In November, students at a Kansas school — Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village — walked out in protest after a white sophomore who shouted racial slurs punched a Black female schoolmate and broke her nose.

But at the Kwanzaa celebration at the statehouse, those in attendance — guests that included Kansas ministers, advocates and leaders — focused on togetherness.

Noted the Rev. Karla Cooper, a featured speaker, the Capital-Journal reported: “We have allowed the social constructs of race and gender, denominationalism, religiosity, social class, partisan politics, geopolitical domination to keep building up barriers that block us from living out in unity.”

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