Emara Shabir
As a leader at Berkeley High, I define leadership as a group of individuals who strive to create unity, understanding, and an impact in Berkeley High. Without leadership there wouldn’t have been a chance for students to become leaders, speak out about important issues, and gain understanding of others.
This year I’ve seen a lot of community based learning, for example the B.S.U lead an all day assembly to educate their community about their own history. This all day assembly affected not just African Americans but all people of color, for they too wanted to learn more about their own history. For me it was working with the ELD students that helped me understand my parents immigration story. Although I am not an immigrant myself, I can sympathize with my parents hardships more now that I’ve talked to ELD students about what they’re going through.
I believe this happened because of the lynching message directed towards African Americans. If that hadn’t happened, then the assembly wouldn’t have happened, nor the all day long community based talks. I’m grateful for that opportunity to finally talk about pressing issues such as colorism, cultural appropriation, racism, and gentrification.
I wish that people would talk more and fight less about issues such as racism because we see know that it gets violent really quick when a person refuses to educate themselves. If there was a way to have a community based discussion around America that would actually bring up the issues of systematic racism that would be great. However, in order to start that we have to start with ourselves. Educating ourselves on ICE, systematic racism, sexism, and Islamophobia, will benefit us when we are trying to educate another person.
Everyone needs to be educated, and the educator. The time is now, and always will be now. There is a issue within American and it needs to be dealt with through education. We have been blessed that we live in a diverse community. As a community we have to take advantage of our diversity, through this we can achieve understanding.
I’m running for ASB president, and if I am elected then I will have quarterly discussions where issues come up that have to do with our community. If we can talk about these issues, and educate ourselves then we can achieve a better understanding, and possibly come up with better solutions.
Leadership is much more than a extra curricular. It’s an opportunity to become a leader, to have a platform where you can voice your thoughts and get others to understand. For me, leadership has become a lifestyle, that wherever I go, I will try to create a community. I’ve learned that it starts with one person, then branches out into a group.