Statistics from the United States Census Bureau consistently rank Brookline far above the global average for median household income, higher education and more. Poverty rates and other statistics are far lower than global averages as well.
Last year, seniors Sydney Freese and Babette Hall worked to expose that privilege by sharing a wide range of perspectives with the Brookline community. Their choice of medium: a social justice magazine.
Freese and Hall were inspired by the social justice class, a discussion-based social studies course. The class is centered around conversations that, according to senior Sydney Bueno Linn, a contributor to Freese and Hall’s magazine, are extremely valuable. However, the discussions and open projects were not enough for Freese and Hall.
“So much of the class is discussion-based, which is great,” Freese said. “But that just means that it was us having the discussions, so they didn’t really go anywhere unless we did something on our own.”
Hall hopes the magazine can combat ignorance—something she says injustice feeds on, especially in privileged areas—which she realized while presenting an end-of-year project on abortion last spring to students outside the class.
“I think all of the research I did opened my eyes to how much I didn’t know. And then I was like, ‘Wait, how much do other people also not know about this?’” Hall said. “I got a lot of feedback and that kind of sparked us. It made us go, ‘We need to get this out there somehow.’”
The magazine’s first issue featured both art and essays, discussing topics such as volunteering, education, climate change and abortion. According to Hall, taking action to highlight and recognize the depth of these issues aligns with a core theme of the class.
“We talked about how there’s a lot of social justice in helping after the problem has happened, but really, social justice is about trying to fix the initial issue,” Hall said.
Keira Flynn-Carson, teacher of the social justice class, loved the idea, and said that the program could have the impact of a simple yet powerful call to action.
“I think it’s so helpful at their age for them to understand that you don’t have to wait to do something,” Flynn-Carson said. “You can start small with something that’s really concrete but does spread the word about something, and it’s such an empowering reminder to them that they can take action at their age.”
Looking ahead, Freese and Hall said they hope students can inherit the magazine in future social justice classes. They said they understand that great collective change can come from small individual efforts.
“Just continuing to weave social justice into our normal curriculum and daily lives and thinking about it more than we would on a normal basis [would help]. I think it’s really important, especially coming from somewhere where education is amazing,” Hall said.
Freese said there is a connection between social justice and the privileges we have in Brookline.
“I think we’re very privileged to live here, to grow up here, and a lot of other places, especially throughout the world, they don’t have that same privilege,” Freese said. “It gives you perspective because not everyone is in this sort of world.”
