Sam Clare ’25 presented their Community and Multicultural Development (CaMD) Scholarship Presentation titled “From Playing Indian to Virtue Signaling: American Summer Camps’ Reckoning With Racism” last Friday in Kemper Auditorium. Through connecting with parents and camp organizers, Clare examined how anti-Indigenous racism is embedded in camp traditions and urged audience members to take action.
Drawing from personal experiences, Clare began an introspective journey examining their own time at summer camps. Clare’s personal history as a camp participant proved useful during the research process, as it established a foundation of shared experience that fostered trust and authenticity in their interviews with the various individuals involved in these camps.
“In 2020, I started learning a lot more about systemic racism in the U.S., and I reconsidered my own past and wanted to learn more about it… Especially as kids, you get thrown into these camps, and you don’t know what you’re doing. Oftentimes, parents don’t even know what they’re signing their kids up for either. When I was talking to people over the summer and interviewing them, I came with my own perspective of being someone who went to camp, too. It definitely made the camps a lot less defensive because they knew that I was part of this as well,” said Clare.
Clare pointed out that summer camps are often accepted without question because they feel like a natural part of growing up. She encourages people to dig deeper when a situation feels off and not to shy away from uncomfortable truths about the history of summer camps.
“Camps are something that people don’t really question because it just seems like such an integral part of people’s summers. My family didn’t really question it before, so just like I’d say that if something seems awry or if something seems not quite right, look into it. Don’t be afraid of history and making people uncomfortable,” said Clare.
Zadie Robinson ’26 explained that cultural appropriation in camps is frequently overlooked due to its normalization within these environments. She emphasized that presentations like Clare’s serve a crucial role in raising awareness and catalyzing change, even when beginning on a small scale.
“Sam said they tried to implement a change into the curriculum, and only one person spread awareness about the fact that it was Indigenous People’s Day. I feel like cultural appropriation in camps is something that happens a lot, but people almost bat an eye at it, and normalize it. It’s just good that people like Sam are spreading awareness of things like this. I truly think just spreading awareness, even in small groups, is a good start,” said Robinson.
Robinson further emphasized that some students complete their entire Andover education without any meaningful exposure to Indigenous perspectives or critical examination of anti-Indigenous camp practices. This educational gap, she noted, perpetuates ignorance around cultural appropriation issues and prevents many students from recognizing problematic traditions they may have experienced in summer camp environments.
“This topic isn’t something Andover has really shared about. Like Sam said, they’ve never been assigned a book written by an indigenous person except by the one elective they were in. Sam said they tried to implement a change into the curriculum and only one person spread awareness about the fact that it was Indigenous People’s Day,” said Robinson.
Connor Scheidt ’25 reflected on his experience with camps and emphasized the importance of recognizing when they are disrespectful or offensive.
“In the Midwest, where I’m from, these summer camps are a big part of middle school and high school culture during the summer months. I haven’t really thought about these kinds of summer camps for a while since I haven’t gone to a summer camp for the better part of a decade. I think just bringing it up and recognizing that these camps are distinctly disrespectful and offensive is the right thing to do next,” said Scheidt.
