As the world waits with bated breath on the judicial system’s slow response to the senseless murders of innocent Black bodies, minority students wait for predominantly white institutions to speak up about the global racial injustices that have become woven into their core, allowing hatred to fester. Black and Brown bodies are not only awaiting the world to wake up and realize their humanity, but also for the areas that we visit, frequent and contribute culturally toward. There’s an urgent need to provide effective change, not performative advocacy.
Fenwick High School, a private Catholic college prep institution in Oak Park, Ill., has a population of 2,000+ students. Its student body only has a 5% Black and 2% Latinx populations. In the current state of affairs where Black Americans are protesting the response to racial injustice and violence at the hands of the police, on June 7 Black alumni at Fenwick called for the institution to make permanent and effective changes after the school released a video on June 2 that did not provide reassurance that change would be enacted.
In Fenwick’s initial June 2 address about the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death at the hands of police, Fenwick encouraged students to hear a message from President Fr. Richard Peddicord. In a six-minute video sent via email to both alumni and current students, Fr. Peddicord reminds the Fenwick community that racism is at the core of many of our systems and leans on the understanding that students are “one” as a school community. While Fr. Peddicord is correct in his statement — that we need to operate as one student body — this cannot happen until we prioritize the restructuring of more than 90 years of oppressive and systematic racism within Fenwick.
We learn early that vultures can be found in the places that we once found beautiful, and there were a flock of vultures at Fenwick High School, according to accounts from current students and alumni. They have taken to Instagram and other social media platforms to create profiles that highlight the reality of what minority students endured and continue to endure during their time at Fenwick. These experiences were provoked by both faculty and students. One student of color from the class of 2011, detailed the following account: