Students Protest Latinx Alienation at PEA
Upon entering the Academy Center to purchase their morning coffee on Friday, Nov. 1, students and faculty were met by a line of student protesters linking arms in front of Grill, calling attention to “the lack of concern for the Latinx community on the Academy’s campus,” according to a distributed statement. Passersby decided whether to leave the vicinity, engage with protesters, watch from afar, enter Grill through the back entrance or, in some cases, break through the line of protest.
The protest was organized in the aftermath of the annual Halloween costume contest in Grainger Auditorium, hosted by the Student Council (StuCo) Recreation (Rec) Committee during Department Meeting on the previous day. At the end of the contest, three Grill staff members walked on stage, wearing a costume of a wall with the slogan “Make America Great Again” written across the brick pattern.
Several students in the hall shared pictures or videos of the wall costume on social media accounts.
Later on Thursday, a cardboard poster was posted outside Grill with an apology acknowledging hurt caused by the costume.
In a joint statement to The Exonian, La Alianza Latina (LAL)—Exeter’s Latinx affinity group—and the Afro-Latinx Exonian Society (ALES) explained the impact of the costume on their community. “On Thursday, an anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican, and anti-Latinx symbol was placed on a public platform. The clear oversight on the day of the costume contest hurt many students and reinforced the alienation Latinx and other students of color feel on campus.”
On Thursday evening, members of LAL and ALES met to process the implications of the wall costume. LAL, framing the costume not as a standalone incident, but one conspicuous example of the pervasive marginalization of the Latinx community on campus, decided to organize a protest. That night, members disseminated slogans including “Build movements, not walls” and other calls for collective action on various social media platforms.
Organizers of the protest clarified that the aim of their response was not to condemn individual Grill workers. “This protest was ignited by the costume but is not directed at Grill employees. This protest is about the lack of concern for the Latinx community on campus,” read the statement distributed during the protest.
The statement specified four demands: “Transparent, thorough and frequent cultural competency training for all adults on campus; a response from the Academy reinforcing our school values and principles; an explicit policy clarifying the boundaries of political speech by faculty and staff; continued, impactful conversations on our community values and how we can maintain them.”
As Grill filled within a few minutes of Assembly Break, chaos and confusion ensued as the line of protesters blurred with others traveling inside and outside of the store. Some, including students and adults, joined the line, or openly voiced opposition to the protest, or attempted to break through the line, or used the back door into Grill to purchase their breakfast items.
At the time of the protest, the administration had not yet issued a statement or clarification on recent events, and many had not read the protestors’ written statement. Hence, some community members still appeared to be confused about the cause of the commotion.
LAL extended an offer to Asian Voices (AV), an affinity group for Asian students, to join the organization effort for the protest. However, AV co-heads and seniors Isabella Ahmad, David Kim and Mia Kuromaru decided at the time not to endorse the protest due to a lack of clarity on the specifics of the protest. “Mia, David and I agreed with the agenda the LAL co-heads put together, but I didn’t know at the time that the four-point call for action they outlined was in response to pervasive xenophobic sentiments on campus, not solely the depiction of Trump’s wall on Halloween. I didn’t know until I went to the ALES discussion the next day,” Ahmad said.
Bystander Perspectives
Some, including senior Noel Gomez, felt that a silent protest was not an effective course of action. “I don’t think the protest did very much about the situation,” he said. “I feel like it would have been way more effective to start a discussion.”
Ahmad shared her first impression of the protest. “My initial reaction to hearing about the costume on Thursday night was wondering what its intent was rather than its impact, but I think that was a product of my privilege as a first generation American—I’m a person of color, but not an immigrant or Latina, so I probably don’t see myself in the victims of the atrocities America commits at the border,” she said. “On the other hand, when anti-immigrant sentiments rise, all people of color are affected. There are undocumented Asians in America, and ICE raids and immigration policy affect Asians, too. While I personally thought the costume was in poor taste but not condemning, I can’t speak for the entire Asian community because there are Asian Exonians harmed by the image of the wall.”
Others described the protest as a disproportionate response to the costume incident, citing the perception that the Grill employees’ intentions did not seem malicious.
“I feel like the staff should have been aware that the costume wasn’t a good idea, but backlashing against the staff, even though they say ‘Have a nice day’ every time you buy something and clearly want the best for you, seems a bit over the top,” upper Adam Tuchler said. “But I also understand that it is important to inform staff of what is appropriate and what isn’t appropriate.”
In an email to The Exonian, Principal William Rawson elaborated on the nuance of the situation. “Though apparently not intended in this case, the costume could be predicted, based on other popular usage of wall imagery, to be experienced and understood by many in our community as conveying an exclusionary message and an attack on personhood – contrary to our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said.
Faculty Perspectives
Religion Instructor Jennifer Marx Asch expressed disappointment at the apparent lack of compassion among many Exonians in the face of the protest. “I was struck that the overriding concern was people getting their coffee or hobos and not taking a moment to see and hear what the protesters were upset about,” she said.
Religion Instructor Hannah Hofheinz acknowledged the interference of some students and faculty who made deliberate attempts to break through the protest line. “I was really dismayed and saddened to hear this. I think that physicality speaks a lot…We should pause and think about when it’s okay to bodily interject through other people,” Hofheinz said. “On the other hand, it also matters that some adults, perhaps by virtue of their authority as adults on campus, made their way past a group of protesting students or said things to protestors—or other students—that felt aggressive.”
Marx Asch noted that empathizing with others’ experiences, especially in moments of hurt and vulnerability, is first and foremost. “As a community, if we don’t pick up on those signals of our peers being in distress or trying to say something, even in a silent or non-verbal way, we’re not seeing and hearing each other,” she said. “And that makes me really concerned.”
On Friday evening, six hours after the protest, Principal William Rawson sent out an email to all Academy employees and students—the first school-wide communication since the Halloween contest. Describing the wall costume as “inappropriate,” “offensive,” and “contrary to our values as a community,” Rawson acknowledged that it left many Exonians “feeling unsafe and unwelcome at a school that professes a commitment to inclusivity.”
In the email, he apologized for the incident, reaffirmed Exeter’s values of inclusion and restated LAL’s four demands articulated at the protest.
Some, like upper Sarah Kennedy, expressed concern for Principal Rawson’s statement, interpreting backlash against the costume as a condemnation of conservative political views. “I was really disturbed by Principal Rawson’s response because the way that email was phrased suggests that supporting Donald Trump was against our community values, which is not something that an administration should be saying because I know there are Trump supporters on campus,” she said.
However, for Physical Education Instructor and Exonian Encounter advisor Toyin Augustus, the wall imagery represents more than a purely political stance. “The wall also symbolizes this level of us-versus-them exclusionary politics that translates into the rhetoric about ‘sh*th*le’ countries,” she said. “The suggestion is that it’s only certain kinds of people who are welcome here.”
Augustus continued, “If you support Trump because you support the exclusion of other countries’ citizens into the U.S., then I think that exclusionary policy is what the school doesn’t condone. Your politics could be in direct conflict with the school’s values. The school doesn’t have to take a political stance to take a value stance.”
Rawson explained to The Exonian that the costume was problematic not because of its political affiliation, but because of the targeting of specific demographics associated with its imagery and slogan. “Though apparently not intended in this case, the costume could be predicted, based on other popular usage of wall imagery, to be experienced and understood by many in our community as conveying an exclusionary message and an attack on personhood—contrary to our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said.
Rawson affirmed to The Exonian that promoting inclusive and diverse political discourse is an important part of Exeter’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mission. “As an academic institution in a democracy, with a national election coming up next year, we are aware of the need to talk about boundaries between permissible and impermissible speech for adults and students. I have said before that a healthy educational institution, like a healthy democracy, must be equally committed to diversity and free speech. The full value of one is not realized without a full commitment to the other,” he said.
Student Council Takes Responsibility
This Tuesday, Student Council (StuCo) met in Grainger Auditorium to clarify circumstances leading up to the Halloween contest and to facilitate roundtable discussions among its 75 elected members and other participants, processing its aftermath. Involved members of the community, including LAL adviser Querida De La Stukes, shared words on the protest and its impact.
The StuCo Rec Committee co-heads Cooper Walshe and Maegan Paul began the meeting by acknowledging missteps in the contest signup process. While all prospective participants had been requested to submit an online description of their costume by Oct. 29 and respond to StuCo’s subsequent confirmation email, the Grill employees’ group entry, listed under Grill manager Scott Jeffco’s name, only included the word “wall” and was not accompanied by a follow-up confirmation email. Additionally, the Grill employees’ late arrival caused them to forgo StuCo’s formal vetting process on the day.
The StuCo faculty advisors—Mathematics Instructor Laura Marshall and Science Instructor Anne Rankin—confirmed the Rec Committee’s account and apologized for the pain the costume had caused. “We were very uncomfortable when we saw the costume. For a variety of reasons, we thought that the costume was not a part of the contest and so, though uncomfortable, we refocused on the tasks required to run the event,” Rankin shared at the meeting. “In retrospect, we wish that we had reacted to our discomfort by engaging the people in the costume in a conversation to ask our questions and share our concerns.”
Grill Manager Scott Jeffco similarly expressed regret in a statement to The Exonian. “We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused the students and community. We posted the apology signs after learning about the pain we had caused,” he said. “We believe these events are reflective of the need for further education for our team and our community.”
Going forward, StuCo’s Committee on Community, Equity and Inclusion (CCED) will work with the Rec Committee to monitor standards at future StuCo events, starting with this Friday’s E/a Pep Rally.
Moving Forward—Future Programming
On Wednesday, Nov. 6, Rawson sent a second all-school email divulging steps the administration plans to take. Next week, all community adults will begin discussions clarifying boundaries for political expression among faculty and staff, in addition to reexamining Exeter’s cultural competency training.
Students will also participate in mandatory programming on empathy and listening, starting on Dec. 9. The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) will also offer optional programming centered around diversity, identity, and inclusion.
The last initiative specified in Rawson’s email is a mandatory professional development opportunity on Jan. 6 for all employees. The PEA adult community will gather for several DEI-oriented discussions before that date.
Rawson called for compassion in a statement to The Exonian. “Because we come to Exeter with unique backgrounds, identities, and experiences, we do not all experience speech the same way,” he said. “This is where the skills described in our DEI vision statement, of engaging across differences with empathy and respect, become so important.”
Some members of the faculty believe that events such as the protest demonstrate the way the Academy community processes controversial issues. “This incident follows a pattern on campus,” Hofheinz said. “It reveals exactly where we are. We have difficulty talking to one another about politics. We struggle to talk to one another about race. We labor to talk to one another about the depth of our own experiences. Yet we desperately need to do so, and a good number of students are pushing for this hard and important work.”
Republican Club co-head and senior Pepper Pieroni noted the challenge of objective, balanced political discussion in the context of personal experiences and heated emotions. “While there is a connection between person and policy, the conversations are much more difficult to have when there is emotion loaded on both sides,” he said. “The conversation is suddenly tilted—once someone announces they are hurt, it limits the amount of empathetic and constructive conversations that can occur.”
StuCo President and senior Ayush Noori noted that the events of the past week are symptomatic of the broader political divide afoot in the United States and beyond.
“This series of events is a function of the world we live in, which is a world that is contentious, challenging, hurtful, and often lacks respect,” Noori said. “But I would hope that it is not representative of Phillips Exeter and it is certainly not a reflection of the Exeter we strive to be.”