Students of Color Share Stories at Assembly

Six students provided their experiences as people of color on campus at Tuesday’s assembly, narrating personal stories in an attempt to illuminate possible areas of improvement for Exeter. Senior Livaslou Tanjong began planning the assembly last year because she felt like conversations about race had dwindled.

Tanjong solicited short essays from six students of color to discuss their experiences and difficulties they regularly face as minorities.

Upper Christian Flores delivered the first speech of the assembly, focusing on his family and his upbringing. He contrasted his father, a bus driver, and his mother, a public school teacher assistant, to businessmen and professors, professions he considered typical of many Exeter parents.

He explained what it is like for him to have parents who are not fluent in English, and how his family is often stared at while speaking Spanish in public.

Initially, he didn’t want to speak because he thought he was expected to represent the Latinx community as a whole.

“But then I was told to talk about myself, I felt more enthusiastic because I felt as though I wasn’t bound to anyone or any community and could talk about my own personal experience,” Flores said.

Senior Nada Zohayr spoke about both her and her mothers’ experiences as women of color. She expressed concerns about POC allies using the issue of race as a platform to push their own agendas.

“It’s like being invited to the dinner table party but you’re not making me a place at the table, so I have to make my own place at that table.”

She drew parallels between her mother’s experience and her own, describing Exeter as a place that was not built for the success of people of color, but rather “Protestant white boys.”

She expressed what it’s like for her to attend Exeter with an analogy. “It’s like being invited to the dinner table party but you’re not making me a place at the table, so I have to make my own place at that table.”

After Zohayr, lower Adrian Venzon spoke about his experience as a gay Asian American on campus. While hesitant about speaking about the “touchy subject” of race at first, he eventually decided to accept Tanjong’s offer.

As a co-head of Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and a member of the Asian Advisory Board, he felt it was his duty to speak about his identity. He said he hoped the assembly will open up opportunities to talk about race, which he doesn’t normally discuss regularly with his friends.

In his speech, Venzon touched upon some of the issues Asian Americans face. Although he admitted that before coming to Exeter he was not aware of these issues and never saw himself as being part of a minority, he recalled an Exonian Encounter meeting when he first realized that most Asians are portrayed poorly, or not at all, in movies and television. He also has come face to face with the model minority myth while on campus. “I still hear things like ‘Asians are so good at math,’” he said. “One, I’m not that good at math, and two, if I was, it wouldn’t have anything to do with me being Asian.”

Senior Leena Hamad spoke about her experience identifying as Sudanese, African, Muslim, Arab and American. She told stories about her identities being trivialized and misunderstood.

Hamad said she is constantly misidentified and questioned about where she is from, and felt concerned that conversations around race seem to have dissipated.

“It’s something that needs to be talked about, and when we do talk about it usually it’s very politicized, but we don’t really get into the personal aspects of race,” she said.

Senior Kelvin Green II told stories about his growth as a POC at Exeter, such as his experience listening to other students of color speak on Friday nights at Afro-Latino Exonian Society (ALES). He then spoke about the importance of supporting the “youth from every quarter” that makes up the student body, not only by adding another black faculty member.

He also expressed how lucky he is to be at a school where he can speak freely about racial issues to a community that cares.

Tanjong, the final speaker, hoped that hers and others’ words will encourage students to speak up, voice their questions and support their peers. She also urges people to attend events and club meetings to show their support for POC as well as to educate themselves on one of today’s most common, yet most misunderstood issues.

Tanjong ended the assembly with insight into her life as a member of a minority group saying, “being black at Exeter means speaking in a conversation to which you are the only participant. It means that in spite of offering my voice, I am often met by your silences. Race is the awkward topic that no one wants to broach.”

Dean of Multicultural Affairs Rosanna Salcedo felt that it is important for students of color to have the opportunity to vocalize their concerns, which otherwise can be overlooked and go unheard.

She believed that it is difficult to have discussions regarding issues of diversity and equity because they are often seen as “secondary to academic subjects, lacking in intellectual value and otherwise unimportant.” She said this disadvantages everyone because it prevents progression in the community.

“The most important thing we can do to support students and faculty of color is improve our social consciousness,” Salcedo said.

“Greater consciousness about these issues would hopefully inspire a sense of individual and collective responsibility to address inequities when we witness them.”

Mathematics instructor and ALES adviser Sami Atif felt that the assembly was effective because it gave “voices to the voiceless” and put a “spotlight” on bystanders.

In light of the campaign season, he hopes that the class of 2017 does not graduate “less equipped” than preceding classes to discuss race and its intricate implications in every community. “Miseducation about differences is a threat to the nation,” he said.

Atif also felt that although the “traditionally, exclusively white male” faculty has made progress, especially with the extensive electives offered, the curriculum is still a challenge for POC on campus.

“A difficulty I hear too often from students of color is that of injury around the table,” Atif said. “Adults and students alike who are willfully ignorant about others in their midst and under their care.”

Several students were glad that the assembly started a conversation about race on campus.

Upper Charlotte Polk, a co-head of ALES, thought senior Kelvin Green II made a strong point when he explained how diversity is also about understanding different perspectives.

However, she said the Academy still has a long way to go. “I think [further] diversity training for faculty would really push us further as a diverse prep school,” she said.

Prep Janalie Cobb agreed. “I think it’s a great step in the right direction, but there is still more that the administration needs to do to improve,” she said.

Prep Eman Noraga appreciated that Tanjong talked about discrimination and harassment of girls who wear hijabs.

“As one of the only hijabi students on campus, it was nice to hear about me for once because not a lot of people talk about issues pertaining to us,” she said, “and it made me realize I don’t necessarily need to have the same race or religion, but I still go through the same stuff they do.”