“How do we hold people accountable?”
On the morning of October 17th, that question was addressed to an audience of over 200 students by Dashka Slater, a renowned journalist and author who came to speak at Casa Grande High School. And for nearly 2 hours, she spoke about that question and how it related to her most recent book—Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed.
This novel centers around the true account of a social media account at Albany High School, which nearly tore a school apart over what started as a few “edgy” memes. But, as time went on, those memes only became more extreme, targeting other students at the high school with various racist caricatures, including jokes about lynching and slavery. And, as people became more aware of this account and faculty measures proved to be inadequate, the entire event boiled out of control, leaving behind dozens of victims.
While only a brief summary, that description provides a picture of what happened at Albany High School. And it was through Dashka Slater’s work that readers could consider the events that transpired and put them under the lens of their own morality. But, this style of writing isn’t new to Slater. In her work, she’s consistently covered large societal issues, from investigating crime in Oakland as a journalist to publishing novels like The 57 Bus, which examined how youth violence and justice might interact. As Slater says, “My goal is to open conversations.” And during her presentation, she certainly succeeded, directing prompts for the crowd to consider, ranging from, “What should justice look like?” to questions about “How are we going to make a society that is safe for everybody?”
As Dashka Slater put it, “I don’t want anybody to come to my conclusions, but I do want to destabilize their certainties and have people think more deeply.” And as the world of communication, technology, and social media continues to develop, considering questions of fairness, equity, and accountability only becomes more important.
