[Danielle Balocca]: Hey listeners, this is Danielle. And Shelley. Shelley is a radical Dravidian and racial equity activist.
[Chelli Keshavan]: And Danielle is a community mobilizer and changemaker. And this is the Medford Bites podcast. Every two weeks, we chew on the issues facing Medford and deliver bites of information about the city by lifting the expertise of our guests.
[Danielle Balocca]: Join us in discussion about what you hope for the future of Medford. And as always, tell us where you like to eat. Hey Medford Bites listeners. Today's episode is a conversation with three students from the CCSR at the Brooks Elementary School.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, my name is Kyden Cabrales. My pronouns are he and him. I'm partially from Trinidad. I like CB Scoops and my favorite ice cream there is cookie dough. with hot fudge and whipped cream.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hi, my name is Martin Alvanos, and I'm white. My pronouns are he or him, and I'm partially from Greece. My favorite place to eat in Medford is the Lighthouse Diner.
[XXXXXX00113_SPEAKER_09]: Hi, my name's Caleb Davis. My pronouns are he and him, and I'm mostly white. My favorite place to eat is Blue Fuji. It's a sushi place and my favorite sushi there is snow mountain maki.
[Danielle Balocca]: These students are in a specific subgroup of CCSR that focuses on anti-racism and Black Lives Matter. During our conversation, they shared why it is important to have conversations about race and racism.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think race is an important topic to discuss because it's probably eventually going to happen in your life when you're older and you need to know what it is to handle it.
[XXXXXX00113_SPEAKER_09]: I think race is an important topic. A bit like Martin said, when we grow up and even at this age some kids will experience racism and we want to know what racism is so we can help that person if they're getting bullied for it or other things.
[SPEAKER_04]: Race and racism is an very important topic because
[XXXXXX00113_SPEAKER_09]: like we do all have to face it at at one time and and the more you know about it the more you can stand up against it yeah we also discussed how they see race and racism in their community i think sometimes uh you'll see differences definitely um different uh skin colors like some people have lighter skin colors some people have darker skin colors and It doesn't really make a difference because we're all human, but that's something. And then people will move here from different places. Some people who live in here or live in Medford or America that have darker skin colors, you hear on the news and that stuff, some people are like they treat darker skin colored people. they don't treat them as equally as white people.
[SPEAKER_03]: I do think, like, it certainly seems like it's been a lot harder for, like, people with darker skin to get noticed because some people, like, used to protest against them and getting to say something.
[SPEAKER_04]: In history, black people definitely were not treated fairly. They had worse schools, worse water fountains, worse bathrooms. And people today, and black people today probably don't get paid as much as white people if they're doing the exact same job.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think part of the reason this has taken so long for them for black people to get noticed more is because it's sort of been like, is because it was like encoded in the law that like black people shouldn't be treated fairly. And even though they've changed those laws, people are still treating them unfairly.
[XXXXXX00113_SPEAKER_09]: And we kind of thought racism, or slavery, was almost over. So we kind of thought racism was done. But then, the reason it's taking so long is because there's so many years of racism that we just didn't try to fix, that now we have to change that these days.
[Danielle Balocca]: We also talked about how racism shows up today, how it intersects with what they're learning in school, and how they want to be part of the solution.
[SPEAKER_04]: Someone says that black lives matter, but maybe white people are taking that the wrong way and they're thinking that their lives don't matter. I was thinking that black lives, that people should put up signs that says black lives matter too.
[XXXXXX00113_SPEAKER_09]: And part of it, part of the reason people say that, or part of the reason some white people will think that their lives don't matter is, like I said, they're saying black lives matter. There's a story we heard. If there's, let's say there's a whole neighborhood and a house is being burnt down, the firefighters want to put the water on that house. If they put it on the other houses, that wouldn't make sense because those houses are perfectly fine. That house is the one that needs the water to put out the fire.
[SPEAKER_03]: And part of what Caleb was saying is fear isn't always the same. Like, if Kitem was choking, and then Caleb ran over to him and started heimlicking him, and then stopped, and then went over to me and started heimlicking me. That wouldn't make sense, right? That would be fair, but it just doesn't make any sense.
[Danielle Balocca]: It would be equal, but not equitable, right? That's the difference between giving everybody the same thing versus lifting people up that have historically been taken down.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Danielle Balocca]: Those are great analogies. I really appreciate that. So maybe we can get to the point where we talk about What do you want to do about it? So what, if you noticed, it sounds like, um, you know, you're not, you have a school that has students and teachers that have all different kinds of races, right? What would you do if you noticed, um, racism happening in your school?
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I would stand up to the person who would, who was being racist and, If they wouldn't stop, I would get help from an adult. And what you wouldn't want to do is you wouldn't want to be a bystander and watch it happening because then that tells the bully that what they're doing is okay and that they should keep doing it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think not exactly that they should keep doing it, but they keep doing it because they're like saying to themselves, I'm doing this and I'm not getting in trouble. So I bet it's okay that I keep doing it, which it's not.
[XXXXXX00113_SPEAKER_09]: part of the reason sometimes people will do that stuff because everyone is a bystander in watching it and they're not getting in trouble and they think they're really cool but so we want to what we need to do is get everyone to be an upstander and try to stop that the bully that's doing that and
[SPEAKER_03]: If we didn't stop the bully and we kept being a bystander, then that would make more people say, hey, this is OK, so I'm going to start doing it too.
[SPEAKER_04]: You could be an outstander, like the example Martin said. Like if someone's getting bullied, you can stop them from doing that. And if they don't listen, then you can go get a teacher.
[Danielle Balocca]: And finally, the students shared what they want us to take away from this conversation and how they talk about racism and race in their families.
[SPEAKER_03]: Racism isn't okay and we need to make it stop.
[XXXXXX00113_SPEAKER_09]: We talk about, I think, almost like exactly what Martin said. Racism is a big thing now and we need to find a way to stop if it's doing a protest or if it's talking on a podcast like this.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you so much to Kai, Martin, and Caleb, and your teacher, Mr. Coates at the Brooks Elementary School. We can't wait to see what you all do in the future. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. The Medford Bites podcast is produced and moderated by Danielle Balacca and Shelly Keshaman. Music is made by Hendrick Guidonis. We'd love to hear what you think about the podcast. You can reach out to us by email at medfordpod at gmail.com, or you can rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites. Never Bites. Good job.