12

VOICES OF OUR COMMUNITY When you are the only African American student in the class, other students expect you to speak up on behalf of all African American’s and their experience. It is an overwhelming weight to carry. It’s not my responsibility to educate my peers. I am there to learn, just like everyone else. The staff needs to be better prepared and ready to talk about racial issues in Colorado high schools. “I do not feel like [teacher’s adequately address race] because race is such a sensitive topic,” Johnson said. “It is definitely a hard conversation to have but they do not have any conversations about it.” If teachers better equipped white students to empathize with the African American experience then students could google on their own, watch youtube videos and learn to be a white ally to People of Color. The problem becomes bigger when the issue isn’t racial history but racist behavior. The worst is when the Hard R starts being thrown around. ASHIRA CAMPBELL. CREDIT: PORSHAI CAMPBELL BLACK STUDENT IN A WHITE SCHOOL BY ASHIRA CAMPBELL AS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENT at a predominately white high school, you have to break the stereotype. The stereotype is that we African American students are loud, “ghetto,” and don’t belong with high-achieving students. These stereotypes aren’t true — but it is how I feel perceived at DSST Byers, a charter high school within the Denver Public School district, where 12 percent of the student body is black, while 48 percent is white. Many African American students participate in something called “code switching.” Some think code switching happens when an outsider acts within the norms of a dominant group to fit in and be accepted. Truly, code switching for us is trying to survive a white world. “I feel that code switching is something that you have to do honestly because you don’t want to seem too ghetto. I can’t talk a certain way, say certain words or else I live up to the Black stereotype,” Aariyah Johnson said. Johnson is a senior and African American student attending Eagle Crest High school in the Cherry Creek School District. Eaglecrest has a 51 percent white student population and a 14 percent African American student population. Johnson’s experience isn’t unique. Code switching may not seem like the biggest deal for an African American student, but it is part of an overall system that limits the success of African American students. “I feel I have to change who I am to be viewed as capable of succeeding,” said Taylor Harkley, an incoming freshman to the US Air Force Academy and 2020 graduate of Doherty High School in Colorado Springs. Doherty High School’s student population is 57 percent white, a higher percentage of white students than the Colorado average, with only 8 percent of the student population being Black. “I feel like most of the classes I take are based off of rigor, and all of my classes are predominantly white,” Harkley said. “I get certain looks, and I’m being perceived a certain way. I’m being stereotyped before you walk through the door. It’s not the most positive feeling. I do struggle with the need to prove them wrong.” The myth that an African American student isn’t capable of high achievement is still present in our Colorado schools. “I’m a student that takes AP classes, and it’s a majority of white students in those classes, Johnson said. “It is frowned upon for African American students to take AP classes. You don’t see us in those classes. I would receive comments [from teachers] like ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ and ‘What about another class?’” The negative expectations conveyed on African American students leads to less participation in class discussions. This can limit our learning experience compared to white students. It makes us feel unwelcome in our classrooms. “In class I usually behave maturely. The way I act, compared to Caucasians, there are different kinds of consequences and outcomes. If I get an answer wrong, it looks like everyone is looking at me. I will stay quiet for the rest of class,” said Nya Johnson an incoming sophomore to Eaglecrest High School, and Aariyah’s sister. The expectation that African American students must code switch to have equal footing also creates a double standard. It means we Black students can’t be ourselves. Harkley said she frequently hears, “You’re the whitest Black person I know.” She is told other students are blacker than she is, or worse, that her behavior or the way she talks means she isn’t even African American. I have had similar experiences. The only time it feels it is acceptable to be African American in my high school is when we cover “Black History.” Unfortunately, the only time African American history is brought up is during slavery. Sadly, the history of other People of Color in the United States is completely ignored. To read a Colorado high school history book is to learn that this country was built by white men — period. 12 DENVER VOICE August 2020 The Hard R is when someone uses the N-word with the intent to hurt or cut others. It is when the N-Word is used as a weapon. Honestly, the Hard R is anytime a person of nonAfrican descent uses the N-word. The Hard R is a reminder that African Americans were once property, and to some people we still are. “This past school year there were racist things written on the bathroom stalls,” Aariyah Johnson said. “All [the administration] did was cover them with paint. They did not look for who did it. The N word with the hard R was written and curse words and a lot of negative things.” Harkley said she had experienced a student aiming the Hard R directly at her during a class. A white male student turned to her during an English class and called her the N-word. She told her teacher, and to her knowledge, there were no consequences for the white male student. Instead, she found a note on her desk with just one word, “Rat.” “My school does not address racism in an appropriate way,” Harkley said. “And in most cases, it’s not addressed at all” This is one of the problems of being a Black student in a predominately white school. Aariyah Johnson said she often doesn’t report racist comments from her classmates because in her experience, the school administration doesn’t punish the offending students. Worse is when teachers use racist language in reference to African American students. “I had a field trip with some classmates. We were going to a college and a teacher had said to us, ‘Make sure that you guys don’t dress like thugs,’” Aariyah Johnson said. The word “thug” has become, over time, a word used primarily to describe African American individuals. It is used as a replacement for the N-word. You don’t use the word thug to describe an individual with blonde hair and white skin. You don’t call white officers in blue uniforms thugs when they hurt or kill African Americans. You call them heroes and protectors. That is the problem. We live in a world where perceptions, developed early in life, influence the way we see one another for the rest of our lives. It can be very difficult to overcome these barriers once they are established in an individual’s mind. Those barriers are built by our predominantly white Colorado schools. That is why the experience of the African American student must be understood. More importantly, why it must be changed. We may be students now, but we will grow up and have an impact on the world. I want to grow up in a world where my experience as an African American student is different than the life I will have as an African American adult. Right now, that is not true. ■

13 Publizr Home