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As Emily Mills and Te’Lor Allen stand beside him on the stage, Jake Reed addresses the crowd gathered near the Cherokee County Courthouse during the protest they organized Thursday. Photo by Samantha Sinclair
Murphy - Te’Lor Allen was born and raised in Murphy. She loves Murphy. Because of her love for the town, she wants to be a drive for positive change.
“We should want to be pioneers and on the forefront for change,” Allen said.
Over the last month, Allen, who is mixed race, watched as black men were killed on video. She felt overwhelmed with various emotions. “It’s been really tiring,” she said.
As she and friends Jake Reed, Emily Mills and Destiny Adams were spending time together, Reed suggested they do something about it.
“In my head, it’s what people do,” Reed said. “I think everyone should be doing this. Everyone should be speaking up.”
He said it’s hard not to pay attention to what’s happening to black lives across the country. He has seen it take a toll on Allen, Adams and other friends of color.
“I could never feel an ounce of what they feel,” Reed said.
They were each going to gather some friends and stand on the side of the road with signs reading, “Black Lives Matter.” Allen said it was “welcoming” to hear one of her white friends initiate the idea.
At first, they had a group on Snapchat, but limits on the platform caused Allen to create a Facebook group. She created the group at midnight, then went to bed. By the time she woke up, there were about 200 members.
“It really exceeded what I expected,” Allen said.
She was concerned how a small town like Murphy would react.
“It’s really welcoming,” Allen said. “We should still be having these conversations.”
She believes the more people from different backgrounds and races who have these conversations will help the movement.
Before graduating from Murphy High School in 2018, Allen experienced racism, and she heard stories of others experiencing racism, too. Reed, who graduated a year later, said he witnessed people say horrible things while at school. However, none of his friends of color had issues with local law enforcement officers.
Allen started seeing signs of racism in middle school. While she was doing research for a report on the Ku Klux Klan, she asked a student teacher for clarification on the meaning of the word “mud.” The student teacher replied that the word, which is used derisively against mixed-race people, was Allen.
“It was a little confusing,” Allen said, remembering her mother’s reaction when she told her. “It didn’t feel good.”
The student teacher was terminated from her position, Allen recalled. It was also about that time that some of her peers – she wouldn’t call them friends – started teasing her about her physical features.
Allen wants people to know her features or color of her skin shouldn’t affect how she is seen. Today, she is a student at the University of Tennessee, majoring in business analytics with a concentration in supply chain management.
Adams first experienced racism in high school. She thought it would never happen to her until it did. It upset her and made her a little angry, but today she experiences racism at least once per week.
Since graduating high school in 2019, she’s studying to become a neonatologist at Appalachian State University.
As the friends sat on a porch making posters for the peaceful protest planned for the next day, Allen knew what she’s seen and experienced wasn’t the first time someone was judged and hurt because of the color of their skin, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. Her hope was that the protest would help more people understand, and become uncomfortable enough to have the conversations that were needed.
“I’m hoping it will open up the dialogue between communities,” she said.
Samantha Sinclair is the Scouting Around columnist for the Cherokee Scout. You can reach her by phone, 837-5122, Ext. 24; or email, scoutingaround@cherokee-scout.com.