Activism In Our Community
Samantha Lewis
Opinion Editor
Many members of the
Warren County community have
joined with national movements
and advocating for racial justice
in our towns.
After the death of
George Floyd this past summer,
outrage was sparked. Peaceful
Black Lives Matter protests
flooded the streets, including
Washington Boro and Oxford.
This summer in the
Washington Boro Pocket Park,
Warren Hills sophomores
Mariah Weatherspoon and Julia
Bisse organized the protest
where about 50 members of the
community joined. This is one
of several peaceful protests
supporting the Black Lives
Matter movement held in
Warren County.
“At first, I was very
scared to organize a protest in
the town that we are in,” said
Weatherspoon. “I got some help
from Julia Bisse, who helped to
make posters and spread the
word. From there, I invited
people, including the mayor of
Washington.”
Also in Oxford this
summer, a rally was held in
front of the township’s
municipal building during a
town council meeting in support
of A.J. Lewis, who is a lifeguard
at the Oxford Furnace Lake.
At work he experienced
racial and homophobic
agressions from visitors. After
bringing it up to his supervisor,
Lewis and his father brought it
up to the town council.
His family and friends
organized a rally of 30-50
individuals and had them speak
to their experiences in the town
during the public comment
section of the meeting.
When asked why this
was important to bring to the
attention of the council it sparked much-needed
members, Lewis said, “The conversations in the community.
council needed to realize Like Weatherspoon, the
minority struggles are important anonymous student believes that
and are a town issue. ” activism on the local level is
For many of the more important as it gets more
activists, they wanted to call done.
attention to the racism “If we paint over issues
happening in our community. that are occurring, especially
An anonymous senior when it comes to race, the issues
also felt the need to call out will never be solved,” said
racism, especially amongst Weatherspoon. “It’s important
students at Warren Hills and on a local level because it's
they did so through the internet essential that all people in the
platform, Tik Tok. community feel
The student made a safe,comfortable and have their
total of five Tik Tok’s, in which voices heard,”
they exposed non-black students
who were accused of saying the *Note from the editor:
N-word. A.J. Lewis is Samantha Lewis’
Part of a Tik Tok trend, brother but this does not affect
“The song, ‘JoJo Pose’ by the authenticity of the article
Apollo Fresh is playing in the
background and I am posing like
the students that say the N-
word,” the anonymous source
said. “I had taken photos from
the students' Instagrams and
other forms of social media and
posed the same way they pose in
the photo.”
According to the
student, they obtained the
information from posts of the
accused, also from videos on
Snapchat of them saying the N-
word.
As the videos went
viral, they realized they had the
opportunity to do something.
“[I realized] I have a way to
start a conversation and bring
attention to this,” said the
student. “Not only did it start a
conversation about the N-word,
but it started a conversation that
really needs to be talked about.”
The student received
mixed reviews from the
community. Some people
thanked her for bringing
attention to this issue, but they
also received harsh criticism.
They did not take the
videos down and believed it was
important to post them because