Do You Muse? @BlackAt……..
By: Clayton Virgil
Tags: Black, American Racism, Virus, Being Black At School, Racism

Racism. It’s another virus that continues to infect the fabric of this country. As a man of Trinidadian descent born in New York, I had the great honor of being raised by parents who were a bit naive to the rotgut that is American racism. While they experienced distinct colorism and a different form of racism growing up in a former English colony, the suffering and dismay that black people face in this country were somewhat of a foreign concept to them. As one can imagine, the ongoing depths and lengths that white people took to ensure continued oppression of black people in the ‘States’ was a bit different to them.

My parents, migrating to the states in the early 70s when many West Indians came to America, tried to raise me with the mindset that education, hard work and perseverance will create opportunity and a better life. At the same time, they also understood how racial differences disproportionately impact black families in this country so they shared their stories. That’s when I learned of my father being randomly pulled over by New Jersey State Police on his way back from buying an used car and his experiences working for Greyhound when they would promote white, less experienced people over him.

The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Aubrey and Brionna Taylor, coupled with video footage that captures their deaths and the ongoing racist rhetoric of a leaderless administration in the face of a pandemic, has galvanized a national collective of many walks of life to speak out against these injustices. It has also created a movement to air out some of America’s ‘dirty laundry’, covering the overt and covert actions that have laid way for white people to maintain and impose their privilege throughout history.

In recent months, Instagram exploded with the creation of various @blackat….. handles, capturing the infinite number of microaggressions that black and brown people have historically suffered at some of the most renown, highly prestigious independent schools in the nation. Dalton. Exeter. Chapin. Trinity. Sidwell Friends. The list of schools is very long ….. and so is the list of transgressions. Countless stories of young BiPOC kids attending these schools in search of a stellar educational experience and opportunity to open doors for themselves only to face white teachers who run their fingers through the black girl’s hair or frequently questioned their place at the school or discouraged the students from applying to certain colleges and universities. A few other examples of our students’ experiences being poisoned by “bad apple” teachers.

To be clear, it wasn’t just teachers who led the Robert E Lee-esque charge. Fellow white students and the administration would equally participate in the cultivation and maintenance of these schools’ racist environments. Common experiences for black children at these schools included:

So in these institutions, it’s a top-down thing. From the school’s leadership all the way down to the kids (side note: the kids get these racism lessons from home but that’s for another “Do You Muse?”)

Do you know why racism in America is called systemic? Because it happens EVERYWHERE. While the examples above speaks to a longstanding history of white peers and adults in our nation’s elite schools, it happens everywhere, even in the most utopia of places, like my hometown.

The other day, a white schoolmate of mine shared on our graduating class Facebook group why he liked our hometown so much. He promptly showed his privilege by stating that he “didn’t see color” . Others liked his post (both black and white folks alike) but I didn’t respond. I was mulling over whether to address his post and, in my own admittance, I may have lost an opportunity at a teaching moment for this classmate. I guess I was a bit tired of teaching white people about privilege and how it shows up in moments like these. Reading the #blackat posts on Instagram triggered my own childhood memories. Some of these posts felt very familiar. Imagine:

your guidance counselor schedules a meeting with you and your parents to discuss college options, but shares that you should only consider safety schools. When my mother and I asked about certain Ivy League institutions, the guidance counselor then decided to review my academic records (for the first time) and started changing her tune immediately

visiting your AP History teacher’s non-AP class that was predominately black and brown students and hear him say to the class “I don’t care if you learn, I still get paid anyway”

one of your friends (who’s Indian) tells you that “you’ll get into college because you’re Black so don’t worry”

all the AP and honors classes (roughly 25–30 students) being predominately white with 4–6 black kids, 1–2 black boys (including me). Meanwhile, the non-honors classes were almost all predominantly black and brown kids (including ESL students who struggled with the English language)

the parent of the white valedictorian coming up to your mother during the Senior Honors Program dinner and playing the victim by commenting on her son not earning any scholarships while you did (in a not-so-nice way)

Black and brown kids been tracked into lower tiers as early as 3rd grade and never given the opportunity to advance academically

So @blackat was just another reminder of how embedded racism is in our society. Whether it’s the top schools in the land or just your neighborhood school in the burbs, the symptoms may look different. The lasting impact is exactly the same.

Racism is a truly a virus.