By: Avery Smedley
One of the well known benefits of attending a diverse school is that students are more
comfortable around students of different backgrounds. Being one of few black children at my elementary school in Montgomery County, I saw how the opposite is also true. Attending a homogenous school can have pernicious effects.
The effect it had on me became crushingly clear when I was about six or seven, in 2008, which is when my sudden obsession with wearing sunscreen and long sleeves on sunny days started. But it only really became clear to my mom one day after school, when I became vividly distraught at her suggestion we stay and play on the playground. “I can’t! I can’t!”, I said anxiously. My mom couldn’t understand. I loved playing outside. She asked me why I was so upset and I explained to her I didn’t have any sunscreen with me. “Why do you need sunscreen sweetheart?” My lower lip began to tremble as I struggled to get the words out, I felt the weight of all those weeks in my throat, “M-Mary said she wouldn’t play with me if I get darker”, I sobbed. My little shoulders heaved up and down as I cried and cried, clinging to my mom. Suddenly, the past few weeks began to make sense to my mom, the sunscreen, the long sleeve shirts, the refusal to play outside with my friends. Later that week, my mom got intervention from the school counselor, who was able to stop the little seeds of self-hatred from growing into something bigger.
If I hadn’t found it so easy to talk to my mom, who got help from the counselor, I can’t imagine what kind of person I would be today. I can’t imagine how Mary’s words affected all the other black children she said this type of thing to, the ones who couldn’t talk to their moms and the counselor.
I can’t help but wonder how this whole situation might have been avoided had we attended a more diverse school. Mary might have been more comfortable around people with darker skin, and she wouldn’t have been so afraid of “catching it”, which is the explanation she gave to my friend as to why she couldn’t play with him anymore. If Mary was used to being around people who looked differently than her, color might not have even been evident. But Mary isn’t to blame. She was just a child reflecting what she was taught at home and our homogenous school didn’t challenge those ideas. But things don’t have to be this way.
We can fight these racist beliefs with diverse schools. In order to have diverse schools, we must undo de facto segregation. Much of the reason we have such homogenous schools in America is because segregation never really ended, it just took on different forms. This is why the boundary analysis is so important. We have the opportunity to undo de facto segregation in Montgomery County and actually make our schools a reflection of our diverse district. We have the opportunity to stop little children from hating each other and themselves.
Avery Smedley is a junior at Albert Einstein High School in Montgomery County Public Schools. She is one of the founders and lead organizers of Students Toward Equitable Public Schools, being driven by the idea that no child deserves any less because of their race, nationality and/or socio-economic status. Avery is also a leader of her school's Black Student Union and co-founder of her school's Minority Scholars Program.