Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Politics/National
NationalNewsNews VideoVideo

Black Students At Parkland School Make Passionate Plea for Protection Amid Gun Violence Debate

Posted byBy Tia Berger | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

The media sure has a way of ostracizing people of color and according to Black students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, their voices have been ignored.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Black students are speaking out and want to be included in the dominating public conversation of gun control.

“The Black Lives Matter movement has been addressing (gun violence) since the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012, yet we have never seen this kind of support for our cause and we surely do not feel the lives or voices of minorities are valued as much as those of our white counterpart,” Tyah-Amoy Roberts, Douglas High student told reporters, WPEC-TV reported.

Students of color congregated in Parkland, FL on Wednesday to let their voices be heard about the under representation in the media and being overlooked by fellow white peers in wake of 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz murdering their classmates. “About 8 media organizations covered this press conference– most of them local,” Nadege Green a WLRN reporter tweeted.

17-year-old Parkland student Kai Koerber said, “It’s bad enough we have to return with clear backpacks…Should we also return with our hands up?” He fears police will racially typecast students of color and treat them as “potential criminals”.

School board member Rev. Rosalind Osgood said Koerber’s comments need to be heard. “I don’t want the minority kids to be angry and feel that they’re being ignored.. I don’t think anybody’s intentionally excluding them, but nobody’s intentionally including them either.”

People on Twitter agreed with the Black students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas.

https://twitter.com/KMichaelC2000/status/979728018733256704

https://twitter.com/MuslimIQ/status/979375912947978240

Over 3,000 students attend the high school, eleven percent are Black.

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top