George Floyd’s death inspired people around the country to educate themselves and others on systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Many students are currently raising awareness of these issues and promoting important books and petitions using social media. A group of Scarsdale High School sophomores, who are currently remaining anonymous, realized that a large number of SHS students may feel removed from the BLM movement or unaware of what they can do to help.

They decided to create an Instagram account, @scarsdale4change, to raise awareness and inspire their peers to take action. “We felt that an effective way to fight against these beliefs was by creating an account that specifically targeted people in Scarsdale and using the platform to share educational resources that show how we are part of the problem,” the group explained.

Scarsdale4Change’s Instagram platform has been spreading awareness by posting information on how people can learn more about these issues. “We have been posting the many ways one can initiate change from their own home, whether that being numbers to text, places to donate, [or] email addresses,” the sophomores explained. “We plan to be organizing our own events that others can participate in, beginning with a phone bank we plan to hold in the coming weeks,” they added. The Instagram account also contains information on local protests and events and sometimes even receives direct messages from the organizers. 

Scarsdale students have just as much of a responsibility to fight against racism as anyone else. Scarsdale4Change is a platform whose mission is to show teenagers that there are many different ways they can help.