Young Activists Lead the Charge on Racial Literacy

Pendo Kamau (SHHS ’20), one of the founders of the Racial Literacy Initiative, represented the group at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in July in Umoja Park. Photo: Andy Shelter

The Racial Literacy Initiative (RLI), a new organization started by Strath Haven High School students and alumni, is petitioning for an African American Studies course to be added as a graduation requirement at SHHS. 

RLI was founded to help shift the culture in a school district its members say hasn’t done enough to fight systemic bigotry. They see the course as one tool for fighting racism and promoting equity at the high school. The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District has recently put more focus on issues of race and equity, with the formation this summer of a district-wide committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“This course would consist of, but not be limited to, exploration of the perspectives and texts of Black intellectuals concerning the plight of Black liberation,” reads the petition. “The course would challenge the typical narrative of race and ethnicity that has often been oversimplified and provide a groundwork for students to develop critical thinking surrounding race.”

Micro and Macro Aggressions

SHHS is a predominantly white school. Black students and other students of color say they often experience racism in its halls and classrooms, on the bus, and at school athletic and social events. 

One barometer of this racism is an Instagram account, Black at Haven, launched last June by students and alumni. The account describes its mission as giving Black students at SHHS and the other schools in the WSSD a forum to anonymously tell stories of racism they experienced in school. With each post, the account “aim[s] to make the people who were treated as invisible, visible again.”

I am African American and Muslim. I was new to Haven in eighth grade and it was nice until I heard racist remarks that made me so angry. I was so scared to even wear my hijab to school because then I would be seen as a terrorist. I just sat quietly and listened to the disgusting things people would say, especially the boys who were in my social studies class. They would say MAGA, “allu akbar” (not how you actually say it) and they would joke about how Muslims were the ones who blew up the tower, and also say that black people’s dads are always leaving for “milk.” The teacher heard but never said a thing so they kept saying it, but now they want to preach on Black Lives Matter.

*****

I was called the N-word at school four times and have been bullied for my skin color since third grade.

*****

My history teacher in seventh grade constantly made racist impressions of one of the Black girls in our class. He’d imitate the way she talked and everybody would laugh. The other students started making fun of her and calling her ghetto and she eventually left school.

Pendo Kamau (SHHS ’20), one of the three founders of RLI, says “Black at Haven 100% represents experiences of students at Strath Haven.”

Changing the School Climate

RLI was formed when Xaras Collins, an SHHS social studies teacher, introduced Kamau and Elia Brooks-Sims (SHHS ’21) to Jane Schmucki (SHHS ’21) at a meeting of the SHHS Young Activists Coalition (YAC). Collins is the only Black teacher in the social studies department, and one of only three Black teachers in the school. 

Brooks-Sims, Kamau, and Schmucki began meeting regularly, and “birthed the RLI on their own,” Collins says. Their goal is to push the school to adopt an African American studies course.

Collins taught an elective interdisciplinary Pan-African Studies course for the first time in spring 2020. She says she could see the course evolving into the required course the RLI seeks. What’s crucial to her is the message that African American studies are important. 

Brooks-Sims, Kamau, and Schmucki were inspired by the Philadelphia public schools, which instituted an African American Studies graduation requirement in 2005. 

The course was added as an elective in 1967, when thousands of Philadelphia students and community members protested the inequities in their schools. They presented the district with a list of demands, which included offering an African-American studies course. In 2005, the Philadelphia school district voted unanimously to make the course a graduation requirement. In preparation for creating the petition for the course they propose, the three RLI founders interviewed educators, teachers, and activists who have taken and delivered the Philadelphia course.

Kamau sees an African American studies course as a way to move the school beyond performative activism by giving all students a deeper understanding of the profound challenges facing African Americans. She and the other founders hope the course will “provide all students at Strath Haven a designated classroom space to thoroughly understand the political, economic, and social impact Black people have had and continue to have in the US, and what role race has played in the policies and social practices that have created modern day America.”

“You have students who listen to J. Cole and to these very [socially] conscious rappers,” Kamau says. “They partake in Black culture, and they get to be seen as outspoken about social issues when really it’s only to benefit themselves and their own social being.” 

It is important that students, white students in particular, not be able to opt in and out of activism, Kamau says. “It’s extremely hurtful when you’re trying to make a difference in your school district and you have people that really believe they are an ally, but they’re not coming through, and they’re not doing the work.”

Cautious Optimism

The students have been in conversation with the district and are hopeful that real change can happen at SHHS. They are calling on the district to proactively solicit student input and create space for student voices. 

“This will not be the solution to racism at Strath Haven, but this course will start a cultural change,” says Schmucki. “It will start to change minds.” 

To date, RLI’s petition for an African American studies requirement has garnered more than 600 signatures. The group hopes this abundance of community support will help their proposal gain traction with the administration. 

You can find more information about RLI’s petition here.