"With racism, it’s not always very blatant. There is a lot of institutional racism.
"I walk into a room and see only one person, if anyone, that resembles me- and a lot of times for me it’s literally my twin brother- like if we’re in the same class I’m like wow, there’s another African American in this classroom!"
And it’s not necessarily anyone's fault, again, this is the institutional racism. There may not be a lot of minorities in the AP classes. And just the comments in the hallway that people think, oh, that’s not offensive, or they don’t think that’s a stereotype.
The equity lessons are a good start, but I know that some kids say they’re almost nervous for them because they don’t know how people are going to react. It’s concerning when you walk into a room and you’re the only person that looks like you or resembles you, it can be nerve racking. But I think ultimately that it’s bittersweet. "This is something that needs to be done and needs to be said and people need to know, but as somebody who already knows it from first hand experience, I almost feel like, you guys need to catch up."
I think the Equity Meetings in which we plan the lessons are good, I wish that we could do them in a setting where a lot more kids could come, but realistically you can’t, because that’s a lot of voices and a lot of opinions to go through in a short hour. For me going, I really liked connecting with the teachers. Like Mr. Fell, I didn’t know him and I had never had him, but I was impressed by his ideas and progressiveness. That made me feel more comfortable, knowing that if I did have a problem I could go to Fell because he understands, or at least he’s making an attempt to. And I think that’s a big part of the equity meetings and lessons- at least we’re making an attempt to get better."
Noelani McGowan