Reflections on Racism and a Call for Student Accountability

After multiple accounts of racism and microaggressions against students on Mills’ campus, The Thunderbolt staff has constructed our collective opinion in this editorial on the need for change and a call to foster a more positive student culture. We believe that although the efforts to combat racism and promote inclusivity have been a welcome sight, there is still much action to be taken from both students and administrators. As a group, we believe that students must be equipped and able to hold each other accountable for any behavior that doesn’t constitute a safe environment. 

Situations involving racism in our district are much more common than one may think. In fact, during a basketball game in 2018, Mills went to BHS to face their longtime rival, a small group of Mills students were in attendance to show their support. They eventually started the widely recognized, “We can’t hear you!” chant, in retaliation Burlingame Students chanted back,  “We can’t see you!”. This incident ended up being a catalyst for the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury report on “Hate @ Schools-Opportunities Lost”, which acknowledged racism within our district as well as the need for schools to improve culture on SMUHSD campuses. With the report being released more than one year ago, one would think racism on our campus would be moving towards a downward trend. Unfortunately, this just isn’t the case. Most prominently and recently, the target of many unwarranted racist jabs and transgressions at Mills have been Muslim and Arab communities. They’ve faced many comments around being seen as “terrorists” or “barbaric.” There have been many incidents on campus where Muslim and Arab students have been subjected to these unwarranted remarks, and have had stereotypes forced upon them by their peers from pure ignorance. Whether it be the misuse of the terms Arab and Muslim as synonyms, or assuming that they do not speak English because of their hijabs, situations like these foster an unwelcoming and non inclusive environment for all students when this behavior is left unchecked. Even so, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Simply walking through the halls and hearing racist and homobhoic remarks being thrown out so casually can be alarming. Behaviors such as these must change in order for our community and school to truly be considered inclusive.

This issue extends to the Mills staff as well, students have expressed feelings of discomfort from comments made by their educators. Namely, just seven days into the new school year, one Mills teacher made several insensitive comments about an Asian student. The teacher approached the student, and unprompted, declared their inability to differentiate between Asians from different countries. The teacher even went as far as to make a comment on the smallness of the student’s eyes, stating, “I could tell that you are [of a specific asian race] because your eyes are smaller than the other Asians.” These comments contain inherently racist connotations and are outright offensive. There are numerous ways to differentiate between students besides their ethnicity and the size of their eyes. From a teacher’s perspective, the ethnic background of students is irrelevant and unquestionably should not be the attribute that teachers turn to in order to differentiate or learn students’ names. The teacher in question has also frequently been known to make other various remarks that can be interpreted as racist. Hispanic groups have also been misidentified, with one student being wrongly ethnicized as Mexican because of their appearance. Comments like these are completely insensitive and uncalled for, especially coming from an authority figure taking the role of an educator. However, it’s important to elaborate that we, as students, do not believe that this teacher’s intentions were malicious or that they are racist. The main differentiation is that the comments they made exhibited racist connotations, leading to feelings of uncomfort amongst students.

The aforementioned examples of racism were strictly included to display that racism at Mills is still an issue. While we need to acknowledge that racism exists at our school, our intention is not to punish or ‘cancel’ those who are culpable of these offenses. Rather, we want to foster conversation about how to create positive change so these actions that contribute to our students’ negative experiences don’t occur again. As a staff, we aspire to highlight the importance of recognizing intent and how it plays a massive role in our perception of the change we believe needs to occur. Intent has everything to do with whether actions stem from maliciousness or just plain ignorance. Should somebody have malicious intentions behind their racism, then that is obviously a much more serious problem than someone making a joke or saying something they didn’t know was racist.

In regards to SMUHSD and the Mills administration, some students have noticed the new modern pride flag being flown on our track flagpole. However it’s prominence, although positive, leads into a much needed conversation about our district and its problematic history of virtue signalling. Albeit, deciding to fly the modern pride flag is a good decision as part of our administration to express their dedication to inclusivity, some wonder why the request from the Mills BSU to fly the BLM flag during Black History Month was denied. Even though our district sent out many messages continually expressing support of the BLM movement and our black students, they refused to fly the symbol of support. And while the benefit of the doubt can be applied to whether or not this was a decision based on political or external factors, it still remains a reflection of their intent and action. Our district is still not as progressive as many students would believe, and the performative nature of their words compared to actions makes this clear. In May of 2020, the SMUHSD board unanimously approved a proclamation supporting LGBTQ+ communities, but remained in a deadlock over flying the pride flag during pride month. One board member even went so far as to argue that “We run the danger of our flagpole becoming a billboard for special interest groups… I don’t want to dilute the flagpole”. This alarming comment reflects the disconnect between many of those who hold leadership positions at our district, and the needs and wants of the students they serve. Because, as students, we believe that our district should be clear on the message they send when they pass declarations for face value, but refuse to take action and instead, fall back on ignorant comments.

Despite their confusing messages, it’s important to acknowledge that there’s only so much the administration can do to prevent further racist incidents. Encouraging usage of the anonymous alert system and making inclusivity part of the vision of an anti-racist campus has certainly helped bring awareness to students. It has been both helpful and comforting to know the administration, teachers, and staff are actively seeking out ways to make Mills a more inclusive community to everyone. For the part of administrators, we believe that we, as students, should be equipped with the knowledge of what behaviors we should be calling out, as well as being able to be in an environment where productive conversations are fostered, and not shunned. We ask that the Mills administration continues to support their students and continue to cultivate safe spaces for students to feel comfortable to share their voice in difficult situations. Nevertheless, administration is not solely responsible for the culture of the student population. In fact, the culture of the student population is mainly in the hands of the students themselves.

Students at Mills are often subjected to microaggressions, snide comments, or even outright racism. We’ve come to a plateau where it’s now acceptable to sit on the sidelines and allow these comments to go unchallenged. But what we as a student body need to come to terms with is that we each hold accountability for our school culture and environment. As students, it is absolutely necessary for us to take responsibility for our own actions and hold each other accountable. Whilst administration and the district can proclamate rules and policies that aim to make our school more inviting and welcoming, there is a limit for the amount of impact they can have. As students we are responsible for shaping our school and how we want to be perceived. When we allow our classmates to make snide comments that humiliate marginalized groups at the expense of a joke, we take some of the responsibility for the issues that end up hurting our peers, regardless of intent. And this is as good of a time as ever to acknowledge that intention has everything to do with action that needs to be taken. While the rise of cancel culture may place a sour taste in our mouths around calling each other out—especially amongst friends—it is necessary to bring forward the progressive change in which we seek. High school students—at the end of the day—are high school students. We’re all collectively maturing and learning what is socially acceptable and what is not. However, this is not an excuse to forgo trying to teach those what is or isn’t racist or homophobic. If we as students are to stand up and demand for change to be made, we must create and be the change ourselves. No matter how difficult it may seem to hold our peers and friends alike accountable for their actions, we have to recognize that it is necessary to foster a safer and welcoming environment for us all. Without it, we remain guilty as bystanders while consciously knowing that racist, homophobic, and ignorant behavior is occuring on our campus and we are doing nothing to combat it. Ultimately, it’s our decision on whether we want to strive to better our community or stand idly by and do nothing. 

It is obvious that racism still exists within Mills High School and the district as a whole, and in spite of the fact that our district could be more actionable, it is up to us students to put an end to the glaring issues that we already know exist. To quote Dr. King, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people .” It is essential that the mindset of we, as the student body, evolves from ‘not racist’ to ‘anti-racist’. If we conscientiously put effort into ending to racism within our community collectively, progerssive change will follow.