“Oh sorry, I didn’t know displaying the flag of a region home to ⅓ of the US was a federal crime”
“But classifying the flag of Dixie (Confederate Flag) as a symbol of oppression and racism is sad because it shows that history is written by the victors”
“The pride flag should offend Christians, Jews, or Muslims”
All of these statements made were by an anonymous Instagram account who commented on Clayton Valley’s newest organization: DiversifyOurNarrativeCVCHS. More information on Diversify Our Narrative can be found here. To summarize, DiversifyOurNarrative is an organization that supports a more diverse curriculum taught to students in elementary, middle, and high school. They want to emphasize perspectives and events of minorities that are vastly overlooked in history.
While some may agree with these statements, students from Clayton Valley certainly did not. Many students fought the anonymous account, and received support from several Clayton Valley students who believe in similar ideas.
“I’m not affiliated with this page, nor do I go to this school, but don’t interrupt their freedom to spread their political/human beliefs---as per the student journalists’ freedom of expression...I’m going to assume you’re all trolls and anti- everything this page supports. Most of the content on all your pages either says the N word in a negative connotation or the confederate flag in variants of uncanny context…” Replied Joshua Heidrich, graduate of Clayton Valley Charter High School.
Anonymous accounts such as this one are not uncommon: students attack students all the time without repercussions. Take this conversation with a Clayton Valley student, Nia Williams, and the type of harassment she had to deal with regarding her Instagram account, lets.talk.cv. Nia is a senior at Clayton Valley who made her account with an anonymous partner to spread awareness and educate others on various topics including “Defunding the police, BLM, Cultural Appropriation, etc.”
Due to the nature of the conversation and the vulgar language communicated, the full conversation will not be shown to light, but here is a sample: “You know what, f*** black lives...I hope I see you on zoom this year you f******…”
This conversation is alarming, not only because of the harmful statements, but also because Nia only wants to try to help the school and community. It is scary that students who want to share what they believe have to be wary of the opposition and harassment they may receive.
Unfortunately, the person targeting Nia Williams deleted their account, so a statement from them is unavailable. However, the anonymous account that targeted Diversify Our Narrative was inclined to give a statement regarding their viewpoints.
“After realizing they did not want to remove any curriculum, only add more and new perspectives to be more inclusive, I no longer have much of an issue with it and have made a sharp turn to supporting their right to believe in what they believe in,” stated the anonymous person, “I had a deep conversation with my friends as well as many people with different perspectives on Instagram and I truly think I have become more left leaning through my experiences...I am totally fine with change that people of color think needs to happen taking place.”
The current movement, BLM, has inspired many students to make their voices heard. Students who previously held opposing views have changed their beliefs as seen with the anonymous account. It only takes one post, one person to change someone for the better.
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