Lowell Students Dance Away Hate Group
A Kansas hate group targeting gays and Jews picketed in the San Francisco Bay Area last week. “The community decided not to give this group publicity, but young people at Lowell High School did not want to remain silent,” reads the opening text at the beginning of a short video on the high school students’ response. The clip shows a small number of picketers from the hate group on one side, and a mass of students laughing and dancing, holding signs of tolerance, on the other. Lowell High School Principal Andrew Ishibashi said, “I met with students . . . and our main message was to turn something hateful, or something negative, into a positive. And we did that with love and acceptance.” As Rabbi Sydney Mintz said “I can’t even feel the hate because there’s so much love going on behind me.” The film is from the group Not In Our Town and is part of their Not In Our School project—“a peer-to-peer learning program that uses film and storytelling to encourage safety and inclusion.”
- Why do you think the students decided not to remain silent? What motivates people to take action to make the world a better place?
- Why do you think the community decided not to give the hate group publicity? Did the students’ response give the hate group publicity? How can publicity be negative? How can it be positive?
- As Rabbi Sydney Mintz said, “There’s a big difference between a counter-protest and people actually showing their support for diversity and the community.” What does she mean by this? How did the students’ response differ from a counter-protest?
- When you see a problem in your community, how do you decide whether or not to get involved? What are some reasons why people might choose to get involved? What are some reasons why people might choose not to get involved?
- The concept of “universe of responsibility” refers to “the individuals and groups we feel obligated to protect and support—the people about whom we care.” (This phrase is built on psychologist and scholar Helen Fein’s “universe of obligation.”) After watching this video, how did Lowell High School students define their universe of responsibility? What factors influence your universe of responsibility? Under what circumstances might it change?
