Every Tuesday after school, students from all grades meet in Ms. Henry’s room to work on undoing the racism in Watertown Middle School.

    Students in the Undoing Racism group have been working on three big projects: a rap mixtape, a video, and a mural. Peers show their commitment to undoing racism by coming to the club in their own free time.

    “Kids joined the club for many different reasons,” Ms.Henry said, “whether they had friends involved, had witnessed racism before, or just really wanted to solve racism, they have all stepped up and shown commitment.”

    How did the club start? It began as a few friends who would go to Ms. Henry’s room to hang out and eat lunch. Students would eat, play on Chromebooks, and make jokes.

    One day at lunch, there was a violent situation involving a fight and a racial slur. Due to this situation, eighth-grader Joey Borelli and a few other students decided to make a survey about racism. When the lunch group was surveyed, they found some interesting results.

     The results of the study brought up many questions they wanted to discus, but the group didn’t have the time during lunch, so they took time out of their fourth-period class to talk about them.

    Through these fourth-period dialogues, the students were able to create a presentation to share at the Martin Luther King Jr. assembly. Once the students had educated the school, they were able to take the next steps and start an afterschool club.

    Some students have shown more dedication than others. For example, eighth-grader Mali Glemaud-Thesee has spent much of his free time writing and performing raps about racism. For this club to make a difference, students like Mali needed to step up and show determination in solving racism.

    On Friday afternoon, June 16, 2017, the Undoing Racism group and the Kingian Nonviolence class are running an all-school assembly at Watertown Middle School. The assembly will include a showing of all of the club’s accomplishments, such as the rap mixtape. This assembly will hopefully get more people to join the club, and maybe get more kids to stand up to racism.

–June 15, 2017–