In  recently conducted interviews I got to experience the student point of view as well as the staff’s . When I interviewed Jade Williams, a senior of Northwest High school, she had this to say on the subject. ” It’s the celebration of all the trials and tribulations that my people have overcome and are still overcoming and it’s just like, it’s like remembrance, remember what happened so I don’t happen again.” Then when asked on how Black History Month contributes to promoting diversity and inclusion, she claimed “I feel like during Black History Month even though some people like joke about it, it really does bring the black people together more like they care about each other more.” She later added on how black history month educates people about our contributions and struggles by saying “It just makes them more aware and helps them realize that there’s actual real-life problems and there is still problems with race and equality in America”. Despite the opinions on if Black History Month is still relevant today, she believes it’s relevant to most people, but our schools don’t really care about it. In the closing segment of the interview, she left me with a thought-provoking statement that every educator needs to hear, pleading to “teach year-round about the struggles don’t sugarcoat in history class things that happen” and to also “let everything be known because there’s no point to lie about history.”

The second interview we shift to a more experienced perspective with Mrs. Davis, a current staff member of the school who has become a beacon of hope for students looking to succeed. Even though our school lacks activities and events to celebrate Black History Month, Mrs. Davis talks about a time where there were events and how they can benefit us now. “We could implement with something we did when my daughter was a student here in 2003 they used to have a talent show and it was it was a really nice time and it was pretty well attended so it was it was nice so that’s one idea but another thing that I think that we can do and I am trying to work on with several students here is we’re trying to have  our for the culture.” Going off that question she further added a shocking statistic about Northwest saying, “northwest had the least amount of black male graduates in the entire district.” At first, I couldn’t believe it but when she went off the record and further explained this shortcoming it all made sense. Finally at the end of our interview I asked what ways we can elevate the voices and experiences of the black community beyond February to which Mrs. Davis replied, “through intermingling with different people.” Even though this topic is vague on the different perspectives of Black History Month, we must all appreciate others cultural backgrounds and provide a safe haven for their voices to be heard.