The Continued Existence of Institutional Racism in
Independent Schools and The fallibility of White Males as Saviors
During
Yale UniversityÕs 2001 graduation exercises, President George W. Bush, a Yale
alumnus, addressed the graduates and stated:
"To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students, I say, you too can be President of the United States."
The
line may have earned him a laugh and be evidence of President BushÕs self
deprecating sense of humor that his handlers and he have devised as connection
to "his fellow Americans."
However,
perhaps what President Bush should have said was this:
"If
you are a C student at Yale, and a man, and "White," and openly
heterosexual (have you ever known a closeted heterosexual?) and if your
familyÕs name, wealth and prestige, as well as a grandfather Senator and a
father President, present you with easy access to the best schools, the best
colleges, "sweetheart" business deals, high level political campaigns
and contact with many other influential men who happen to look like yourself,
then you too can be President of the United States."
The historical
ramifications of President George W. BushÕs Presidency I leave to my colleagues
in the History Department and since September Eleventh, the agenda, the
expectations and the hopes for his Presidency have certainly changed. For our
purposes, what is important for us to remember is that President Bush is a
product of an Independent School and he embodies a model of "old boy"
access and ascension that is still all too familiar to Independent Schools. For
while some Independent Schools have taken great strides to become more
inclusive and have achieved a level of diversity that was unimaginable a
generation ago, when President Bush attended Andover, the majority of
Independent Schools continue to be schools in which too many decisions,
traditions and practices are evidence of continuing institutional racism,
homophobia, classicism and other prejudices that prevent us from moving towards
a truly progressive future. It appears that as we move ahead, we are dragging
an anchor of exclusive traditions and monolithic thinking behind us as we go.
In
short, while we may have more "Black" kids in our schools than we did
twenty five ago, we are still primarily schools that provide an academic and
social haven for privileged white students, many of whose parents we taught a
generation ago.
So
what questions face us as we begin a new century of Independent School
education? What is to be done about the conflict of tradition and progression
in Independent Schools? Can we create more diverse school communities despite
an allegiance to the families and histories of the schools? Can we identify
specific moments of institutional reliance upon the past that make the process
of making "private" schools less private difficult? Will those of us
who are "White," male, heterosexual and, quite possibly, alumni of
Independent Schools, be able to divorce ourselves from our advantages and
privilege long enough to make decisions that foster inclusion and true
diversity? Most importantly, is there an approach, a process that we can call
upon that will force us, if and when we are unable to "do the right
thing," to make Independent Schools institutions of true inclusion, access
and equity.
Part 1: Some Data from NAIS:
The most recent NAIS
survey provides some interesting data regarding the diversity numbers and
initiatives of Independent Schools during the past ten years. The numbers and
percentages show that there has been a significant progressive movement in
numbers and attitude. But there is also evidence that our schools continue to
be satisfied with cautious self-imposed levels of "diversity" that
may work towards a climate of tolerance towards "Others" but which
still perpetuate a culture of racial hierarchy.
Table
10 and Table 10a of the NAIS report show an increase in the numbers of students
of color from 1989 - 1990 to 1999 - 2000. Some of the highlights include a jump
in Boarding school populations from 14.4% to 29.7% in the approximately 870
schools that reported; in the 563 "diversity core member schools" of
Table 10a, the rise is from 16.6% to 25.9%. These increases are due in part to
the numbers of International students that have come to boarding schools during
the past decade because of the active recruiting of these students by the
schools. But the percentages in these schools are encouraging. The percentages
in the other categories of Independent Schools are in the more recognizable mid
to high teen range and so when we come to the total of all NAIS schools, the
percentages are 17.4% among all schools and 15.7% for the "diversity core
member schools."
Regionally,
only in the West do percentages of students of color approach the levels that
we should be insisting upon for all schools - 32.6 % and 27.1% for all schools
and "diversity core member schools" respectively. New England
Independent Schools, some of the oldest, best known and most prestigious, are
amongst the lowest in student of color percentages at 11.8% and 11.6%.
Specific
to race, the diversity of 1999 - 2000 is essentially the same in both all
schools (Table 10) that reported and the "diversity core member
schools" (table 10a) with the exception of more Asian American students in
the all schools category. The following percentages are the highest regardless
of Table 10 or 10a status. African American students make up 5.2% of our
schoolsÕ populations; Hispanic American students - 2.5%; Asian American
students - 5.4%; Native American students - 0.2%; Multiracial students - 1.7%
and Middle Eastern students - 1.2%.
What
conclusions should we take from these recorded percentages of students of color
in Independent Schools?
Despite
changes in admissions policies, greater use of outreach programs like ABC etc.,
more attention to school culture as it impacts all students, and increased
student and faculty anti-racism training, a student of color at an Independent
School is likely to faced with a demanding and challenging curriculum in a
school community where 95% of his/her peers will not share his/her culture,
ethnicity, family history, and skin color. And so race in Independent Schools
is not merely a biological reality but instead continues to be an incredibly
powerful social, academic and athletic construct in NAIS schools.
Teachers
and scholars, who have laid out the hazards and difficulties of such a journey
during adolescence when racial identity is forming, have written much. Beverly
Daniel TatumÕs Why The Black are Sitting together in the Cafeteria is
one of the latest and one of the best. From these texts and, more importantly,
from our own experience, we know that students of color will be expected to
succeed in schools in which many of their peers will make prejudicial
assumptions about their families, finances, intelligence, athletic skill etc.
Some faculty may be surprised by their academic achievements and expectant of
their failures (unless of course we are discussing Asian American students in
Math and Science when another set of prejudicial stereotypes take effect).
Additionally, because of these race based assumptions concerning interest and
wealth, inclusion in certain clubs - Model UN, Debate, Math Team, or school
sponsored trips - skiing, Europe, could be offered as an afterthought or not at
all. Most importantly, the race of these students can be misperceived as the
sole reason for their admission to the school and, in an increasingly
competitive admissions process, families with previous connections to our
schools will raise other childrenÕs race, both before and after decisions have
been made, as being an "unfair" advantage over their childrenÕs
chances of admission. Perhaps, it is good practice for the college process.
Racism
exists in Independent Schools and it impacts students of color and not merely
as the chance remark or scribble of graffiti from an ignorant white peer, but
as an integral piece of a black or Latino studentÕs experience at a school that
renders his/her admission, involvement and graduation from our schools as
somehow different from the experience of the other 75%, 85%, or 90% of
students, for whom "private school" can be the advantageous extension
of familial and cultural realities as well as racial ones. And this is where
the discussions amongst school faculties, administrations and boards of
trustees must begin when we look at the NAIS data - numbers and percentages
that speak to student experience as one where race can influence and determine
that experience.
Recently
I attended my twenty-fifth reunion from The Taft School and afterwards some of
my classmates ventured onto the Internet to share both reactions to the reunion
and their memories of Taft from twenty-five years ago. Here was one of them:
I was actually MORE comfortable at the
reunion, 25 years later, than I was at Taft as a student. I came to Taft as a
scrawny, 13 year old Black kid from northeast Washington, D.C. with nothing
going for me except being smart and having a strong family. You guys all seemed
rich, confident, and deserving of a place like Taft. I felt like I had to earn
my place there and never totally felt like I fit in. I had never heard of
lacrosse, or Boca Raton, or Darien, or been skiing, and never been to the opera
before I came to Taft. Now 25years later, I do feel like I belong. One reason
it was so important for me to bring my 6 year old twins to Taft was to let them
know right now, that if they want it, Taft and all it has to offer is available
to them. I don't think that I would have been in a position to win a Rhodes
Scholarship without the education I got at Taft.
My
classmateÕs memory appears balanced as she credits Taft for enabling her to
become an exemplary student, equal to the scrutiny and challenge of a Rhodes
Scholarship. But her experience was not like my experience when I was at Taft.
The culture of Taft, academic and social, was one that I recognized
immediately. I knew where Darien was; it was thirty minutes from my home in
Westchester County. My father, mother, all four uncles and both grandfathers
had already attended "Private School."
Unfortunately,
the aspects of her experience that were alienating twenty five years ago are
repeated today in Independent Schools for many students of color as well as
others who do not feel that they belong to the school culture that they have
been admitted or hired into. What my classmateÕs reflections may say about the
disparity of experience between hers and mine is worth contemplating. We can
begin to examine this difference by reading A Hope in The Unseen by Ron
Susskind, Black Ice by Lorene Cary or numerous shorter essays by Kevin
Jennings or George Orwell. All of these authors depict the inequity of
experience for students when race, religion, sexual orientation and class are
factors that create "have and have not" student experiences in
"Private Schools."
But what about the
experience of adults of color in our Independent Schools and can we also equate
numbers and percentages with their experience?
Table
13 begins the NAIS assessment of the numbers and percentages regarding
"Staff of Color." As with the students of color section, there are
significant changes in the numbers of adults of color in Independent Schools
that can provide some optimism if not complete satisfaction and schools should
view these changes as encouraging. In both "active member and new school
services schools" and "diversity core sample schools," there is
an increase from 7.4% and 6.8% to 10.5% from 1990 to 2000. Within this broad
increase of adults of color, there are some other important measurements of
improvement and progress: teachers from 4.4% and 4.0% to 8.2% and 8.1%
respectively, administrators from 2.8% to 6.1% ("active member and new
school services schools") and from 2.5% to 6.0%("diversity core
member schools").
Overall,
the total number of adults of color that work within independent Schools has
almost doubled in the past ten years. Similar to the Student of Color tables,
the highest percentages of "Staff of Color" are in the schools
designated as Western and the lowest percentages are found in the Independent
Schools of the Midwest - 5.9% and 6.2%, the Southeast - 7.3% and 8.3%, and New
England - 7.25 % and 7.3% (Tables 14 and 14a). Clearly there is some good news to
be found here with total numbers and percentages on the increase and we can
only hope that both the raw numbers and the percentages will at least double
before 2010.
However
the raw numbers and the increased percentages do not alleviate feelings of
discomfort and isolation, especially in an individual school. "Staff of
Color" confront similar circumstances that students of color face, even as
these teachers and administrators are expected to uphold school policies,
practices and traditions that could appear racist to them. Their perceptions of
a schoolÕs culture and its traditions, holidays and assemblies, and the effects
of these upon students could be markedly different from their white peers. This
may not necessarily be a problem - as long as a school provides necessary time
in faculty meetings, department meetings and workshops for adequate discussion
and respectful debate of the schoolÕs culture and its impact. But many schools
do not choose this level of self- examination. Race is a difficult subject for
some schools to brook and some schools may feel, with some relief, that they
have already "done" their diversity work the year before the new gym
or the Centennial Celebration, or that they will find the time to address the
situation after another project is finished. If this occurs, teachers and
administrators of color may be subtly or deliberately silenced by the agenda of
the schoolÕs dominant culture. "Diversity" must be continually and
publicly appraised and addressed in schools that choose to have people of color
in their communities; it is a required duty and responsibility.
"Staff
of Color" are also consistently if not automatically made responsible for
the experience of students of color and so multiple messages are sent about the
roles, responsibilities and interests that these adults are to fulfill. .
Ironically, teachers and administrators of color can be perceived as "one
issue" drummers if their opinions about the school culture and its impact
on the experience of the students of color become too harsh or too loud... or
should we say too honest. Yet, while faculty of color are often given the
responsibility, they are not always provided with the means to change the
obstacles that they see confronting students of color. Despite their responsibilities
and sometimes because of the lack of position and title, these people may be
denied formal or informal inclusion to the Administration meetings that plan
the calendar, themes for the upcoming year, assemblies, etc., or Department
Head meetings that raise curriculum issues, requirements for graduation, and
other academic decisions. The experience and effectiveness of faculty of color
can be complicated by other factors as well, such as age or length of
experience or sexual orientation. And they are also expected to take on the
burden of the schoolÕs diversity needs while teaching and coaching and
oftentimes even more - admissions, dorm duty etc.
Additionally,
a teacher of color may or may not feel comfortable approaching a Head of School
or another administrator who is more than likely an older man, heterosexual, of
European descent, who may also have lengthy ties to the Independent School
world if not to the specific school itself. For while the percentages of
administrators of color hover around 6.0%, we must accept the facts that the
percentage and number of Heads of Color is a much lower still percentage and
may comprise a total number that NAIS chose not include in their study. It
would be difficult to promote the notion of Independent Schools as places of
equity, access and opportunity for African Americans, Asian Americans and
Hispanic Americans with such percentages and numbers. More on Head hiring in a
moment.
The
specific language of NAIS in discussing the numbers and percentages of Staff of
Color serves to point out another point of concern.
Table
13 shows that about half of the staff of color has worked as support staff in
non-teaching, non-administrative positions at NAIS schools. This pattern is
true for the ten and the five year comparisons, and also true for the 1999 -
2000 school year.
The
largest proportion of staff of color is found in the "other" category
at any period of time. "Other" represents personnel on the schoolÕs
regular payroll, such as personnel on the secretarial, clerical, maintenance,
kitchen, health and security staffs.
If
we return to the numbers of Tables 14 and 14a - "Staff of Color as a
percentage of Total Staff 1999 -2000," we see that "Other" makes
up 20.8% of the school total staff for "active members and new school
services schools" and 21.3% of the staff of "diversity core sample
schools." In the Independent Schools of the Southwest, while 8.3%/8.5% of
the teaching staff are teachers of color, 33.6%/37.2% of the kitchen,
maintenance and other professions of "other" are people of color. In
the Southeast, the percentages are 7.3%/8.3% and 33.3%/32.8%. Administrators at
Independent Schools are hiring people of color, but not necessarily to teach
nor to administer the students who attend their schools. The dramatic
difference between those adults of color that the students see as integral
parts of their education, teachers, Department Chairs, Deans of Faculty and
Deans of Students and those who fulfill a tangential service, cooks and kitchen
help, cleaning crews and ground crews, could send unfortunate messages about
who should be entrusted to choose the books, to discipline the students, to
chaperone the trips and to speak at assemblies. This is not an "Ivory
Tower" judgment regarding the value of one career or occupation compared
to another and should not be misconstrued as such. It is a statement regarding
the "visuals" created by a school and schools that have few or no
teachers of color but a kitchen or maintenance staff that is 25% or more people
of color is creating some visuals that are symbolic and contrary to the
diversity goals that the institution may proclaim.
Only
in one region of the country, New England, are the percentages of teachers of
color found in Tables 14 and 14a higher than the "Other" category,
7.2% and 7.3% to 5.9% and 6.3% respectively and neither increase is evidence of
a particularly aggressive commitment to racial diversity amongst the New
England schoolsÕ teachers or "other" staffs.
Ultimately,
when we look at the numbers and percentages of "Students of Color"
and "Staff of Color," from 1990 to 2000, we come to this conclusion.
While there has been some progress in the percentage levels of
"diversity" found in Independent Schools, there has not yet occurred
an "Industry wide" shift in the policies, practices, traditions and
expectations of our schools that has made the admission, hiring and retention
of people of color (as well as representatives of previously unappreciated
groups according to religion, sexual orientation, class etc.) a fully realized
part of the Independent School experience and culture.
The
questions that remain are: Why not? and is it possible?
I begin with
myself...whom else!
In
1981, an inability to find a teaching job immediately after Graduate School
renders me, "the best educated painter in Rhode Island," according to
my fellow painters. However, at Thanksgiving, I am offered a job teaching
English and coaching at the Harvey School where a.) I am an alumnus and b.) My
mother serves on the Board of Trustees. I begin my teaching career with two
years as a "triple threat rookie," teaching English, working in
admissions, coaching and living on a dormitory.
In
1983, I come to Boston for an interview with a Headmaster who is impressed with
the fact that I attended Taft. As we enter into the "I like the cut of
your jib" phase of the interview, we talk about shared experiences
-sailing, summer homes, relatives in investment banking, and he speaks to me of
becoming a "core teacher" at his school, without the benefit of
references or seeing me teach a class. After a subsequent visit to Boston, I am
offered the job and I teach English, work in admissions and coach at St. SebastianÕs
for twelve years.
In
1995, I am called by Noble and Greenough School for an interview and I meet the
members of the English Department, one of whom I already know through mutual
friends, another through hockey and another from co-presentation of a seminar
on Multicultural Literature at an "ISAM" conference. I have my MA and
experience; I am local. And so I am offered a job teaching English and coaching
at Nobles. Since then I have worked in Admissions and served as English
Department Chair, the rewards of intellect or breeding?
Operating in the Independent School world is advantageous to me. I have
taught (I hope successfully) for twenty years, yet I must be honest as to the
routes of access and privilege that have made my experience in Independent
Schools: familiar, attainable and successful. I may be a good teacher, however,
I wonder not only if I was the best possible candidate for each position but
also what might have been gained by each school had they decided to add some
diversity of race, class, religion, experience etc. by hiring someone else.
Because of the culture of Independent Schools, past and present, it is
precisely because of my race, class, religion, and gender/sexual orientation
that I have had original access to and continuing comfort at Independent
Schools.
I
did not think much on these issues of diversity or White Male privilege and
advantage when I accepted my first teaching position and maybe not even my
last. However, it is my responsibility to think about those issues now. I must
acknowledge and examine my hiring history for what it is: anecdotal testimony
to the benefits of being a white, heterosexual male alumnus in an Independent
School culture that hires and promotes along these lines of race, gender/sexual
orientation and class.
Beyond
my own experience, I know many of my colleagues at all three of the schools
that I have taught could tell similar tales. Additionally, I have worked for
five Headmasters and all have been White, male and Christian in either
upbringing or practice. All were married but one, a Catholic Priest, and all
were graduates of "private schools." Virtually all of the
administrators and Department Chairs that I have taught with have been men and
all of them have been white. This has provided me with a level of comfort borne
out of shared race, class, gender and experience that makes conversation,
advice and collegiality easier; it has also given me "models" to
follow at every stage of my career. It is only in the summer programs for which
I have taught, Steppingstone Scholars and Upward Bound, that I have been
privileged to have women and people of color as my immediate supervisors and
they have been among the brightest, most innovative and dynamic of those I have
worked for.
What
does this mean in relation to the larger question of White Male fallibility?
Several realities come immediately to mind. Despite some progressive changes,
our schools still provide an "Old BoysÕ Network" and its accompanying
contacts and subjective sleights of hand in hiring and promotion that have
assisted many others as well as myself. My hiring experience in Independent
Schools is not the experience of nearly all the people of color, Jews, Gays,
children of working class families, public school educated people etc. who have
been my colleagues in Independent Schools over the past twenty years. My access
to board level contacts, my alumni status, as well as my race, my gender and my
sexual orientation provide me with easier avenues. And I have never had to
worry about being over-qualified to get hired or wondering if a school felt
that it already had enough white men on the faculty and so ŅdidnÕt need
me."
The
NAIS data shows that there are still likely to be many more whites in our
schools than people of color or Jews or lesbians or Muslims, both as faculty
and as students. So the patterns of an Independent School "Affirmative
Action" that benefit white men in specific are likely to continue into the
next generation of Independent School teachers and administrators, unless specific
and dramatic action is taken now.
So
why canÕt white men just admit that Independent Schools are still institutions
of traditions and practices that owe more to the privileges of the past than to
the principles of inclusion that we currently expound. We canÕt because the
admission would acknowledge the systemic unfairness of most of our schools and
the overwhelming advantages for white men in the set up as it existed then and
exists now. And herein lies the cause of white male fallibility.
White
men, even those of us who may not have directly benefited from an Independent
School education and the contacts taken from that experience, are not likely to
completely acknowledge let alone tear down a system that benefits us to the
degree that it does. Examination and subsequent alteration of unfair and
exclusive practices, traditions and policies would do more than deny us the
access and ascension that we consistently benefit from. Such an exploration
would also force us to examine both our individual and collective abilities and
accomplishments in a manner that could be, at the least, unsettling. For while
white heterosexual men benefit directly and without scrutiny from the racist,
classist, homophobic, gender biased culture of Independent Schools, our accomplishments
are never attributed to our gender, race or class. Ironically, discussions of
racial or class advantage whether in hiring or promotion (as well as
admissions) are reserved for those candidates and applicants, who have
historically benefited the least from Independent School traditions and
practices.
Real
and substantive change could limit or remove the advantages available to us,
when we wish to change schools or to seek promotion. We have a clear privilege
and advantage in the acquisition and subsequent development of our careers and
yet, we never are forced, by others or by ourselves to see our positions and
achievements as anything other than accurate testimony of our skills and
abilities.
In
short, the situation presented to white men by slow change or no change is
"win, win." So why would White men seek to change such a system?
But surely the process
is more objective and less rooted to its own exclusive past when an Independent
School must form a Head Search Committee and hire consultants to find someone
to lead the school. Beyond the general observation that there are many Heads of
School whose parents may have taught in Independent Schools or even served as a
Head, I offer two recent anecdotes from the two Independent schools that I know
best: the one that I graduated from and the one in which I currently teach.
I attended Taft in the early to mid
seventies. The Head of School when I went to Taft recently stepped down after
more than twenty-five years of exemplary leadership of the school and his
accomplishments impacted the school socially and academically, fiscally and
physically. A Head search ensued and was "national" in scope and
appropriately lengthy and thorough. The Taft web page states that the Head
search was an "extensive search" and the "The process was
wide-ranging and involved a multitude of voices." The web site goes on to
state: "While the task of narrowing the field was a difficult one, the
Committee was able to draw on the tremendous involvement of students and
faculty within Taft in the process and the broad participation and counsel of
countless alumni and parents." The new Head chosen was an alumnus, who
graduated from Taft in 1978, who had gone on to Yale and then returned to Taft
in 1983 and who has ably filled various teaching and administrative roles since
returning. I am certain that the intent of the statements from Taft concerning
the search was altruistic.
However, the result of TaftÕs "extensive search" for its next
Head of School was to find an "alum" working down the hallway from
the previous Head.
I
have taught at Noble and Greenough School for the past six years and my
daughter currently attends Nobles. It is an excellent school with wonderful
students, a supportive and talented faculty, a purposeful school culture and
friendly climate. Two years ago, the school spent a great part of its energy
engaged in a Head search to replace a Head of great presence and achievement
who had been at Nobles for twenty nine years in various roles, including
fourteen as Head. During this time, he changed Nobles markedly for the better.
Nobles eventually found an intelligent, effective and experienced Head who was
highly praised by his former school. However, our new Head (along with another
finalist for the position) was an alumnus of the school who had also served for
a year as a Teaching Fellow after he graduated from Dartmouth. He was the
oldest of four brothers who attended Nobles.
So
what does each manÕs connection to his alma mater matter if both new Heads are
outstanding teachers, administrators and leaders? And I am certain that neither
would have received the position without being all of the above. We should also
not diminish the additional responsibilities of leading a school that one attended.
I know the current Head of Nobles is a man of great talent and insight and he
shares my concerns regarding diversity and the need for greater inclusion in
Independent Schools. He has also moved beyond mere rhetoric and has made some
key hires and has put into action his commitment to the issues of inclusion and
diversity. I am pleased that he is leading Nobles. Likewise, I believe that
Taft strives to continue the success of the previous Head by selecting a new
Head who will provide the same exemplary vision, presence and effectiveness.
Both will no doubt work to promote inclusion and diversity to the best of their
abilities and the furthest extent possible.
However,
both men (like me) despite what they may say and perhaps even accomplish in the
areas of diversity and inclusion, exist as visible symbols of an active and
powerful "Old Boy Network" that, when "push comes to shove"
passes the torch unto its own. The essential problem lies in the simple fact
that the Head selection processes at both Taft and Nobles, as well as numerous
other schools, are ones that do not always uphold these same schoolsÕ rhetoric
and goals about diversity and inclusion. If white men, who are ŅalumsÓ or whose
fathers were Heads, or who have experience with another well recognized
Independent School, are consistently chosen as the leaders of Independent
Schools, then the unspoken messages about true access to and administration of
these schools will be far more powerful then anything that an admissions office
or a school viewbook might state. In Head searches and in searches for other
positions, the process of hiring, retaining and promoting teachers and
administrators in Independent Schools is still too often a process fraught with
all of the advantages of the "Old Boy Network." To deny this is a
delusional and negligent denial at best and a racist and classist lie at worst.
To change this we must look beyond a defense of the process based on the
quality of the individuals chosen to a more empirical examination of how people
are chosen to be Heads of School (or Chairs of English Departments or Athletic
Directors or even Teaching Fellows). Those who control the process of selection
and hiring must examine these processes and their roles within them, especially
if they are the recipients of the advantages inherent to the process.
And yet, while white men
bask and benefit in an Independent School world that was literally created for
them, faculty of color and others in the minority will undoubtedly feel
marginalized in the hiring process and then, if hired, tokenized by the climate
of an Independent School. James Baldwin in "A Report from Occupied
Territory" speaks of "Negroes" who want to be airline pilots
going "mad" from a process of systemic racist denial and
disappointment and Baldwin adds "Nor is this the worst." It would be
unfortunate if we needed to add Head of School at an Independent School to a
list of occupations that are unattainable to "others" even in this
time of "equity and justice." Perhaps it bears repeating some more of
the problems that face people of color and others at our schools.
These
people of color are often "one of a few" on the faculty in a private
school world that can seem incestuously connected for others. They often must
be over-qualified to acquire a teaching job, particularly at the Department
Chair or Administrative levels, since they may lack the contacts or
"pedigree" of Independent Schools or New England colleges that often
provide immediate and familiar access for white men. As Colson Whitehead states
in his recent novel, John Henry Days, "A Negro in the world of
academia must be twice the scholar, and twice the tactician, of his white
colleagues."
People
of Color and others of minority number and status are often given assumed and
automatic responsibility for students of color, both individually and
collectively and for MLK "Day" and "Black History Month."
They advise the school on Jewish holidays or Ramadan, for "Diversity
Dances", both at their institutions and at other schools. They often must
placate students of color and sometimes their parents for the "Aversive
Racism" of a school that goes unnoticed or, worse, denied by
"white" colleagues. And they must do so even as this Aversive Racism
or homophobia or anti-Semitism impacts their time at the school. As these
people of color and others teach, coach and advise beside us, the traditions,
photographs, and publications; the racial, class, religious, and sexual
identity of the Head; family legacies of students and faculty; vacation
destinations, and much more can conspire to insistently remind people of color
and others that they are new and different - still the "other." This
is the Du Boisian "Double Consciousness" for people of color and
others as they navigate the waters of Independent Schools. James Baldwin in his
essay ŅOn Being White and Other LiesÓ states that blacks ŅÉhave paid for the
crisis of leadership in the white community for a very long time.Ó This has
been true for people of color and Gay/lesbian people and Jews and Muslims and
others in Independent schools for long enough.
There comes a time
to divorce product from process and to examine each separately. Are those of us
who benefit from the traditions and practices of Independent Schools, both
written and unwritten, spoken and unspoken, able to accurately assess a process
that consistently rewards us for our upbringing, gender, sexual orientation and
race as well as and sometimes in spite of our abilities? Can we honestly
examine our Independent School climate and process and not take it personally?
I
worry that the answer is "No" and so some other remedy must be
pursued, one that steadfastly provides an answer of "Yes." Our
schools need a formula that provides equal access to jobs, titles and leadership
for all who would seek them, and which would prevent white men (and their
children) from unfairly garnering positions that are ultimately harmful to the
students whom we teach, the colleagues whom we work with, and the institutions
that we serve.
Alden
Mauck Š 2002
alden_mauck@nobles.edu