Hundreds gather in downtown SLO for educational, anti-racism event geared toward kids
Hundreds of young children, parents and community members gathered Sunday afternoon in Mitchell Park near downtown San Luis Obispo for an event meant to educate about racism and peaceful activism.
The Central Coast Children’s March for Black Lives kicked off at 3 p.m. with speakers highlighting the importance of being an “upstander,” or someone who acts in support of an individual or cause. Speakers stressed the importance of learning about racism at a young age and thanked parents who brought their kids to the park.
Samantha Smith, a 16-year-old who organized the event, said it was different from others in the past because the focus was not just on protesting.
“When I was very young, I always had these conversations (about race and racism) in my home and I realized that a lot of kids my age and younger haven’t always talked about things like this,” Smith said. “So I think it’s very important that people do have these discussions and also for parents to know how to open up the discussion to their kids.”
After the speakers were done, Smith split the crowd — which was a little more than 200 people — into three age groups: preschool and younger elementary school age; older elementary and middle school age; and middle and high school age. She said that since young kids learn differently than older kids, it was more appropriate to hold three different sessions.
In the two younger groups, educators, who were mainly the organizers of the event, taught kids about what race means, and how to recognize when someone is not being kind to another person just because they look different.
“Is our hair different colors?” asked one speaker, Nancy Lagunas. “What about our skin color?”
Lagunas told kids and their parents who were listening that “we made up this word called race to split people up,” and that just because someone’s skin color may be different, it does not mean that they should be treated badly.
In the other group for young kids, speakers emphasized that being an “upstander” was a good thing, and that those who stood up for their friends who were being bullied for being Black were already positive community activists.
Those in the group for older, high school to college age people were told that racism exists clearly throughout SLO County, and that they are the generation that should be standing up for anti-racism now.
Sophia Sostrin, 15, said she was there to show her support for the Black Lives Matter movement and she liked the educational side to the day.
“I think this has a deeper meaning,” Sostrin said. “Especially with the kids, and marching sets a widespread message with our words and our numbers. But I think in here (Mitchell Park), with the groups split up, it can affect you more.”
Parents who attended the event said they went not only in hopes that their kids would learn something, but that they would as well.
Erin Stehli, a mother of three kids under 7 years old, said that though she and her kids have been showing up to Black Lives Matter and anti-racism demonstrations in the county for several years, the concepts of race and racism are still extremely hard to teach to them.
“I think the movement is important, but it’s hard to talk about with kids,” Stehli said. “I stumble all over my words trying to explain it. So being here where it was specifically set to explaining some of this stuff to children is good because I need to learn about it just as much as they need to hear it.”
In San Luis Obispo, these conversations with young children are especially important, Stehli said.
“It’s especially important that in a majority white community where often most of their classmates are white that they hear about and are introduced to these concepts because it probably won’t happen just on its own,” she said.
The educational portion of the event lasted about 40 minutes. Afterward, speakers brought the groups together to teach them a few specific chants such as “Black is beautiful,” “No justice, no peace,” and “Black Lives Matter,” that would be used during the march.
Then, the organizers gathered the crowd and departed on a march that first went around Mitchell Park, then through a few streets in downtown San Luis Obispo.
Organizers originally said that everyone would be kept on the sidewalks and obeying traffic laws. But when the crowd got to Chorro and Marsh streets, they marched through the middle of the street and continued that way down Morro and then Buchon streets on their way back to Mitchell Park.
San Luis Obispo police on motorcycles as well as peacekeepers in bright pink vests helped block traffic and kept cars from driving down the streets that the protesters were walking down.
After arriving back in the park, organizers made some concluding remarks and thanked those who attended the event.
Organizers said they are planning for more events and protests this coming week to continue to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and calling for the eight charges against local activist Tianna Arata to be dropped.
This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 9:11 PM.
