The Spectator ● December 13, 2016
Page 16
Opinions Do You Think There is a Race Issue At Stuyvesant? Adam Wickham, senior
Payton Gallagher, senior
My racial experience as an African-American Russian Jew has been one of surprises, discomfort and then acceptance. I live on the Upper West Side and I went to a private school on the Upper East Side from Kindergarten through eighth grade. I’d grown up among American Jews and WASPs, with very few interactions with African-Americans or Russian Jews outside of my family. My neighborhood is mostly American Jewish. Coming into Stuyvesant, I was surprised how the culture, politics and the values of the the Upper West Side are almost polar opposites with those of Brighton Beach and other parts of South Brooklyn. At Stuyvesant, I had to come out as Black. I’m light skinned, have blue gray eyes and currently a lot of curly hair. Oftentimes people assumed I was just Upper West Side Jewish, from Delta or Anderson. Some people were surprised, one person laughed in my face, someone else asked me to buy him drugs and most people didn’t care too much. Mostly due to insecurity, I came to care too much about asserting myself with the black perspective in many of my humanities classes, and I definitely wrote too much about race. Stuyvesant and its stark segregation among friend groups, extracurriculars and even subway stops, really bothered me, and I didn’t really feel that I could comfortably fit in with one group. Luckily I’ve changed. Now a senior, I have had opportunities to meet people of different and similar backgrounds, from across the country. I don’t really feel alienated anymore, and I have accepted that I will never be in an environment where I can be part of the majority. Stuyvesant is an alternate reality and race has just been one part of my experience here. At first its manifestations shocked me, but now I’m used to it.
The other week in class, my teacher announced we were going to look at a case study of a crime, and put up a slide show. The first slide was a title page with a picture of a male person of color filling up about half of the screen, and the first comment my teacher made was, “Now, he looks like a bad hombre!” I want to say I was surprised, but the sad thing is that I wasn’t. I looked around the room for half a second and met a few other people’s incredulous looks and then said, “Yo, that was mad racist!” He tried to brush it off and continue the lesson, realizing he messed up, so I stood up and yelled, “Yo, that was mad f—ing racist!” Immediately, he asked me to leave the classroom and talk to him after class because he didn’t appreciate the language I was using in his classroom. I responded by saying I didn’t appreciate the language he was using in my classroom, and I was gonna go wherever I wanted, and then I went to Ms. Damasek’s office. There, I was told I maybe could have done something about what he said had I not cursed, but, because of the language I used, I couldn’t do anything of consequence. I don’t think anybody in the class would have said anything if I hadn’t; I think most Stuy kids are often too afraid of damaging their grade to stand up to a teacher over questionable things they say. But I was overcome by a fear that this was going to be let slide. There are no black or Hispanic kids in my class, and teachers can’t be allowed to feel comfortable making offensive remarks behind people’s backs. To let that happen is to assume that classes full of the top students in the city are okay with racism. Teaching a class about criminal justice procedures and making fun of the people most targeted by the cops? I believe it’s an almost common marker of Stuy classes that the teacher will make less than commendable comments, especially in the Humanities department, and kids in the class will look around at each other, like, “That wasn’t really okay, but we aren’t going to say anything to the teacher because it’s not really hurting anybody in the room.” This is most harmful because teaching potential future politicians and leaders—people who will have an impact on the world—that slurs can be brushed off is dangerous and needs to be stopped. It’s also a marker of the rise of racism and prejudice across the country. Now, more than ever, we need to be vigilant about our place of privilege here at Stuy and the language and beliefs we promote. The racial disparities in Stuyvesant hardly need be pointed out to anyone who has stepped foot inside the building. We almost take this for granted now, when there’s clearly something twisted about it. I know the problem is larger than just Stuyvesant; the system is obviously flawed and needs to be fixed on a larger scale, as de facto segregation between New York City schools spreads across all of the boroughs. However, as a community of kids who pat ourselves on the back for being super-smart and at the top, it is insidious for us to be in such a cultural bubble; we should be doing everything we can to pop it and bring up controversial subjects in classes that are mostly taught by white adults. Students should not have to feel that they are endangering their academic success by speaking up when a teacher says something that they aren’t comfortable with, and I think: 1. A system needs to be implemented that allows students to report problematic behavior from their teachers with assurance of administrative backing, and students need to be provided with a safe space to discuss negative experiences with teachers, as well. 2. We need to raise awareness at Stuyvesant of the racial disparity in both the student body and the faculty, and the problems these disparities create. A much more common talking point should be made of such a large elephant in the room.
Ahmad Alnasser, senior I never really considered that a race issue could present at Stuyvesant, mainly because being somewhere like New York City means you are able to see just about every race within a 40-minute train ride. However, just because there isn’t a race issue does not mean that race isn’t present in everyday life. I’ve noticed my ethnicity playing a large role in my daily education. Whether it’s a friend asking me how my “people” spend the holidays, or a classmate asking me a string of questions about my cultural practices the day after an Arab man set off a bomb in Chelsea, I wear my “Arab-ness” like a t-shirt. Despite all of this, however, I don’t think a race issue does exist at Stuyvesant. It’s more about how much we know about the world around us. I have, at one point or another, found myself making broad generalizations about someone else, and, while I’m not proud of it in the slightest, I know where it comes from. It stems from a lack of exposure to different people and cultures, so one begins to take everything on eye-level. This is why Affirmative Action in college campuses helps keep racism to a minimum. When one is able to interact with people from different places, the prospect of harmfully misunderstanding someone is greatly diminished. At Stuyvesant, we aren’t given the luxury of having as much racial diversity, but as a school we can supplement that with education. I have no problem with being open with my background, but there definitely times where I feel misunderstood, or alone in school. Overall I don’t think there is a race issue at Stuyvesant, particularly because of our city’s racial diversity, and the potential for our students to look past a face and focus on the person behind it. Only with education and diversity can any potential issue in the future be prevented.
Katherine Sanchez, sophomore I had one particular experience last year as a freshman that will likely continue to linger in my mind as much as I’ve tried to push it aside, especially in the years to come. In my first month at Stuy, an upperclassman asked me where I was from giddily, playing with the ends of my curly hair between her forefinger and thumb. I responded eagerly and, without a tinge of hesitation, said, “I’m Dominican, why?” The second the word escaped my lips, her fingers recoiled, as if I had the plague or something. With a firm nod and a slight wave, I never heard her again—except for when I got a message on Facebook saying “affirmative action much, lol?” Of course, I’ve come to realize by now that these types of people at Stuyvesant are so minuscule in amount, but it’s likely this will come to stick by me, far into the application process senior year.
Nadine Jackson, sophomore I identify as an African-American student. Stuy is a good environment to be a minority in. The students here are not here to make fun of me for my race or anything; we’re all here to be these crazy competitive kids, who are just trying to succeed. Maybe I stand out because of my race, but I don’t feel like it influences my school life, nor does it influence the people around me. That being said, it’s a bit sad sometimes to be the only black student in my class, or to realize that there’s only eight of us in the entire grade. I just want for there to be diversity in our school, because it’s a great place to be, and, so far, I’ve had a wonderful experience here.
Lois Wu, sophomore I’m an Asian girl who plays the piano and enjoys art. Super specific description, right? As we all know from the mass of Asians we see swarming across the Tribeca Bridge, or, the beloved “Stuy” Bridge, Stuyvesant High School is more than 70% Asian. I didn’t always go to such an Asian school. I attended a middle school that also lacked diversity, but in the opposite way. I went to a small private school that was made up of mostly white kids, where I was maybe one of ten Asian kids in a class of about 60. I could have stayed there for high school, but I wanted to go somewhere bigger. When I was deciding where to go, Stuyvesant’s lack of diversity was a turnoff. Yes, my middle school also lacked diversity, but they seemed to be actively making strides to change that. They offered financial aid to those who could not make the $40,000 tuition and the principal of the middle school went around to each grade to give us talks about how they were increasing financial and racial diversity in the school. The large tuition would always be a limiting factor in increasing the diversity in my middle school, but at Stuy, people were limited by something entirely different: one score they got on one test in the beginning of eighth grade. Sure, everyone at Stuy has earned their place by getting a relatively high score on the SHSAT, but this lack of diversity is still a problem. Perhaps we could implement a system that determines high school admissions like college admissions, or maybe based on Statewide test scores, but it is definitely something to think about.
Raisa Karim, senior While I haven’t experienced blatant racial bias, I have felt unconscious and unspoken bias, which I am guilty of having as well. For example, there is the notion of brown people, especially brown girls, as not being athletic. If I fail to do a certain gym requirement, I blame it on my race and how my parents, unlike other Asians and Caucasians, never enrolled me for swimming lessons or the like. I was the first girl from the Muslim Student Association to try out for volleyball. I remember enthusiastically pulling on my favorite socks and packing my water bottle that morning. However, I was greeted by girls who had formed cliques from the past few years: I was the only brown girl there. I was wearing sweatpants, not compression shorts. I was wearing a loose volunteer shirt, not a fitting volleyball shirt. You couldn’t see my ponytail flouncing around either. After a point, I was happy that I was told to go home because the environment was just so foreign. I had anticipated that my dressing differently wouldn’t matter. Wrong. It strained my confidence. I sulked home that day with bruised arms. Still, I didn’t regret trying out. I broke a boundary that day. It is because professional and sports dress codes violate a Muslim girl’s dress code that many hijabis don’t feel the will to participate in such activities. As of late, professional dress code has acknowledged Muslim clothing so it is not as unusual to wear slacks. However, because a lot of these fields remain predominantly non-Muslim, hijabis still don’t feel comfortable and don’t take as much initiative as they could. When they do, they end up like me: president of three clubs, where the attendance of each club meeting is three people. Laugh if you will; it’s not funny, though, especially if you know your club can have just as much potential, if not more, than a club that has been running for the past decade or so. It’s disheartening that the only ones who are willing to participate are those of my ethnicity. Where is the diversity? How will the diffusion of ideas occur to foster a proper learning environment? It is when we deliberately separate ourselves that the terms “brown club” and “white/Asian club” manifest. It doesn’t matter who we are or what racial denomination we fall under. We need to step out of our comfort zone for the sake of diversity in society, which will lead to more efficient solutions in the future.
Sammie Paul, junior The fear of being the voice of all black people at Stuy is real. I often have to think through my responses to micro-aggressions in classes to not fit the stereotype of the “mad, black woman.” If I get offended by a joke that perpetuates racist ideologies and stereotypes, I am told to lighten up or that I must learn how to take a joke. The race problem at Stuy stems from the problem of entitlement. If you are not a part of the group that is being made the punchline, you do not get to decide if it appropriate or not. The race problem at Stuy is very well-avoided. Everything is taken passively or addressed once and done. There are so many ideas of the reason African American students have such a low demographic in the school and many of this ideas are simply untrue. I’ve been told it’s due to African American students being lazy, not being smart enough, or not caring, yet all of those standbys are a broad generalization of a group of people that put all of us into one category that we do not all fit in. There are lazy black kids just as there are lazy white kids and Asian kids and Latino kids. Lazy is not owned by a race, nor is any other attribute. Many people make broad generalizations about things they know nothing of, from conversations about education to hair styles and types. I have been told that there shouldn’t be a [Black Students’ League] from students have have never stepped foot in BSL. Many people judge with no basis for their judgment. Everyone is entitled to their educated opinion. However an opinion based on stereotypes and racially charged ideology does not count as educated. Many students have made comments with no grounds other than stereotypes, especially in conversations about the SHSAT and the college process. I just wish that they would come to a BSL meeting and speak with us. I wish people who have so much to say in class arguments and discussions would take the time out of one of their days to come talk to people who have had these conversations their entire lives. I wish people would be willing to have these conversations non-confrontationally. Stuy heavily lacks dialogue and that is so important to bring any group of people further, especially in an environment like ours. There are so many brilliant students of different backgrounds here, and we are missing valuable opportunities to learn from each other, to experience new cultures, and be exposed to topics and conversations we would never be able to have had we stayed forever in our little bubbles.