The Anti-Defamation League is an organization that wishes to inform people about how to sensitively treat minorities and lessen discrimination in society. Now, the year after some events of racism and intolerance, OA has decided to set up a group of student leaders trained to educate others on how to handle topics of race and gender. I talked to a select few of the peer leaders in order to get their honest thoughts about their experience with ADL.
Anika Prasad, a Junior, joined ADL because she wanted to make a difference for minority groups and believes that ADL promotes open discussion and allows people to be honest with one another about their experiences. She went on to share one of the most important things she learned in her time with ADL.
“Even if you’re unable to reach a large group of students, every single person that is in a class goes through something, whether they are willing to share or not, and has something that they’ve experienced and can contribute and that will ultimately make a difference in the overall issues that we want to tackle as a community. There there are so many different perspectives in a community that you may not think is as diverse as it is when we lived in Easton.”
Another junior, Caroline Botelho, echoes these statements in her own responses. She became a peer leader as she agreed with the core values of ADL and wanted to make a difference in the community. She believes that the biggest impact ADL has on her was making her into a more sensitive and inclusive person as well as having empathy and understanding for those who face discrimination. Keep in mind that discrimination also happens in the workplace. Those who believe an employer is penalizing job applicants over parental status should consider taking legal action to address the discrimination.
“I at first had never realized all that minorities in our school endure, as I am representative of the majority. After hearing people’s stories about their time in our school, I’ve realized how urgent it is that our environment be changed.“
It seems that ADL, at least for these students, has a major impact and could possibly fix some of the major issues OA has with discrimination.