SAAS Holds Martin Luther King Jr. School-Wide Assembly

"Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives."    ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On Tuesday, January 19, Seattle Academy students began their day in a virtual assembly in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Students from both Middle and Upper School led the assembly making presentations about the legacy and importance of Dr. King and the ways we can follow his example to continue building our community. 
 
In this assembly, students were encouraged to think about their identities and privileges, and to lean into discomfort. They were asked to anonymously share their racial identity and preferred pronouns to get a sense of who was in the "room." Using the prompt "what does privilege look like?" students talked about what a privilege it is to be in a majority and reflected on their own privileges. Out of this activity, students created a word cloud illustrating their shared responses.

Seattle Academy’s white, anti-bias, anti-racist student group (ABAR) spoke on ways to engage in and practice antiracism ensuring us that, just like anything, it takes practice. Talking about race is a process. Recognizing privilege is an important step, as is self-education, and the courage to move through discomfort to build connections, understanding, and change.
 
The ABAR group is just one of many Affinity Groups available to Middle and Upper School students including the Black Student Union, as well as Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Multi-Racial groups. To learn more,  contact Taylor Kanemori or Danae Howe.

 
Shared Resources

Books:

• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah 
• All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto - George M. Johnson 
• Available via the Sora App found through the SAAS Library’s Digital Collection