To the Editor:
I wanted to say how astounded I am at Jake Romanow and Kelicia Hollis’s responses to Jenn Schaffer’s article, “A Quiet Future for Diversity.” I believe that Jenn wrote an extremely accurate and interesting article about what diversity is turning into at our school. The responses were convincing but flawed. In Jake’s letter, he stated that “Public Schools are more segregated today than at the time of Martin Luther King…It is too easy for us to say that race no longer exists simply because we have not had to encounter it.” and “Wonderfully, Andover is not a racist place.” Well, first of all, he is right: Andover is not a racist institution. So why preach it to us 24/7? And sure, we encounter race daily—who said it no longer exists? Just take a look around, because we do have “Youth From Every Quarter.” And this means ethnically, socioeconomically, religiously and a wide array of interests and talents. But I ask the question: Does “Youth From Every Quarter” only mean ethnically? Because that is the way our school makes it seem, what our school stresses the most. To a certain degree, I believe Jake is right. Public schools are much more segregated than our Andover Bubble, but to say that they are as segregated as in the days of Martin Luther King is quite a stretch. I came from public schools before PA and not once did I see a student of color prohibited from drinking from a water fountain or scolded for using the public bathrooms. That is not to say racism doesn’t exist, because it is alive as ever: the Jena 6 and the overwhelmingly large population of black Americans displaced by Hurricane Katrina are only two examples. But that is not to say that it is anywhere as intense as it was 45 years ago. And finally, what I took from Jenn’s article was not denial that racism still exists in our world. It was merely a plea for it to stop being preached to us. Is racism the only important global topic that this school cares about? What about global warming? Sustainability? How about the genocide in Darfur and the Chinese support that is leading to the boycott of the 2008 Olympics? What of the war over oil in Iraq? And what should we make of the increasing world population? I believe that in a community where racism is uncommon, we need to hear about other problems. And why always troubles? I suggest that we talk about some good things happening in our world for a change. With respect to CAMD, they are doing an incredible job educating our community about fighting racism and embracing diversity. And, to disagree with Miss Schaffer, bringing in speakers who talk about racial segregation in public schools in the 60’s is extremely relevant to our generation. After all, as Kelica stated perfectly in her letter, “…history has a funny habit of repeating itself.” But I seem to hear about this daily. Jenn is correct in her plea to stop lecturing us every ASM and every PACE class. Like she said, “Children are being born into multi-cultural families everyday. Children are being raised to acknowledge, but see far beyond, the meaning of skin color and eye shape. We are these children.” We get it. And we should continue to hear about the importance of diversity, just not all the time. There are infinite global topics that still lay before us and aren’t going away any time soon. So, Phillips Academy, let us begin to look towards the future with bright eyes. Let us, the next generation, destroy racism and genocide. But please, Phillips Academy, let us look towards the future with an eagerness to change the world instead of long faces that hear different variations of the same sad story every day. Thank you, Lily Shaffer ’10
