REFLECT HOPES
This Is the Casual Racism That I Face at My Elite High School Unexpectedly: The school did something about it Rainier Harris When administrators at (Jesuit) Regis High School in New York City were faced with racist incidents at the school, they decided to address them with a “new and innovative approach” that made a “tremendous difference” to those involved: restorative justice. This September 2020, New York Times article recounts the events and may offer a prescription for the future.
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very differently. Was affirmative action and legacy an exin the middle of a pandemic has cuse if they did not get into Yale? Did they mean to erase brought on more challenges than ever: navigating colmy academic achievement and my individual worth? lege applications and maintaining my G.P.A. while dealEven after a summer of protests against the killings ing with Zoom burnout and no physical connection to of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and my friends. numerous other victims of police brutality, schools still I attend Regis, the academically rigorous Catholic need to do work to address institutionalized racism withhigh school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. To those in their communities. who get in, it is tuition-free, and it is regularly recognized I am no stranger to racist behavior. In middle school, as one of the top high schools in the country. I was targeted with it, as well as enduring classmates caSo it is more than a little troubling that I know I will sually using the N-word. Any hope that this would be have to deal with casual racism at such an institution. avoided at Regis was quickly proved wrong. Within the Even as classes have started remotely, the racism that first two weeks there, a photo of me many Black students like me have exwas shared around school by a white perienced and continue to experience classmate; the caption referred to me in school feels more emotionally drainas a monkey. ing than ever. Authentic mercy Even in the most benign circumI felt immense pride entering Restances, Black students constantly feel gis, but also great pressure. My oldis something othered. Whether it’s heads turning toer brother had been a stellar student that, like love, ward you during a lesson about slavery there. He went to Yale University for in fourth grade or everybody staring at political science, then immediately is reflected to you when the civil rights movement is completed a simultaneous J.D./M.B.A. others once we discussed, you get used to it. The shock in three years at Yale Law and Yale wears off. School of Management. ourselves have One afternoon last year, some My sister is a senior at Yale, studybeen shown it. friends and I were venting about the ing computer science and music. Getracist culture in school. A teacher ting the “best education possible” is heard our conversation and joined us. the mantra of my Jamaican-immigrant I am one of a handful of students of parents. As their youngest child, I feel color at Regis; the students I was with were white and the pressure to replicate. I feel a certain level of success Hispanic. We felt comfortable with her and began recallis expected. ing several racist incidents. I was completely surprised by And yet even in this high-achieving environment, her reaction. She was horrified and stunned that this was among peers who are “supposed to know better,” I have happening at Regis. When she asked me and my friends felt constantly diminished. to identify the individuals behind the actions, I felt unClassmates have made numerous comments over the certain, given the response the administration had shown years about how affirmative action puts them at a disadto a student the year before. vantage for getting into top schools. While I know my At the end of my sophomore year, the school exfriends may have innocently tried to put me at ease about pelled a white student who made what he thought was an extremely difficult college admissions process, I see it starting senior year
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c21 resources | spring/summer 2021
