As of right now, I am eight days and seven hours away from the first day of my junior year in high school. It's same the old routine as always. Somewhat excited to go back and just as much reluctant to see the summer end.
But this time around is a little bit different. In the past year, I've become outraged by my school's pathetic lack of diversity. Not only do we lack diversity we don't appreciate the little bit of it that we are fortunate enough to have. So I can't help but ask myself, will I able to use my left hand to count the number of Black students next year? Or will we continue to be a community united in our race and financial privalge...
I have always been critical of my school's lack of diversity. But my frustration turned to outrage towards the end of the year when the entire school was exposed to one of the most blatant forms of racism I've ever seen.
I go to a small private school with no more than 100 students in each class. We're small enough to have a meeting called "morning meeting" to start of each day. In Morning Meeting, the faculty and students congregate in a big common area directed by the principle (ok, if I wanted to be a private school prick about it, it would be headmaster but just about everyone else uses principle) where announcements range from important notices from teachers to club meeting times, to an animated birthday announcement.
It started out just as any other morning. I was doing my best to stay awake as all the teachers we're going through their announcements. Then, one my classmates and a guy in the class above me raise their hands to make an announcement and I notice one of them holding a watermelon. They walk out to the middle of the spacious common area to
announce the birthday of one of our school's few Black students. Then they presented the Black kid's "present." The watermelon.
It was the way the two white kids did it that was especially appalling. They did it with the most demeaning smile. Had they been dressed in typical 19th century attire, it could have been a scene straight out of a South Carolina plantation.
The scariest part of this incident was the reaction amongst the student body. At first, I did not fully comprehend the racist stereotype invoked by my fellow student and neither did a lot of people. Those who did, however, laughed their asses off! I mean some of them were on the verge of rolling around on the floor.
I may hate my school's lack of diversity but overall, I love it. More importantly, I love the people there. When I saw people I highly respect acting amused or apathetic towards what happened, I knew something was gravely wrong with our atmosphere.
Amidst the pathetic reaction amongst the students, the faculty was infuriated. Some teachers were crying. Most addressed the event with their first class and expressed their outrage. I'm very, very close to the teacher that was probably more outraged than anyone else and she was in a huff all day long. To say the least, my teachers reacted like compassionate human beings.
But this incident exposes more than just an overtly racist student body. But what makes this worthy of a diary is it highlights a giant rift between our school's faculty and student body. I think my school is indicative of any other small, elite private school. And this rift is a very, very, serious problem.
Why did these two white guys present a watermelon as a birthday present to a Black student in front of the entire school? Why was the reaction so appalling? Families. Too many students at my school, and similar schools, are not raised with the same values of the average academic/teacher.
The problem can filter into history classes as well. Low and behold, the teachers are all very progressive and although they try to hide their political beliefs in the classroom, the biases are still evident (I think teachers should be as outspoken as possible about their personal beliefs but that's for another diary). It is not uncommon for a student (or a parent for that matter) to complain to the administration that the classroom is too political.
If families embraced the values of academia, their children would be outraged that the two white kids only served a meager one day suspension for the offense. Last year, my class elected me to the student faculty honor council where we decide punishments for people who get into serious trouble. The two white kids were not even sent to the honor council.
As for my initial question: Will I see more diversity next year? I doubt it. Not until diversity becomes a moral value amongst both the faculty and the majority of parents.