For many of us, it is in the classrooms that we feel the most marginalized. Chelan Beavers ‘20 did extensive research on the effects of Hurricane Katrina on lower-class African American communities, and tangentially how most minority populations in the States live in the aftermath of historical gentrification, ghettoization, and the practice of redlining has made these black communities the most vulnerable to Hurricane Katrina. His white peers did not appear to care while he presented. For an English paper, Chelan chose to write about Bertha, a Creole character in Jane Eyre, and her significance and symbolism in regards to Western Imperialism, and again was met with apathy and disinterest from his white peers.
The alienation of students of color in the classroom is enforced by multiple sources, most conspicuously the fact that most classrooms only have one, or if you’re lucky, a handful of students of color. There needs to be diverse materials--books, movies, scholarly articles, art, educational youtube videos that focus on the experiences of people of color by people of color --taught by diverse faculty or trained members of white faculty that feel empowered to lead and teach these materials. In that way, students will learn how to be emotionally and intellectually receptive and capable of talking about experiences and topics that do not particularly pertain to their own lives. Until then, there is no ‘excellence of education’ at St. Andrew’s. Education at St. Andrew’s should prepare students adequately for the real world, not to provide comfortable shelter. Otherwise, the behavior Chelan observed as “[trying not to] ruffle the feathers”, as in the active act of avoiding discussing ‘sensitive topics’ such as race and class, will continue to be practiced by faculty, resulting in a classroom where intersectionality and counter-narratives to the dominant white narrative are completely missing.
In all classes, but particularly History and English class discussions, students of color often have to tolerate blatant offensive remarks by white students who would have to ‘make a scene’ by leaving the classroom or save their anger to vent to someone else later. Most white faculty do not challenge these students. Katherine ‘17 recalled an instance where a white student in 10th grade history talked about immigrants as freeloaders and leeches sucking up resources, and another in 11th grade history where a student compared immigrants to rats. Similarly, Hector Cantu ‘19, a Hispanic immigrant who felt deeply uncomfortable when certain white students saw undocumented immigration as a black and white issue and felt no restraint and remorse when vocally dehumanizing immigrants in class. Emma Tuhabonye had to physically leave history class due to multiple offensive things said by her peers.
There is nothing worse than the feeling of boiling rage and flooding tears as a lonely student of color in a predominantly white class. I still remember the day I broke down in tears in creative writing senior year because we read an article on microaggressions. I was sharing my thoughts on the writing but I took a personal digression and spoke on the reason why it was so powerful to me, a Chinese student that experienced microaggressions daily at St. Andrew’s. Other than Jonathan Lim’19, the other student of color in the class, kindly passed me some tissues, I felt the heat of all the white students’ gaze on me. It was a gaze of analysis, confusion, but most importantly, discomfort. I desperately wanted to leave.
When slavery is brought up in U.S. history, “all the students would look at me,” said Amarion Hall ‘20 and Chelan Beavers ‘20, something many other black students also experienced. “C’mon, don’t make it more awkward.” Marisa Washington ‘19 exclaimed. Additionally, the way slavery is taught is not adequate. “Why aren’t we reading slave narratives?” questioned Grace Evans ‘19. “We almost only read white authors writing about black people,” said Kennedy McCormack ‘16. “I would have wanted to learn about materials written by black authors and black historians on black history”. Carolyn Christian ‘18 also observed the need for reform in the humanities curriculum. She observed that STEM courses at St. Andrew’s have more variety and usually have more flexibility in form (trimester electives vs. year-long courses) and more accessible to younger students. Many humanities electives other than the required core courses are only available to seniors.
This problem can be ameliorated if there were more diverse material taught in the core courses in the first place. For instance, the school can implement more humanities electives that directly tackle diversity issues and require students to have to take a certain number of these courses before they graduate. These courses should be equivalent to diversity requirements at many American universities. At Williams College, for example, students have to take a certain number of diversity, power, and equity classes before they graduate. These classes usually are courses in ethnic studies and gender studies. This strategy will help St. Andrew’s as a college preparatory high school prepare students more for the college experience while also introducing integrating more variety, perspectives, and counternarratives in their core curriculum. Alternatively, the school can get creative with its religious studies requirement. Many diverse materials could be introduced through religious studies courses that all St. Andrew’s students have to take. Additionally, if St. Andrew’s truly value diversity, inclusion, and equity as they do value their Episcopalian identity, then some sort of identity course or diversity-related courses should be a graduation requirement.
As aforementioned by many students, the concept of C3 needs to be incorporated into the curriculum instead of being separate. Selinda Qiu ‘18 asserts that “one of the biggest missteps in the curriculum was the way white students engaged with the material as if it was some grand, complex philosophical theory because they've never had to understand it or care about it as a basic fact of their existence. Granted, the material we read in junior history was often difficult to understand and interpret, but I think it would've done a lot of good to incorporate material and assignments that forced white students in particular to confront the fact that institutional racism hasn't gone away with the end of slavery; it's only evolved into different forms that they currently profit from.” Selinda further underscores the importance of having diverse materials to engage in class: “I didn't realize just how much of my racial identity I'd stopped engaging with and acknowledging until senior year of high school, when we read a book written by a Vietnamese author. It would've been nice if that were consistent throughout all four years of high school because even I didn't get how important representation in academia was until I got a taste of it.”