Leading Thoughts

Dear Community,

This past spring, public outcry in response to the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, and so many other Black and Brown Americans served as a wakeup call for educational institutions across the nation — including CSW. Through social media, email, and other messaging platforms, alums, students, and faculty past and present called on us to acknowledge our status as a predominantly white institution, examine current practices and procedures, and take meaningful action towards becoming a more anti-racist living, working, and learning environment.

With this special edition issue of The Gryphon, the school’s most widely-read publication, we hope to extend this important work of listening, learning, and acting, to the entire CSW community, drawing your focus and attention in upon the Black and Brown experience at CSW.

Our goals in publishing this issue were threefold: (1) Highlight and explore the experiences of Black and Brown students, faculty, and staff, past and present; (2) Amplify underrepresented voices in the CSW community and beyond; (3) Share some of the steps CSW has taken, and will continue to develop, in our aspiration to be an anti-racist institution. It is our sincere hope that as you read the testimonials and stories shared here, you will feel inspired to take action in your own life.

However, before you embark on the pages within (of which we are very proud), I would like to make a few things clear. First, we must acknowledge that one singular magazine issue cannot pretend to wholly represent, nor make amends for, all of the injustices and incidents of racism that Black and Brown members of this community have experienced. Period. What you read and see here is but the beginning of what we hope will be a continuous and ongoing effort to offer more honest, diverse, and representational content with the community moving forward.

I must also point out that while it brings me great pride and joy to see so many Black and Brown faces in this issue, CSW remains a predominantly white institution, and the abundance of diversity seen here is, unfortunately, far from reality. Please know that it is not our intention to insinuate otherwise.

Finally, we recognize that those who identify as Black or Brown are not the only victims of racism, injustice, and prejudice, at CSW and elsewhere, and we as a school are in no position to place one population’s plight over another. However, given the onslaught of horrific violence against Black and Brown people in the United States today, we felt it especially urgent to highlight this particular issue now.

Special thanks go out to Jordan Clark ’05, Director of Student Programs for Equity & Inclusion, and Rosanna Salcedo, Dean of Equity and Inclusion, who served as guest editors on this issue, and to all of the contributors, who took the time to share their stories with us. We are so grateful for your openness and trust. In a world that can sometimes feel dominated by an inclination towards data, statistics, and charts, the personal story remains an equally powerful and essential medium. Telling your story as a student or faculty member is an important part of validating your experience here, and your voices cannot be lost.

I would also like to thank you, dear reader, for taking this important journey with us, as we seek to better the CSW experience for the students of today and tomorrow. This is our moment to decide: How will we answer to history? Let us all commit to showing up for each other, here, now, and always.

Sincerely,

Lise Charlier, Head of School

Over the summer of 2020, Becca Spence ’21 worked with faculty member Tom Evans P’06,’10 to design this Black Lives Matter mural on the side of the CSW Art Building. Students Ruby Antinori ’21, Katey Finnerty ’21, and Miranda Scripp ’21 helped bring the project to life.