ALES 50 YEARS: ALES History and Mission

The Afro-Latinx Exonian Society (ALES), once the Afro-Exonian Society (AES), recently celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 4. Students, faculty and alumni gathered to discuss the history and mission of ALES along with the continuing efforts to achieve racial equality, equity and inclusion.

According to Dean of Multicultural Affairs Sami Atif, the mission of ALES can be described through the acronym “ALES.” The A represents advocating for marginalized racial groups, the L stands for linking black and Latinx communities, the E represents educating the community about the values and needs of Afro Latinx students and the S stands for securing change to ensure prosperous lives for Afro-Latinx students on campus.

“We hope that [this weekend] is a catalyst to get more alumnus participating, ideally with ALES, but in general with the Academy,” she said.

Lower and ALES member Tatum Schutt further elaborated on the mission statement. “ALES serves a dual purpose; to be a safe haven and refuge to students of color,” she said. “More recently, ALES has been an agent of change pushing the administration to make changes so our campus can be more inclusive and equitable.”

Bob Gerrard ’70 described the importance of having a club that is attuned to the needs of black and Latinx students. “In America, people of color in general have to endure an existence of struggle that is baked into the system and into public policy,” he said. Gerrard viewed ALES as critical to understanding the world outside of institutions such as Phillips Exeter.

According to Gerrard, ALES was founded in 1968.  “[The creation of ALES was] a natural progression as there were a lot of things going on socially and politically in the country,” he said. “We finally had a critical mass of Afro and Latinx students who coalesced around organizational principles relating to the time.”

“Feelings of isolationism brought us together and resulted in an organization of the framework where ALES was born,” Gerrard continued.

Thee Smith ’69, a founder of AES, further attributed the creation of ALES to an external climate of resistance. “In the first year I was there was kind of a silence. But the second year we began to show that we could maybe push back on some of this or object to some of this,” Smith said.

According to Smith, a national activist climate of the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panthers and so on contributed to an activist climate at the Academy, provoking more student resistance against microaggression, overt racism and discrimination.

Gerrard described AES as “an area of refuge” from racism at Exeter. “We had black faculty, and I was sitting at the black tables. I needed that to survive,” he said.

During the late ’80s, AES’s activities focused on education and sharing the black experience at Exeter. A beloved activity was the soul food dinner. “The soul food dinner was very important not just because we like to eat good food, but it was a community coming together, preparing food, sharing food with the larger community,” Sebastian Marquez ’88 said. According to Marquez, such activities “really showed [AES’] presence in the community.”

For Marquez, who was normally a shy person, being part of AES helped him branch out. “When I walked in my first meeting and saw faces that looked like me, black, Hispanic students that were already there, I knew right away I was going to be a part of this group in some form or fashion,” Marquez said.

Russell Washington ’89 was hesitant at first to become involved with ALES. “I got a letter [about the Afro Exonian Society] from [a member of AES] when I was accepted but hadn’t stepped foot on campus yet,” he said. “It was a practice they were doing at the time to welcome fellow students in from demographics.”

As someone from Chicago, Washington didn’t fit in with many of the New York students. “PEA was importing its black students from New York, and I’m from Chicago,” he said. “People think of blacks as a monoculture, but all our regional variances matter a lot. If you weren’t NYC, then you didn’t quite mesh. My prep year I was not really affiliated with the group.”

In the 1990s, the Afro Exonian Society became the Afro Latino Exonian society. For ALES, the intersectionality was important in seeing the shared issues of both Afro and Latin communities.

For Claudia Cruz ’96, joining ALES was a natural transition. “It just became a place where you gravitated to. Some of my friends at Exeter were also from New York and Prep 9, so naturally, when you get here, you join the same clubs that they do. ALES was always one of them,” Cruz said. “But it also became the closest thing you have to home and my neighborhood in New York City.” She fondly recounted how members introduced music genres such as hip hop, salsa, and merengue to other students.

Cruz recounted how she dealt with the lack of cultural awareness during her time at Exeter. “You would always have to explain where the Dominican Republic is, where New York is, why you have an accent, and how do you do hair,” Cruz said. Another divisive factor was economic background. From her experience at Exeter, Cruz learned as a student, “class and race coupled together could aggravate the situation and you could feel isolated.”

While ALES was focused on community bonding in the past, according to President of the 51st ALES board Rose Martin ’19, the mission of the club has developed to involve activism. “When the alums came, they told stories about how they would hold parties or just talk about what happened in their lives or on campus,” she said. “However, I also think that ALES has provided a space for students to be more aware. Even though in our mission statement we have ‘link with each other,’ ‘making sure we have strong bonds’ and ‘making sure we are family,’ we also have to advocate for ourselves and educate ourselves and the community about what is happening.”

At the end of the 2016-2017 school year, ALES produced a film directed by senior Ori Evans detailing incidents of racism submitted anonymously by students of color. The administration’s response to the video was controversial. As a result, ALES hosted a sit-in in Jeremiah Smith Hall. When students returned in the fall, the entire school gathered in the assembly hall during Academy Life Day to view the film.

The administrative has since enacted initiatives to address campus concerns of diversity, equity and inclusion. For example, Stephanie Bramlett will be joining the Academy in the coming school year as the first Director of Equity and Inclusion. Principal Lisa MacFarlane said that the school is also leading other initiatives and it “will hire coordinators to support LGBTQ students and Asian students.”

According to MacFarlane, the principal’s leadership team has attended workshops concerning race, equity, and leadership. “Record numbers of faculty, staff, and administrators have attended the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools)  People of Color Conference, the White Privilege Conference, the White Privilege Symposium, AISNE (Association of Independent Schools in New England) Diversity conferences, the NAIS Diversity Forum, and other workshops and conferences throughout the year,” she said.

History Instructor William Jordan, who has been at the Academy for 21 years, described the faculty body’s involvement in race education. “I think the school as a whole wants to do a better job of dealing with issues of diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said. “Student organizations do have a role to play and they can have influence because they can inform us about things we’re not aware of,”

“[The faculty] want to think that we’re serving all different kinds of students, especially those who are, in some ways, marginalized,” Jordan continued. “We don’t want them to think we’re ignoring their needs.”

Religion Instructor Peter Vorkink, who has been at the Academy for 46 years, recalled the growth of ALES throughout his time at Exeter. “I have seen the evolution from AES to ALES, from no special dean to a Dean of Multicultural Affairs to an entire OMSA office,” he said. “I have seen the school take more and more responsibility for understanding what ‘youth from every quarter’ really means in practice.”

Although there has been progress, there is still work to be done regarding racial equality. “If you look at policies, it seems like the school is making efforts to enhance the level of diversity, equity and inclusion,” English Instructor William Perdomo said. “But if you look at the climate: one could say there are some things that have not changed… So we get to the question, how to reconcile the two?”

According to Perdomo, the only way campus climate can change is with the work of the Exeter community. “It’s really up to the community, especially ALES, to not forget the end roads that the prior board had made when it came to asking for certain things,” he said. “I hope that the club continues to grow and be a prominent voice on campus and continues its efforts to change the climate.”

However, Atif felt change should happen on its own, without the prompting of students. “If I do things well enough in my administrative role, I hope that the club and their identities will be celebrated, as opposed to challenging status quo,” he said. “I would hate to see ALES submit another proposal. I would hate to see ALES looking to have another sit-in.”

“It’s hard to say what the next few years will look like, but I certainly hope it’s less of what has been,” Atif continued. “I believe activism is an important educational component, but I don’t know if we need to be actively engaging with the school the way it has been. Activism in many ways comes from being silenced.”

Another issue the Academy still faces is the retainment faculty of color. According to Atif, fulfilling ALES’ mission statement is difficult without teachers who represent minority students. “I certainly understand that so much of supporting black and Latinx students is about representation,” he said. “So it’s hard to provide that support without adults who share those identities.”

Washington wanted to see a greater “integration of diversity into the central identity” of the school. “The word diversity should be embedded in the institution that the diversity is there and there’s no Exeter without diversity,” he said. “If you could take that and scale it all the way up to an institutional level in policy, protocol, mindset, mission, belief, that’s what you want 50 years from now.”

In order to achieve this long term goal, the 49th ALES board spoke to Principal MacFarlane about the institutional agenda. “[MacFarlane] said the major reason why there are so few faculty of color is because of how recruiting works,” former ALES president Athena Stenor said.

In order to recruit more faculty of color, MacFarlane has reached out to administrators at the University of Maryland, which produces one of the largest number of black PhD holders in the nation, to discuss a potential partnership.

However, some are still dissatisfied with how the administration has received ALES’ requests. “I want our curriculum to acknowledge historical inaccuracies that omit authors, scientists, inventors of color who made significant contributions to a particular field, but so far, there hasn’t been a major institutional effort to do that,”  Stenor said. As for the administration’s lack of response, she said, “To me, it speaks of [ the administration’s] priorities. If something’s a priority for you, you respond immediately.”

Cruz hopes that alumni of color will play an active role in racial affairs at Exeter in the future. “We hope that [this weekend] is a catalyst to get more alumnus participating, ideally with ALES, but in general with the Academy,” she said. In fact, Cruz hopes to start an alumni of color organization with other Exeter graduates.

Although the needs of students develop over time, Marquez offered timeless words of advice to students of color at Exeter. “Know what your voice is and make sure it’s where it needs to be on campus,” he said. “Whether that’s with faculty or administration, let [alumni] know how can we help support you, and of any issues we should be aware of.”