ALL NOV ROAR PAGES

News
Teens awaken to social activism
KEIRA COLEMAN /
SPECIAL TO THE ROAR
George Floyd, a black man from
Minneapolis, Minnesota, was arrested on
May 25 for allegedly passing counterfeit
money. He was dead within minutes.
Some claim racial profiling and
subsequent police brutality were the
cause, while others say his death was
the unfortunate result of drug use and
underlying health issues. What most
Americans agree on, however, is that
his death was a tragedy that led to a
wave of national unrest.
Teenagers across the country have
witnessed this upheaval on the nightly
news and in their social media feeds.
Some have even been participants.
Amelia Knotts, a 17-year-old from
Oxford, Mich., said she felt safe where
she lives but knows that other cities
have been heavily affected by Black
Lives Matter protests.
“In terms of good cops versus bad
cops, I think that there are racist police
officers but that there are racist people
[in general], too,” she said. “I don’t
think that George Floyd was murdered
with racial motives. I think that the
[main] officer would have done the
same thing if [Floyd] was white.”
Andy Carlos, a 17-year-old, lived in
Melbourne before moving to Chicago
three years ago. He sees BLM protests in
his city almost every day.
“My own neighborhood has had
protests,” he said. “Other sections I go to in
Chicago, like Little Village and downtown,
have had riots, looting and heavy police
activity. I’ve seen a few protests first-hand,
and I have classmates that regularly attend
them. I also know people on social media
that have organized them. If you are a teen
in Chicago, you think protesting is cool.”
Some teens believe the BLM movement,
with calls to defund the police and the
unauthorized removal of historical statues,
has become politicized.
“Ninety-nine percent of people have
no problem with the phrase 'black lives
matter' because they do [matter], plain
and simple," Luke Johnson, an 18-yearold
from Melbourne Beach, said. "The
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movement is where things get tricky [since
the protests] that turn violent very quickly
overshadow the ones that are peaceful.”
A couple of months ago, Sarina Barot-
Martinez, a 16-year-old from Laguna
Niguel, Calif., and her friend were
attending a protest at an intersection in her
affluent town when they had an aggressive
exchange with a driver.
“My friend and I were there peacefully
protesting,” she said. “At one point, a guy
pulled over, rolled down his window,
and started arguing with us. We didn’t
engage except to say ‘Black Lives Matter!’
He got out of the car and began to harass
my friend. Things escalated fast, and he
pulled a knife on her. Obviously we were
not trying to get stabbed, so we left for our
own safety.”
Karishma Patel, a 16-year-old from
Ellicott City, Md., said she hasn’t been
personally affected by the movement but
still tries to find ways to support it. In
August, Patel saw an opportunity to get
involved at a peaceful protest four hours
away from her in Virginia Beach.
“On the boardwalk, [we walked]
in support of the Black Lives Matter
movement,” Patel said. “It was one of
the most life-changing experiences. I’ve
seen videos and posts [of protests] on
social media but actually participating
in [one] allowed me to see the emotion
[and] passion in the eyes of the African
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION / CREATIVE COMMONS
Americans I was marching alongside. It
brought my friend and I to tears because
people should not have to prove that their
life matters. Everyone around me was so
kind. It ended with speeches in honor of
African Americans who [were] killed by
police officers.”
Junior Logan Jenkins questions if
African Americans are the main target of
police brutality.
“I’ve personally talked to many people
who said that they thought thousands of
unarmed African Americans were being
killed on a yearly basis,” Jenkins said.
“According to [the ‘Washington Post’],
though, that number has not exceeded
two dozen in any of the past five years —
including 2020.”
— Editor’s note: For more on this story, visit
www.westshoreroar.com