University of Toledo junior soccer player Lexa Bauer believes that the time to use her voice to enact change is now.
Growing up in Sylvania and attending Notre Dame Academy, Bauer has chosen to participate in recent Black Lives Matter protests throughout Toledo and make her beliefs heard in the community she has always called home.
“Being a young woman of color in America and wanting to be a part of hopefully what is going to be the change is what drove me to be at the protests,” Bauer said. “The fact that historically people before me went to protests and fought for things so my life could be good, I want to be able to do that for the people that come after me, too.”
Participating in these protests has only strengthened and reinforced Bauer’s beliefs in regards to the racial tension and division in the country after the recent killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
“I think the biggest thing that stood out to me was the community aspect and everyone kind of standing together as one in solidarity,” Bauer said. “It was just such a positive and overwhelmingly emotional experience to be around so many people fighting for the same message. I think everyone else’s passion and determination was a big part of sparking mine. It’s kind of a domino effect. Being there and seeing the support of so many people and seeing how dedicated and willing so many people are to fight for this issue and make chance is really hopeful.”
Bauer is biracial with a white mother and a black father and said while she never personally experienced any overt physical or confrontational racism growing up, there were plenty of microaggressions that she dealt with along the way, including underhanded comments and things being said by people her age, as well as parents directing comments to her mom while watching a soccer game.
Despite all that, Bauer remains positive and passionate about the Toledo community, which she demonstrated by taking part in the protests.
“This is an incredibly important community to me,” Bauer said. “I’ve always felt that Toledo is really special in the sense that it truly is a home. It takes a village for children and men and women to be raised and be confident and comfortable, and I feel like Toledo is that perfect village. It definitely, as every city does, has its flaws. People like to say it’s boring or small, but I loved growing up here. It’s really important for me to see change happen because despite the fact that I have an immense amount of pride for Toledo and my community,
“I’ve also experienced throughout my entire time being here a lot of racism. Not necessarily what you would think of. I’ve never been physically assaulted or not let into a store or not allowed to purchase things. I’ve never been yelled at by a moving car, but growing up I’ve experienced so many microaggressions.”
Bauer says she has received a ton of support lately from her family and from the soccer team, including Toledo head coach TJ Buchholz, who raves about Bauer’s engaging and upbeat personality and the amount of character she displays on and off the soccer field.
“I think there is no better person to articulate the message that needs to be put out there than Lexa just talking with her and having a dialogue the last few weeks and hearing how passionate she is,” Buchholz said. “Bringing that message of change and positivity through it, I think she is one that it is hard not to buy in to what she is saying. She’s planning on graduating in three years and then going to law school. Big things are going to happen in her life and in her career. She’s not waiting for her career to happen, she is making change now and I think that is the most impressive thing...Why wait for your career when you have a voice now? I think this movement has empowered people like Lexa to find her voice and to use her voice.”
Bauer hopes that protests like the ones in Toledo spark further action among the participants.
“I want people to realize that while voting is difficult and voting is tedious and sometimes you feel like it doesn’t matter, it really does,” Bauer said. “It does have an effect. I think that you can’t have just protesting and I also think you can’t have just voting, I think it is going to have to be both. I hope that people realize that we have to continue using our voice in fighting, but we also take our voice to policy and put the people in office that will carry our voice through the government. It starts locally. People forget about local and regional elections and only focus on the national elections, but I really think everybody needs to start paying more attention to what’s happening around them.”
Over the past few weeks, Bauer couldn’t help but notice the participation and energy of her generation and even younger.
“I’m really proud of my generation and the other young people,” Bauer said. “All over the country people my age and younger are stepping up. So that makes me optimistic to see the fire and the ability for us to use our voices to make change... I see a lot of memes or graphics that say, ‘You’ve messed with the wrong generation’. That’s really powerful and it makes me much more optimistic that this is a movement rather than a moment and my generation is really making the most of that.”
So what does Bauer want to see come from the protests around the country and worldwide? It comes back to basic rights of equality among all citizens.
“The biggest change obviously that I want to come from these is for the lives of black people and the lives of all minorities and women to just be equal,” Bauer said. “Nobody wants black people to be treated better than white people. Nobody wants women to be treated better than men. But there are so many disparities that I hope start to shrink. I really hope that I can raise my kids in a world where I know that they will be treated fair and equally just like our neighbors who are white or Indian or Muslim. I want my kids to be able to grow up in a safe and inclusive world.”
First Published June 13, 2020, 1:00 p.m.
