making change within our community can go it can spread like wildfire. We if we make change here in Northview, we can start making change here in Johns Creek. Start making change here in Georgia start making change here in the US. So definitely like it's very important to just the small things they add up.

Jordan: Well, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk with me today. I can't wait to see the show.

Aaliyah: Of course! Thank you so much.

Jordan: As National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman said, "while we might feel small, separate and all alone, our people have never been more tightly tethered. The question isn't if we will weather this unknown, but how you weather the unknown together." This concludes today's episode of point of view. Thank you so much for listening. For a transcript of this episode, head to the point of view tab on our website, nhsmessenger.org and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook at @nhspointofview. I'm your host Jordan Anderson and this has been Point Of View.