Letter to the Editor: Response to “Black at BSM”

In light of the recent feature, “Black at BSM,” I feel it’s important to voice my opinion. I have never been a black student at BSM and I know that it would be impossible for me to fully understand the experiences they’ve had at BSM. However, I strongly believe the article was a poor and fundamentally untrue representation of BSM as a whole.

I do fully believe that our student body should be more aware of the prejudices and injustices that surround us, but the recent article made BSM out to be something that it is not. “Black at BSM,” gives the impression to outside readers that our school is an unaccepting and close-minded institution. My own grandparents read the Knight Errant frequently and I’m sure they would be shocked to see our student body would act this way, and I’m sure other BSM families would feel the same.

The Knight Errant is a very successful high school newspaper, and that means that the things they publish hold weight and their opinions hold value. Incoming families and students will most likely look at the Knight Errant at some point in time, and this is not how we want our school to be represented.

I respect the work that the Knight Errant does, but at times I feel marginalized and looked down upon because the variety of beliefs our school has to offer are not properly represented by the articles published by the editors. As a student at BSM I shouldn’t feel alienated from my own school paper. I question why the editors didn’t make a point of getting the opinions of other black students who have had a different (positive) experience at BSM and not show both sides of story, rather they shed a negative light on being a minority student at BSM. As a whole the Knight Errant needs to understand that it’s hard for us, the readers, to respect their beliefs when they don’t respect ours and give the full story.

Shelby Erickson