ALES 50 YEARS: Afro-Latinx Students Share Experience on PEA Campus

From constant microaggressions delivered by peers to the blatant racism that they experience in the town of Exeter, Exonians of color testified that, on a daily basis, they still face racially-charged situations. A significant number of Exonians of color reported that they do not feel institutional support. This year, as the Afro-Latinx Exonian Society (ALES) celebrates its 50th Anniversary, many current students wonder when the changes in institutional culture and support that their predecessors in ALES have fought for will be achieved.

“All the time, when I look around Exeter and I look at its history, it seems like this place wasn’t built for me,” lower Kaleb Washington said. “That’s something I get through this entire process of being here—that I was not meant to succeed in this place. But I have to go through it because I’m trying to get an education.”

“All the time, when I look around Exeter and I look at its history, it seems like this place wasn’t built for me,” lower Kaleb Washington said. “That’s something I get through this entire process of being here—that I was not meant to succeed in this place. But I have to go through it because I’m trying to get an education.”

The burden of being African American or Latinx at Exeter manifests itself in many forms. Lower Eman Noraga immediately felt this burden when she arrived on campus. “In my prep year, people said a lot of problematic stuff since they had been raised their whole life that way,” Noraga said.

She highlighted her experience in a residential setting. “I had a lot of struggles with people in the dorm, not because they were intentionally racist but they had grown up with these prejudices and had become so accustomed to them. It was a burden to me as a prep to teach them that this was not the right way,” she said.

English Instructor Mercy Carbonell observed this same challenge that Noraga described in several of her students’ narratives. “Students write about the burden of explaining who they are, the burden of explaining their ethnicity, identity and race. [I think] white people are rarely expected to talk about who they are—that rarely happens,” Carbonell said.

“[I read about] microaggressions or attacks on personhood that are demeaning, dehumanizing, destabilizing and don’t allow students to feel at peace. I hear about incidents of students walking to Walgreens and people screaming obscenities out the windows of their cars. So, ‘Am I safe in this community?’ is a question that a lot of Black and Latinx students ask,” she added.

According to The Exonian’s 2018 State of the Academy survey, 45.69 percent of students have witnessed some form of racism on campus. 22.61 percent of students have experienced this racism directed at themselves.

Carbonell noticed that a common question that Black and Latinx students asked themselves was one of their own worth. “[I would imagine] when you are a student of color you have to prove yourself triple. I think all Exonians experience the need to prove themselves, but white students [perhaps] don’t feel that nearly as acutely. [I think] the expectation is that white students belong, have historically belonged and that they will fare well here,” Carbonell said.

Black and Latinx students on campus have also found themselves in increasingly threatening situations.

Lower Matthew Wabunoha contemplated his negative experiences with the townspeople of Exeter, adding that he could count off at least four such incidents. “The first time was prep year,” Wabunoha said. He recounted that he and a group of friends, consisting of both white and Black students, were walking back from Lexie’s Test Kitchen. Wabunoha described that they noticed a police car while they were on their way back to campus. “It followed us to the playground until we left.” He noted that the entire group felt uncomfortable.

“And then the second time was this year. I was alone,” Wabunoha said. According to Wabunoha, he was walking to Lexie’s on his own when he saw a police car. This car followed him to the same playground he had visited in the previous year’s incident. He said that once he walked past the playground and out of the sightline of the police car, the car drove out of sight.

He encountered this police car once again on this same walk. “I was on the road near the Exeter Inn leading back to campus. And then I saw the same police car driving slowly. It was nighttime so I was a little scared, so I tried to walk slowly,” he said. Wabunoha described his relief at arriving back onto campus and realized that he had been sweating on the walk back.

“It was scary. I tried not to walk fast, but it was weird, because I also didn’t want to walk too slow,” Wabunoha said, alluding to the contentious relationship between the police force and Black Americans and his overwhelming fear of doing the wrong thing.

“I kept thinking, ‘Matt, just walk!’ but I realized, you can’t just think that. You forget how to act normal. You think, ‘Okay, what else do I have to do to get out of this situation?’ You don’t want to look around or else that’d be too suspicious. I just had to wait it out, and I walked kind of robotically until I got back to campus.”

“I didn’t think I was going to get hurt or anything, but you always read on national news that there are these cases; and when you read the details of them, the kid was just walking…You never think it’s going to happen to you but it actually might. You never know. So there’s always that fear of what could happen,” Wabunoha said.

Alumnus Marvin Bennett ‘17 named two troubling experiences he had during his time at Exeter and “others that I don’t really want to talk about.” The first incident he spoke about was highlighted in an ALES-created video describing Afro-Latinx experiences at Exeter.

Bennett was in the bathroom when “someone used the N-word. I tried to say, ‘Hey, that’s not cool,’ and once I said that, he responded, ‘I can say whatever the fuck I want.’ ” Bennett attempted to respond calmly once again; however, “It escalated, because he was so determined to use the word in front of me. That was an experience that I really wasn’t happy with. I left and went back to my room. They apologized eventually when someone told them to apologize.”

He followed up with another story about walking across Front Street. “There was another experience with some guys [who] were in a car. I was walking across the street, and they accelerated when I was halfway across. And they yelled something outside the car, I don’t remember what it was,” Bennett said, voicing how uncomfortable he felt after these instances.

Such events restrict the liberty that Black and Latinx students have to pursue their passions at Exeter; moreover, this fear pervades their experiences at the school. Dean of Multicultural Affairs Sami Atif said that “there have been a number of events that have been racially charged within my first year as Dean of Multicultural Affairs,” and the accounts of students feeling targeted by racial insensitivity are “endless.”

Due to students speaking to Atif confidentially about these incidents, he could not reveal specific details. However, he disclosed that the larger theme of their accounts is as follows: “Students experiencing any number of situations where they are disempowered. They can be disempowered because they feel privileged to be here, and they think that they better not rock the boat. They can be disempowered because there are clear power dynamics that tell them, ‘you should just be glad to be here.’ ”

Students spoke of other cultural insensitivities that sustained those power dynamics. When asked how she felt race impacted her time at Exeter, prep Bea West immediately brought up others’ reactions when she changed her hairstyle. “I guess people here weren’t that used to it,” she said, after experiencing many students asking her why she had changed her hair.

The issue of hair styling is one that echoes throughout the Afro-Latinx community. “There are certain things that you can’t do that everybody else can do, in terms of grooming. It’s hard to get a haircut first of all,” Washington said. He also spoke to the mediocrity of the barber that does come to Exeter to cut his hair. “Having a good haircut is a very essential part of Black culture, so the fact that we don’t have anybody to come in and do it for us…just shows that it’s harder for us in general here,” he said.

Upper and President of ALES’s 51st Board Rose Martin spoke to the general feeling of disparity when it came to topics such as hair and other aspects of her identity. “We can’t find our food or accessories. We can only find our culture within our own affinity groups and ALES,” she said. “I think more [effort] can be made by the administration to let them know that students can be their true cultural selves.”

The State of the Academy survey also provided information regarding whether there is enough awareness of racism on campus. 13.75 percent of students felt as though too much had been done to address racism on campus. 39.59 percent felt as though enough had been done. 47.55 percent of students felt as though the campus had not done enough.

In order to cope with these incidents, some students require a support system. Upper Olivia Ross remarked that she had heard many cases in which students’ requests for assistance had been dismissed. “Students have reported professionals in the Health Center for patronizing or talking down to parents of color when discussing their children’s mental health,” she said.

As one of only a handful of Latinas in her grade, Martin at first found it hard to navigate Exeter’s racial climate without substantial support. “The beginning of my prep year was rocky for me, as a multiracial female,” Martin said. “I found it difficult to find more support systems on campus when I witnessed an attack on personhood, racism or microaggressions. It took me a while to find that solid support system, but later on I found an affinity group for women of color and ALES.” She added that joining these groups was “probably one of the best decisions I made.”

According to Atif, many students echo Martin’s feelings of finding support in clubs such as ALES. These communities empower students by educating them on how to react in racially-charged situations. “I think [ALES] has served in many ways to give students language and support, so when they see things, they can analyze it and are able to respond. It is often that students will experience something and not be able to properly call it out, to have the confidence to challenge it,” he said.

Upper Chandler Jean-Jacques appreciated both ALES and Exeter because both communities pushed her to further explore her identity. After many Harkness conversations in different settings, Jean-Jacques came to the understanding that “[race] does affect people’s experience. It’s just that having certain identities forces you to think about them all the time.”

She continued on this thought, adding, “I think me being Black has affected my experience at Exeter, but I wouldn’t say that that’s unique to Exeter. [In] any place I am, race affects how I go about my daily life.”

Wabunoha, like Jean-Jacques, came to this same realization. Wabunoha maintains his determination not to let attacks on his personhood, such as being called a derogatory slur while walking down Front Street, undermine his education at Exeter. “I have realized that this type of thing will always be a part of my life. It wasn’t the [first] time that I was called the n-word, and it probably won’t be the last time. It’ll probably happen most places I go,” he said.

“I’m not going to give this up just because someone called me the n-word, you know what I mean? No. I’m not going to let someone do that,” Wabunoha said.