Changing Sides
A recent controversial post by NA for Change has sparked division within the district.
September 22, 2020
Since its founding last spring, NA for Change has remained steadfast in its commitment to “educate friends and families about structural inequalities and propose solutions,” as their Instagram account highlights. But the organization’s focus on encouraging the community to become advocates for greater diversity and allies to those affected by prejudice has not always been met with unanimous support, as one recent Instagram post revealed.
On September 4, 2020, NA for Change issued a post labeled “North Allegheny Student Testimonials,” which featured quotes from past and present students who feel that they have been discriminated against in the schooling system. The comment section is what really drew the attention, as it resembled something of a war zone.
“Both sides [of the political parties] feel attacked and the other side won’t listen to what is true,” said McKenna Mitchell, Class of ‘21, who identifies as a right-leaning student. “Everyone was pointing fingers and labeling others as racist. I think that it has now hindered me from trying to form a friendship with any of those people, and I feel like that could be the same for them.”
The testimonial that set the comment section into action was a quote from a Black student who expressed how he felt unwanted because of his race. He reflected that the confederate flags, whose owners “were white students who were known to hate Black people and use the n-word constantly,” were a reminder that he was “hated by a very large portion of my classmates just for being Black.”
Emilie Whitewolf, a senior who identifies as left-leaning, found the post to be especially eye-opening.
“I realized just how much inequity and racism truly exist at NA,” Whitewolf said. “So many comments were full of ignorance and hatred, especially towards the experiences of other students”.
Jack Birch, a junior who identifies as right-leaning, took a more pragmatic view of the controversy.
“I understand that in a perfect world there would be no confederate flags, and no one would care about skin tone,” Birch said, “but I don’t think the world will ever be like that. It’s better to learn to put up with different opinions than to be sheltered from them.”
Many students, however, believed that the NA for Change post was taken out of context, that the comment section strayed from the original point and instead became a place to call out others’ views.
“I truthfully don’t think either side is solely at fault here—we all have our own biases,” said senior Emily Thompson, a senior who identifies as a moderate liberal. “But we’re at a point where people are so willing to argue and not seek compromise.”
Another student, who identifies as right-leaning and asked to remain anonymous, questioned not the content of NA for Change’s platform but the way it is being delivered.
“I would support the whole movement [NA for Change] if they weren’t so biased and self-righteous,” the student said. “Their cause does not drive people away. The way they go about it does.”
But for organization co-founder Jaime Martinez, Class of ‘20, the differing views surrounding NA for Change are unfortunate.
“NA For Change is, at its core, a strong message of unity,” Martinez said. “Our focus is neither partisan politics nor ingratitude, but equity, empowerment, and positive progress.”
spencer g • Sep 24, 2020 at 8:41 pm
As someone who graduated from NA last year, I gotta provide a bit more context for everyone reading. Obviously intellectual diversity is important and no one should feel unsafe voicing their opinions. That being said, there’s a time and place for those opinions to be expressed. Responding to an apolitical post with…politics… is both unproductive and immature. The slew of comments from raging Trump supporters on NAForChange’s instagram post was utterly pathetic and straight up disappointing. The post was literally about prejudice at NA. It had no political undertone whatsoever. It was simply a collection of firsthand accounts from students and had nothing to do with opinions. Within minutes, the comment section was FLOODED with Trump supporters both expressing their support for Trump (totally unrelated to the post) and freaking out about how they’re not racist. Again, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but the response was infantile and honestly sad. To clarify, this was an entire mob of people and not just a few. The fact that such a large portion of NA’s student body is immature enough to read a post about racism in our school and only react to the most insignificant, myopic aspects is really unfortunate. Just for good measure y’all should know a student in this comment section quite literally DEFENDED drawing swastikas on desks. This individual claimed drawing swastikas was “a joke” despite continually failing to explain what the joke actually was. That symbol is a direct representation of Nazi Germany and the war they initiated, along with the largest genocide in human history. The fact that ANY high school student could be uneducated and immature enough to view it as a joke is insane. Comment section was also full of people arguing the Confederate Flag isn’t racist at all and is actually a symbol of southern pride. This whole situation is just pathetic.