Students Challenged To Examine Race and Privilege on MLK Day

“We can talk about it now, or we can talk about it later.” To an enrapt audience, this year’s keynote Martin Luther King Jr. Day speaker Gyasi Ross asked students to leave their comfort zones in order to understand their privilege and use it to push for change.The required panel was titled, “At the Crossroads of Liberation, Oppression and Solidarity,” a tribute to the complexity of race as the twenty-first century progresses. Held this year on Friday, Jan. 15, Exeter’s MLK Day devotes a time each year for student and faculty workshops that promote peace and understanding in the Exeter community.Students listened to speakers and attended both required and elective workshops which highlighted ways that our society still falls short of racial equality. Students were encouraged to take action, whether through art, music, journalism, poetry or open dialogue.Ross, an activist, but also an attorney, author, musician and member of the Blackfeet Nation, gave the morning Keynote presentation, which received a standing ovation. In his presentation, titled,“Liberation from What? The Reason We Need Martin Luther King Jr, Billy Frank Jr and Other Liberators,” he focused on the need for community discussions and racial equity in the United States. “Diversity isn't a day, it's a practice,” he said.

“There wasn’t equal protection of people, and I needed to do something about that.”

Ross mentioned that because Exeter has existed as an institution since 1781, the Academy has discriminated for most of its history against people of non-white backgrounds. He made students think about the values of the society in which Exeter was first founded. “The school’s got hallowed halls,” Ross said, “and although that’s an amazing thing, there’s probably a good deal of wrong that went into them so that we can sit where we are right now.”For Ross, inequality has been present since his childhood. He grew up in the Blackfeet Indian reservation where a 70 percent unemployment rate kept opportunities low. “I saw that we weren’t getting the opportunities that others were,” said Ross. “There wasn’t equal protection of people, and I needed to do something about that.”After becoming a lawyer, Ross turned to activism in order to work to bring inequity to the forefront of the social discussions. He gave the example of a monopoly board to illustrate this viewpoint.“Black folks couldn’t buy land until 1865, native folks until 1889,” Ross said. “If there was a monopoly board, by the time these minorities could legally buy land, vote and be represented, white males had been around the board many, many times, buying up all the good property.”His main message for the Exeter community is to continue open conversations and to effectively use privilege to benefit those with less. “When you’ve been privileged for so long, equality begins to feel like oppression,” Ross said. “Only by risking a bit of our pride, can we have honest conversations to get better.”Activist and administrator to the Exonian Alumni’s Facebook page, Russell Washington ’89 agreed with Ross but also pointed out that administrative change can be slow. “Every year, we’re losing 300 students and gaining 300 more,” said Washington. “So some questions we have to keep asking, keep provoking a discussion during our four years here.”After Ross’s morning presentation, students attended two workshops which they had previously chosen online. This year’s workshop selection included the chance to view and discuss a mass incarceration documentary created by Upper Serena Cho, write poetry with award-winning slam poet George Masao Yamazawa Jr. and create posters with artist and activist Michael Thompson. All students were required to attend a panel hosted by journalist and interviewer Sandra Guzman.The MLK Day Committee chose the panel for its diversity and ability to speak to different demographics of the school. History instructor Dr. Eric Wade, a faculty adviser of the MLK Day Committee, outlined each panel member’s role on the panel: “Journalist Jamelle Bouie writes fearless truth blended with opinion and history; Lorella Praeli has spoken truth to power since her college days; Darby Henry’s letter showed she was at the crossroads of significant self-determination; Sami Atif voices his passion to make sure Muslims are understood in all their complexity and gifts; and Sandra Guzman has been asking the best questions before many of the students at PEA existed,” he said. The focus of the forum was linked with the common thread of oppression and prejudice in each panel member’s life.Yamazawa, who presented some of his slam poetry for students on Saturday night after leading a poetry workshop on Friday, said that Martin Luther King’s message greatly affected him as a member of the Asian-American minority in the US. “[King’s message] forced me to examine the way my Asian heritage is intertwined with the American experience,” he said, citing his poetry as his chosen form of activism. “Dr. King's nonviolent approach for conflict resolution has always inspired me to take action through dialogue.”Yamazawa also said that he felt honored to be able to spend time at Exeter with students. “[Hearing students] talk about religion and spirituality with such a sincere frustration was refreshing,”Senior Taylor Jean-Jacques, a member of the MLK Day’s planning committee, said that this year’s committee worked extremely hard to capture students’ attention. “The preview assembly featured a video and singing. We also had many more posters all over the school.”English instructor and co-adviser to the planning committee Mercedes Carbonell agreed. “Like emphasizing and speaking to community needs, considering justice and social activism, being present in the global and national events and considering fundamental and sometimes undiscovered threads of King's legacy,” she said.Most students were pleased with the discussions, but some felt as though a few important issues were left out of the dialogue. Prep Jimmy Liu said that he thought the Asian American experience was underrepresented in the workshops and presentations. “I feel like the whole day in general could have [included] even the slightest mention of Asian Americans, which I felt were not included,” he said.Although this year’s MLK Day has passed, Exeter students must remember that the point of the day is to encourage students to think about these issues on our own, discuss them as a community, and act on our new knowledge to promote racial justice in the world.Contributions from Emily Pelliccia