Leland Do Better
A manifesto to combat racist microaggressions in our schools and community
On June 16, 2020, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests across the country, a manifesto named “Leland Do Better” was circulated in the Nextdoor forum and other community sites. The document was created by a couple of African American students from Leland High School (who preferred to remain anonymous) and summarized various examples of racist and sexist behavior that they and other students of color had encountered on campus and the apathy of the Leland administration and staff to take any meaningful action in response.
The goal was to hold the school and the community accountable. The students wanted to expose the complacency of the Almaden community to matters of race, including a persistent refusal to acknowledge unconscious biases and microaggressions that were pervasive among the student body. However, when the manifesto was initially broadcasted on Nextdoor, the post was received with widespread disbelief by many members, who tried to discredit the veracity of the information, and forced the moderators to remove it from the forum. Personal stories are always the hardest to share, yet even though these students of color had taken on the burden to document the incidents, it was summarily dismissed in a bid to cover up the problems that are embedded in our society today.
While the manifesto made many people uncomfortable and aroused a lot of emotions within the community, it did energize some members to organize a virtual panel discussion. The panel was open to the public and aimed to amplify the voices of colored people by enabling them to speak up about their experiences so that the community could educate themselves, hold each other accountable, and initiate change from within.
It can be safely said that Almaden is a bubble — an affluent, sheltered suburb, where it is hard for us to acknowledge an alternative reality that may exist for minorities or people of color within the same community. Therefore, it is important for us to encourage a spirit of inclusion through dialogue and conversations, the first step of which is an acknowledgment that problems exist within the community when it comes to race relations.
The speaker panel consisted of four Leland Alumni, who have since graduated. They included Hannah Lee (Class of 2019); Vineet Byakod (Class of 2020); Mira Karthik (Class of 2020); and Sathvik Nair (Class of 2016). The moderator was Ms. Rajni NavinChander and the forum was attended by 33 community members.
Vineet Byakod emphasized that discussing racism is imperative at this historical juncture within our small community of Almaden because ultimately we are (whether we like it or not) also part of the larger historical events that have overtaken our country. We can no longer afford to have a tunnel vision and refuse to acknowledge what is happening at our doorstep because racism matters and there are consequences to actions. Many colleges have now started taking steps and rescinded admissions for racist social media posts.
In their opening remarks, the panelists summarized the student experiences that were documented in the manifesto. These included the casual use of the “n” word and stereotyping students of color due to appearances, food, and fashion preferences associated with their ethnicities. While it was acknowledged that most people were subject to biases, the importance of being watchful in our behaviors to prevent hurtful racial encounters was emphasized. The manifesto struck a chord among many students of color because the personal narratives reminded them of their own identity crisis as they had navigated their student lives. It was pointed out that the instances described in the document have been pervasive at the school over many years, but have been noted only recently. While the panelists acknowledged the great academic experiences at Leland, they also recounted incidents when they felt embarrassed about their culture and the subsequent desire to suppress the ethnic aspects of their identity due to peer pressure.
It was painful to hear some of the panelists’ anecdotal accounts of “curry jokes” to which they were subjected to for the hot lunches they carried to school as opposed to the brown bags of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sathvik Nair recounted an incident when he was asked to identify if he was a “bow and arrow Indian” or a “dot and feather Indian”. Interestingly, the perpetrators of these microaggressions were not limited to White students but were normalized by many other students as well, who wanted to fit in by appropriating cultural norms that they deemed “cooler”.
The format of the discussion was designed to engage the audience on several fronts, that included:
(i) Identifying “overt” and “covert” racism
Overt racism refers to socially unacceptable behavior like lynching, dressing up in Ku Klux Klan paraphernalia, or using the “n” word, and so on; Covert racism refers to behaviors, that are socially acceptable and often manifestations of our subconscious biases.
(ii) How covert racism manifests itself in the community
Covert racism manifests itself in our schools through a Eurocentric curriculum that does not adequately capture the experiences of people of color and a “school to prison” pipeline that results in predominantly Brown and Black students to be at the mercy of the juvenile criminal justice system. Covert racism manifests itself through individual behaviors due to prejudices and negative stereotypes of people of color and includes denying our own privilege, the existence of racism, and microaggressions. Covert racism also manifests itself through our society due to unfair hiring practices and a refusal to acknowledge the inequities within institutions like the healthcare system or education.
The panelists clarified how using slogans like “ALL LIVES MATTER” was started by White supremacist groups to drown out the struggle of people of color, when the BLM movement was initially started.
The discussion concluded with the panel highlighting some of the steps people can take to be an antiracist. In many cases, displays of racism are usually a result of ignorance or a lack of awareness. Therefore, listening to other people’s experiences and having uncomfortable conversations is an important way to find common ground. We must educate ourselves and be proactive in engaging minority students and make them feel welcome and our efforts must go beyond organizing heritage day events at school.
