The Beat of Urgency Against Amnesia at Phillips Exeter Academy
The present moment doesn’t register unless it becomes memory. So dare to pay attention and actively remember.
There’s a beat of urgency on our campus for transformation that’s palpable for those who need it, not simply seek it. They’ve longed for it, at present and through their ancestors whether knowing it or not. Systems of oppression have left scars for each of us to find, consider, address, and the present-day notion of microaggressions and hate are ripples, reminders that we haven’t done enough to heal, learn. Bodies and minds are archives, or nightmarish treasure troves of pain, opportunity, frustration, hope and life lessons if we are brave enough to search them honestly.
And this transcends the race baiting from the lazy many who can’t see beyond what they seem to often see: a collective body of assorted colors and diverse thoughts, vocal that change needs to happen. And the clarion calls we so often hear across time are about equality along the so many lines of fabricated difference. Even deeper than our understanding of equality and more accurate is a need for meaningful belonging, the fundamental requisite for one’s humanity to be recognized, accepted, loved.
It’s never been just about race. This is too simple, foolish. It undermines the complexity of systems and the people that shape history. Further, as one of my students recently said, “This isn’t about you.” This is about striving toward a better us. But too often we forget that.
Historical amnesia, not wanting to deal with the messiness of the past that frequents the present and too often haunts our future, has left disenfranchised people behind, often the poor, often those of color, those marginalized folk. For the lazy, in denial or the scared, there’ll be this desire, whether sounded, legible on discomforted bodies, or deadly silent, that this push for change will pass, and we will be made better for it.
To this, I hope you’ll resist, listen, maybe even participate; or as my colleague Dr. Linda Chavers wisely requests, I hope you won’t obstruct the conversation and progress that needs to happen.
And don’t make the mistake assuming there’s no intimacy between Baltimore and Phillips Exeter Academy. No, the consternation here will likely not result in looting and the burning and destruction of property. I trust this won’t be the case. No doubt this institution, where we live and work to coexist, has graduated so many from diverse backgrounds who’ve gone to be successful. Those many who return in revelry in white tents; those many who watch Harkness again and reminisce on the good times and those many who purposefully reach and impact every part of our planet based on the lessons learned during their tenure here. They’re beacons of light; proof that what we do here holds merit.
But it is important to know that the decades of damage done to the humanity in the poorer, less powerful in Baltimore have a comparison to be made to the souls and bodies of people who have graduated from this institution, those students still here, and many of its faculty, and staff.
Remember the scars, our ancestors, predecessors and the lessons we may have missed and could learn from. Successes and wounds have a shared history, and the former can be quickly forgotten if we fail to address the latter, which can fester into a horrifically marked past.
This present historical condition at Phillips Exeter Academy is something a change in dress code can’t easily remedy. Yet, it is a start. To be certain, though, students, past and present, and some faculty alike feel (and felt) torn down by PEA, a place we have valued given we have invested part of our lives here. A place we must demand openly that it recognize and support us so we can all feel equally valuable.
Yes, the beat of urgency has been with us, biding its time to move beyond those dedicated to merely surviving the emotional, physical, spiritual and psychological blows those in power allow and support as the PEA status quo. Thriving is the destination we all seek, and it is time we all get to the line at the same time and work to cross together, arm-in-arm.
To fight against the allure of traditional amnesia, to bob your head to the beat of the urgency, if not shake your fist to it, maybe dance for joy or jump in unison for justice, is one’s personal journey. I hope you’ll join us. By not supporting the push forward, it will only reinforce the status quo and cripple our ability to truly push for a systemic, 21st Century practice of goodness, knowledge and non-sibi.
You ready? Can you feel the beat yet? If so, let’s converse and progress beyond amnesia, apathy. Don’t let the desire for change die with the summer on the horizon. If not, move aside and watch where we will go.