Shades of privilege

By Erin Johnson

Think about the last time you went to a history class, or read a book, or even watched a movie. Chances are, you saw faces that looked like yours–if you’re in the racial majority, that is.

For those who belong to a racial minority, however, this isn’t always the case.

For instance, a UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report from 2019 reported that seven out of 10 lead actors were white.

This isn’t just a problem in Hollywood but in all forms of media, even kids’ books.

Multicultural content in the past 24 years only makes up about 13% of children’s literature, and of that, only around 7% were written by people of color, according to research by Lee & Low Publishing Company.

That lack of representation of people of color can have some unexpected effects.

Last December, Chidiebere Ibe, a Nigerian medical illustrator, went viral on Twitter with an illustration that featured a fetus with Black skin. It was the first time that many people realized they had never seen a drawing of a fetus with anything other than white skin.

The ability to walk into a classroom, look at a textbook and see people who share the color of your skin is a privilege that some in the majority may take for granted.

And it’s one that can have unintended effects, such as feelings of inferiority and insecurity.

Representation is only one form of racial privilege, however.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “white privilege is the set of social and economic advantages that white people have by virtue of their race in a culture characterized by racial inequality.”

Historically, people of color have faced issues with housing and employment discrimination in the United States, for instance.

Everyone should know that it’s wrong to discriminate against others solely based on their race, but people have biases that they may not be aware of.

Because of this, the discrimination sometimes goes unnoticed.

People of color often report feeling pressured to present themselves in such a way that won’t make their race look bad because they are perceived as representatives of their race.

This was made especially clear to Dr. Gwen Alexander, upper school biology and anatomy and physiology teacher, while she was attending the University of Wisconsin, a predominantly white institution.

“Going to Wisconsin, it was definitely a culture adjustment, in the classroom, worse even in my department. I was the only person that looked like me,” she said.

“Now, granted, there were other students of color, I will say that, but being the only person that looked like me, I’ve had professors who had never taught someone that looked like me.” She said she had, “One professor in particular, [a] female white professor, who said to me one day: ‘how does it feel to be the poster child?’”

“I don’t think she was trying to beat around the bush because she knew all eyes were on me,” she said. “I stuck out. There was no blending in for me at Wisconsin.”

Unlike the University of Wisconsin—whose people of color population makes up around 17.5% of the enrolled student population, people of color enrolled at St. George’s make up roughly 36% of the student body.

St. George’s states in its mission statement that the community welcomes and respects all racial and ethnic backgrounds. They affirm differences as sources of strength that create a culture of transformative diversity.

Because St. George’s is a more intentionally diverse institution, freshman Jade Olende said doesn’t feel singled out.

“I feel like even the students, most of the time, are pretty respectful and helpful, so honestly I can’t really say that I’ve experienced, or seen anybody else experience a disadvantage,” she said.

“I think the school offers an equal opportunity to all races for a better education,” she said. “I don’t feel like there are any hold backs, just because you’re black, white, or asian, or anything.”

While this is true, that doesn’t mean there aren’t places to improve as well.

Senior Karsen Ryan said she would like to learn more about all aspects of African American history in her classes, not just the negatives. “I mean there’s [an African American history] class, I take the class, but there’s only four kids in it, and they’re all Black so it doesn’t really help other people learn about it,” she said.

One way to do this would be learning more about the history of the different minorities in not just our school community, but in our city as well.

Out of place

By Ellie Christie

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, genderfluid, nonbinary: the terms for people who don’t identify as heterosexual can get confusing.

Even if we know these terms, it’s tough to understand the experience from the outside. So what is privilege, or lack thereof, like for the LGBTQ+ community?

A junior who is choosing to go by the nickname Dodo to protect their identitiy is genderfluid, which means their gender identity varies (as do their pronouns. For the sake of this story we’ll use they/them). Some days they feel strongly masculine, some days they feel strongly feminine, and some days are neither or both.

Genderfluid is one of many identities that fall under the transgender umbrella, which consists of identities that don’t align with the gender someone was assigned at birth.

People who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth (sometimes called cisgender) don’t typically have to worry about risks when it comes to their gender presentation, but transgender people have to put thought into how they want to look versus what is possible and/or safe. Drawing attention to their gender by presenting differently than usual creates a risk of being outed, or having their identities known, which could lead to discrimination.

The considerations that go into gender for transgender people can also lead to complicated feelings about identity.

“I sometimes wish to not be the person I am,” Dodo said. “Because I just want to be normal and accepted. And I feel like [who I am] makes me not normal.”

A 2020 study published by the Journal of Adolescent Health found that transgender youth who experience discrimination based on their gender identity had more than double the odds of attempting suicide compared to those who did not experience discrimination based on their gender identity.

For transgender people, gender presentation plays a big role in comfort as well as safety. Even being able to appear more masculine or more feminine depending on one’s identity is a privilege of its own. Dodo said that they consider how others will react when they decide how to dress.

“I don’t know… if [other students] would talk behind my back and say some rude or mean stuff about it,” they said. “It would be easier [to vary gender presentation], but I feel more protected always presenting as feminine.”

Safety is a significant concern for many LGBTQ+ people. An invalidating environment can feel dangerous or at least very uncomfortable.

One freshman who spoke to the Lodge anonymously because they are not fully out to their family, explained that they hear “slur usage, at [them] or behind [their] back” at school that they usually don’t speak up about.

“I don’t want to get labeled as like, ‘Oh, these crazy queer people. They’re always so angry all the time,’” they said. “But… there’s some things that have been said to me that are just really, really hurtful.”

Sophomore Elijah Palmer, who identifies as bisexual, agreed that sometimes students say things they shouldn’t.

“I take nothing seriously, except when it comes down to race, sexuality, that type of stuff. And people just joke around with it too much,” he said.

He said he feels that people who belong to racial or sexual majorities say careless things because it isn’t personal for them.

“Their identity doesn’t match with it, so they don’t have reason to feel anything about it,” he said.

The LGBTQ+ community is an intersectional one, counting many races, religions, and socioeconomic statuses among its members. Different identities face different struggles.

Because it’s not only sexuality that gives some people privilege and others not. Even in the LGBTQ+ community, things are harder for people of color. According to the Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey, LGBTQ+ people of color report higher rates of suicide risk than white people, especially Black transgender youth with 59% seriously considering suicide and 26% attempting it.

Youth who identify under the transgender umbrella are more likely to experience depression and consider and/or attempt suicide than cisgender youth, including those who identify as LGBTQ+.

Bisexual youth report more bullying, sexual assault, physical harm and feelings of depression than youth attracted to one gender, according to the CDC’s 2015-2017 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys.

Acceptance is a privilege that can save lives— the Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBT Youth Mental Health shows that LGBTQ+ youth who have even one space of affirmation and acceptance are 35% less likely to report a suicide attempt. Supportive schools and peers can play a huge role in this, helping ease anxiety and depression even if someone’s family will not support them.

School is potentially a safe space for LGBTQ+ teenagers under the right conditions. The essentials are educated and open-minded teachers, rules regarding bullying and harassment that are continuously enforced and clubs that provide opportunities for LGBTQ+ students to talk openly about their experiences.

The anonymous freshman said that they would like to see more of these opportunities beyond MySpace Alliance, a St. George’s club that serves as a safe space for people to discuss various social justice issues.

“I just feel like our school community needs to understand that queer people are here, we want to talk about it,” they said. “I’m seeing all these other schools who are exemplifying a lot more tolerance for queer people” by having groups like queer student unions, which focus on a specific minority demographic.

“I’ve had experiences where people have told me that I talk about it too much,” the freshman told us. “This girl… told me that I talk about it all the time. And that it goes against the Bible and stuff. And that experience kind of made me talk about it less.”

Gender privilege is a complicated topic. Privilege is something that many of us have in one way if not in others. That’s not something we can control. But learning about others’ struggles can lead to better understanding and equality.

Tipping the scales

By Natalie Howard

Tennessee has the ninth highest poverty rate in the nation, according to 2021 U.S. Census data. Seventeen percent of families and almost 21% of the Memphis population live below the poverty line.

But according to St. George’s own data, most of our students live in Collierville and Germantown. Of the top five zip codes represented on our three campuses, three are located within Collierville and Germantown, two of the wealthiest cities in Tennessee.

It would be safe to assume that some of us are experiencing some aspects of class privilege, which the American Counseling Association defines as, “the tangible or intangible unearned advantages enjoyed by someone of higher class status.”

Even those of us who aren’t wealthy enjoy one marker of class privilege: attending an independent school.

But schooling isn’t the only example of privilege. Other forms of class privilege can be buying luxury items without need or worry, having the freedom to waste food or products, or being able to afford to see a doctor and receive healthcare when needed.

St. George’s strives to merge different economic backgrounds, and therefore differing levels of privilege, in its community.

Mr. Will Bladt, associate head of school and current interim athletic director, said that St. George’s is one of the most financially diverse independent schools in the region with “40% of our families receiving some sort of financial aid.”

It offers a campus in Memphis that is funded by a pool of anonymous donors, operates on a separate budget and serves students who would not typically have access to an independent school education for financial reasons. It also provides significant financial aid to students who begin on the Germantown or Collierville campuses.

Our school encompasses so many different backgrounds that people may not always understand one another’s struggles.

People cannot control their economic status. In the same way someone born into poverty does not have a say in their socioeconomic status, someone born into wealth isn’t able to control that either. The ability to sympathize with the living and financial conditions of others can be impaired because of class privilege. But regardless, it’s important to understand each other.

One of the most important things to remember about economic struggle is that it is more common within marginalized groups.

The American Psychology Association says that the relationship between socioeconomic status, race and gender is intimately intertwined.

Some groups are more than twice as likely to experience poverty than the average American, according to USA Today. These groups include women, African Americans, Hispanics and people with disabilities.

They face discrimination, limited work or advancement opportunities and the effects of generational poverty, all of which make it more likely they will struggle economically.

Being at an economic disadvantage can also impact how well and how long we live.

The ongoing stress and challenges associated with poverty can lead to cumulative health damage, both physical and mental, affect our ability to make healthy choices, impact the affordability of medical care and housing and limit the ability to manage stress.

Access to social support for these issues is also impacted when communities are at an economic disadvantage. When you don’t have the money to get the help you need, you have an increased risk of suffering from anxiety and depression, according to the CDC.

Take our school for example. We go to an independent school in a generally wealthy area. Due to this, we could have a better chance of seeing community resources and therefore have a higher chance of receiving the help we need.

Recognizing the amount of socioeconomic inequality around us may bring us closer to coming up with solutions to these problems.

Country Health Rankings and Roadmaps states that the greatest health improvements are made by emphasizing efforts to support disadvantaged families and neighborhoods. Even small improvements have the potential to have great impacts.

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD

Girls still struggle for equality in sports

In March of 2021, Sedona Price, a University of Oregon women’s basketball player, posted a video on TikTok to bring awareness to the discrepancy between the men’s and women’s weight rooms at the 2021 National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament. In the clip of the men’s area, the camera pans across expansive lines of rowing machines, power racks, dumbbells, resistance bands, kettlebells, and plates.

So, where was the women’s weight room? The camera showed a single, small weight rack that had 5, 10, 15, and 20 pound weights on it that was pushed into a corner.

At the time, the NCAA responded by saying that there was a lack of equipment for the women’s teams due to space, but the video clearly showed a different story. Two days later, after public backlash the NCAA finally provided the same accommodations for women that were given to male athletes.

This is only one example of the many situations in which female athletes have received unequal treatment in the athletic world.

The average annual salary of a National Basketball Association player is $6.4 million, but the average annual salary of a Women’s National Basketball Association player is $78,000.

This same salary difference can be seen in other professional sports. One of the biggest differences is between softball and baseball, where women get paid an average of $45,000 and men get paid an average of $4.3 million.

Ms. Mary Lou Johns, St. George’s varsity girls’ golf coach, is familiar with this imbalance from her first-hand experiences as a coach and player. She played basketball and golf, then coached the University of Memphis women’s basketball team for 20 years.

“I mean, I’ve been where I couldn’t get in a gym because the guys [get to practice first],” she said, “so it’s probably going to always be a little like that.”

In an interview with the Lodge in 2017, Coach Johns spoke about her experiences while coaching at University of Memphis.

During her first year, the team had to raise money to buy their own uniforms instead of being provided with them by the school.

To bring awareness to the problem, they bought red uniforms instead of the school’s color, blue.

While some things have changed since then, she still sees boys’ sports getting more attention than girls’.

“Everybody should know what’s going on,” she said, referring to the publicity teams receive. But that’s not always the case. “People are probably going to go to the boys’ [games], it’s just the nature of our society. I’ll bet that on my life.”

It’s a problem Ms. Nikki Davis, director of upper school counseling and head coach of varsity girls’ basketball, has noticed as well.

“Boys’ sports get more support in general and are favored more in the community,” she said. “But I don’t think it’s just at St. George’s. I think that’s just across the board. And I would say out of all of the sports, football and boys basketball get the most attention… They’re exciting sports to watch. And they’re the type of sports [where] the dynamics of the game could change at any second… Those sports just traditionally have been more visible to the community and in society.”

She said she thinks the solution is “more support from the student body, from the community and even from the athletes that are here at the school.”

Alumna Adi Thrasher (class of 2020), who played both basketball and volleyball for the school, said she felt the lack of support for girls’ teams from fans.

“It was mostly the whole social aspect of attending games, especially with women’s basketball versus the men’s basketball games,” she said. “The amount of fans that would show up and cheer you on, it’s like a ten-to-one difference.”

Mr. Will Bladt, associate head of school and the interim athletic director, said he believes fan support is important.

“We know that our athletes will perform better if the crowd is cheering them on,” he said.

However, he also noticed that there appears to be a higher attendance at boys’ sporting events.

“There seems to be larger crowds for a number of guys’ sports,” he said.

For senior Maya Ibrahim, who plays for both the tennis and volleyball teams, it’s not just the crowds.

She noted the differences between the publicity that her teams received and that received by the football program.

“With the football team, [it’s]

“Boys sports get more support in general and are favored more in the community. But I don’t think it’s just St. George’s. I think that’s just across the board.”

-Ms. Nikki Davis

new jerseys and stuff like that,” she said. “I mean, we haven’t gotten new jerseys in a while…When we watched [the football team receive their jerseys in 2020], I mean, they were so excited for it.”

Although Ibrahim didn’t claim to know all the details of team funding, she noticed that when teams start winning, they receive more attention. “It was more like you have to start winning a lot for them to help accommodate you more,” she said.

She felt this first hand when her volleyball team started winning, which resulted in more support.

“I think after we won state, that started,” she said. “We got t-shirts. We had a fan bus — we got two fan buses actually — we were only supposed to have one, but we got two.”

But for programs that aren’t winning, getting the support they need can be difficult.

Former varsity softball player, senior Alanna Murphy (full disclosure: Murphy is the deputy editor-in-chief of the Lodge), noticed discrepancies in the equipment and practice areas that her team had access to. “One of the reasons why I didn’t play softball this year was because it felt like everything was working against me,” she said. “The boys have a big building to do batting practice in, but the girls have a little sixteen-by-eight batting cage behind the field that we would only use if it wasn’t raining. And when it does rain, we would’ve used the gym, which you can’t really do batting practice in.”

According to the varsity assistant softball coach, Ms. Allison Webb, this has changed this year, with boys and girls splitting time in the indoor facility.

Mr. Bladt said that in his new position as interim athletic director he is taking the initiative to provide each program with what they need to be successful.

“What we’re doing is having conversations with our coaches, the athletic administrators, and I have an Athletic Advisory Council that I have put together,” he said.

The Athletic Advisory Council consists of Cindy Haddad, the parents’ association athletics liaison, senior Mac Murphy, prefect of athletics, and parents who have children who are involved in athletics at the upper, middle and lower school.

Bladt believes that not having these conversations in the past has been a main factor in the issue of sports not having enough equipment.

“I think the biggest thing that I have seen is that there’s been a lack of conversation to identify what the needs are in an individual sport,” he said.

Girls’ teams also appear to struggle more in finding consistent coaches.

Building up a program is difficult, and having a coach there for a long period of time is essential. Mr. Tony Whicker has been coaching both varsity boys’ and girls’ soccer since the Collierville campus was founded and said he believes consistent program-building is important for success.

“As [people come] into the program, [they see] something bigger and bigger, and [they think], I want more of this. Right? I want more of what’s going on here, whatever that intangible thing is,” he said. “It goes back to the surface. It goes back to the players. I mean, they invest so much that you can’t get out, and you don’t want to. You don’t want to, and then the next year you just can’t wait to get there and then it translates into being competitive on the field.”

Ms. Davis, likewise, feels that longevity for coaches matters to the success of a program.

“Actually, the seniors on my team this year are the women that were sixth graders when I first got here,” she said. “So to be able to see women come through my program from when they first started on this campus and hanging in there to the end is really awesome.”

“There seems to be larger crowds for a number of guys’ sports.” -Mr. Will Bladt

She feels that having been a consistent coach for these girls is crucial to having a strong team, and in turn building bonds that help to keep her program running.

“I think that helps build a legacy, a culture of your program,” she said.

Consistent coaching has been a struggle for girls’ sports, however. Girls’ lacrosse, girls’ soccer and girls’ softball all lost a coach after the 2020-2021 school year. For Alanna Murphy this was a challenge.

“It was my first year playing softball, and to have a coach that hasn’t really coached before was a little awkward,” she said. “The main thing is that she didn’t continue coaching. I was only with her one year before she left.”

Similarly, junior Reese Dlabach, who plays both soccer and lacrosse, said she noticed the difference a consistent coach can make.

“Every year I’ve played high school lacrosse, we’ve had a different coach,” she said. “So there’s never been a really good opportunity to connect with the people who lead our team and make it feel cohesive.”

Soccer feels very different to her.

“I think what makes the soccer program so good is that the coaches are not only backed by the school community, but are dedicated to being there for the players year-round,” she said.

Looking at our yearbooks over

“Every year I’ve played high school lacrosse we’ve had a different coach.”

the past three years, the number of coaches for boys’ sports has outpaced the number of coaches for girls’ sports.

In the 2019-20 school year, there were 16 coaches for all girls’ sports, but 23 coaches for boys’ sports.

In the 2020-21 school year, the number was closer: 24 coaches for girls and 26 for boys.

However, that number grew apart once again in the 2021-22 school year with 29 coaches for girls’ sports and 36 for boys’ sports.

“I feel like the school doesn’t always make an effort to put time and effort into making sure that we feel that we have equal opportunity as other sports, men or women,” Dlabach said. “I think the boys’ [lacrosse] program is just better developed.”

But Dlabach emphasized that she has already noticed growth in this area, and is excited to watch it continue to grow.

“We’re starting to develop a more cohesive environment with opportunities to connect more as a team,” she said. “In the past, it feels like nobody has really taken women’s lacrosse seriously. But now I feel like we are beginning to.”