Fresno’s young people are the key to changing the ignorance of institutional racism | Opinion

“The American dream feels very far away from me now,” despaired the woman next to me.

While the call for help drifted before me, the four walls in which I sat remained grounded in southwest Fresno — the home of Edison High School, where I have attended for four years.

When my Black Student Union adviser invited me and a few other students to a listening session focused on recognizing Fresnans struck by poverty, I jumped at the opportunity. I drove to the community center and took my seat among the other Fresnans. The host, Michael Tubbs,, former mayor of Stockton, welcomed everyone to the event. After opening the floor up, a flurry of testimonies proceeded.

Among the stories that unfolded, one stood out to me the most. A weathered lady told, in Spanish, the horror story of her life. Through a translator, I was able to glimpse into the woman’s recent struggles. She related her stories of a white neighbor who “didn’t want any Mexicans as neighbors” and a system that was designed to oppress her. She described feeling hopeless as she filed for bankruptcy and learned how to live a homeless life on the streets. She was a woman who was tired of being treated like an afterthought by her city.

Some people claim that the impoverished are responsible for their situation. That is the furthest assumption from the truth. I couldn’t bear the thought of people thinking that because I had just heard the lengths that the woman had gone to avoid her inevitable, current situation. The whole way home the stories spun through my head until I developed a solution to help the people of southwest Fresno.

I understood that Edison has always been considered “the smart kid” school, so how come its students aren’t supporting their community more? I realized it’s because many of them are like me — transfer students who drive 20 minutes to get to the campus. The majority of these students are oblivious to the struggles surrounding them. If they’re driving from north Fresno, they can watch the amount of grocery stores decline as the convenience stores increase. Many students aren’t aware of why their surroundings are different at school than they are at home. If students were made to understand that the aftershocks of historical racism still plague the society they live in, I feel they would want to do something about it.

That’s why I’m calling for an addition to the FUSD curriculum, one that educates our students on the disparities of their community. First, students must understand that it’s their neighbors and classmates who are hurting. In 2019, an estimated 80% of students at Edison were socioeconomically disadvantaged while 1.2% were homeless. Through community events such as listening sessions or even carnivals, students can be given opportunities to understand that southwest Fresno consists of many disadvantaged black and Hispanic people because of racial redlining. You cannot understand the present without first understanding the past. Grasping the current struggles that we face is a great first step, but nothing happens without action. We need our students to not only engage, listen, and understand our community, but move forward and collaborate with residents on solutions. Southwest Fresno needs advocacy and support, and I believe that the students of the region have the potential to provide that.

If someone had read me that woman’s story from an article, I would have endured a few fleeting moments of sympathy and gone about my day. It was the impact of hearing the story from the source in real time that stuck with me long after I drove home. Students need more experiences like that — to face the ugly parts of our society in broad daylight and be forced to reconcile with them.

Students are the key to our success in this mission to eliminate institutional racism. Without them, our future will remain uncertain.

Thomas Stewart is a senior at Edison High School in Fresno and a member of the school’s Black Student Union.