Black Student Union (BSU) is a club at Leesville Road High School and many other schools.
It provides a safe community where people are comfortable with learning and speaking about certain subjects that are normally avoided. “It’s not only a place where I can have a place where I can have fun, but it’s also a place where me and my peers can learn and enlighten each other on certain topics that aren’t often talked about,” said Anne-Sophie Hill, former president of BSU.
In BSU one learns about things that happen around the world but mostly in America that affects the lives of young African Americans. It is important that BSU doesn’t only have African Americans in it, but also people from all races and ethnicities too in order to expand the mindsets of people at Leesville. “We really want a lot of people that are not of color to come… everyone should have an opportunity to learn about other people and what we go through,” said Hill.
“Lots of people just focus on what they see in headlines and on social media but in BSU we try to focus on the depth of what actually happened, by joining BSU you are able to diversify and open yourself up to true and important information,” said Hill.
“It’s a place where I can go to express myself around other people who can relate to the situations I may be in, when I’m there I can get a break from typical everyday topics” said Danielle Mankessi, sophomore at Leesville.“BSU is the only place where people of color can collectively be able to share things with each other and have a moment to relate, our school is mostly white and we don’t really see that in our classes”.
The club opens new topics that people are scared to discuss. It makes the people there feel like they have a family to go to when they want to talk about certain things going on in the world. Most of the people in BSU share similar opinions but are still open to other ones as well. To join BSU you can talk to the president at the next meeting which will be December 16, 2019 in Mr. Bacon’s room (127) during B lunch. Meetings are every other week.
