Students at The Preuss School UC San Diego were given a day of asynchronous instruction on Friday, May 7th, in order to self-reflect on racism and how it is present in our society. To do so, the Chancellor’s 21 Day Anti-Racism Challenge, initially shared with employees of UC San Diego by Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, was also shared with Preuss students on May 7th to prompt them to think about racial injustices in our society and to become the ones who change the world and its imperfections.

Since June of last year, people have been concerned about the severity of oppression towards the black community and the different ways they experience it, such as classism, homophobia, sexism, and much more. Resources provided to Preuss students, such as articles, seminars and TEDTalks that can be found on the UC San Diego website, will help them think about what contributes to racism and how to destroy it.

“The goal of this day is to build upon our desire to become a community of individuals who respect, love, and value all lives. Thank you for engaging in the work to become your next best self,” stated Vice Principal Ms. Watson.

In the lesson assigned to Preuss students, Heather C. McGee spoke in her TedTalk about how racism negatively impacts the nation’s economy and how it prevents the economy from reaching its full potential. McGree shared a federal court case, Gilmore v. City of Montgomery, where it was deemed unconstitutional for a pool funded by white people and black people to only be used by white people.

Yesenia Preciado (‘22) shared her frustration about the results of the case: “It’s so upsetting that instead of just letting everybody enjoy the pool they decided to drain it and it didn’t just happen to that pool because it started happening to other places too.”

After a weekend of reflection, students thought about how they could be part of the dismantling of racism. Some Preuss students submitted reflection summaries for administration and others created artwork to illustrate their support, others also promised to spread awareness about racism.

Katherine Pham (‘22) created a drawing of a fist colored with different skin tones:

“The multiple skin tones on the fists represents that no matter what color you are, when standing against racism we stick together and help each other out and be the reason for change.”

Kat created this artwork in order to inspire her peers to stick up for one another whenever it is necessary. The Preuss campus is made up of many different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Because we are so different, Kat believes it’s important to stay united through our differences to fight against racism.

Analy Perez(‘22) comments, “The assignment inspired me to continue to bring more awareness to problems that Black people have to deal with and enlighten others about the same problems.”