Black Philips Students, Alumni Share Experiences With Racism

ANDOVER, MA — As Black Lives Matter protests swept the country over the last month, students and alumni of the country's elite private schools, including Philips Academy Andover, have created Instagram pages to share stories of racism experienced at those prestigious institutions.

@BlackAtAndover, the Philips Andover account, was inspired by similar pages for Tabor Academy in Marion and Kent Place School in Summit, N.J., the anonymous creator said in the Google Form used to submit stories.

"The goal is not only for black students to be able to claim their voices that have been previously silenced by [predominantly white institution], but for other students to learn about the discrimination and racism that takes place at Andover," the creator wrote.

The creator declined to speak to Patch for this story.

The Instagram, created June 12, already has 200 posts.

Some entries include class years, but otherwise they are fully anonymous.

Most stories deal with racism from faculty and fellow students. Certain situations repeat themselves: Black students were told by their peers they are "diversity" or "affirmative action" admissions, at Philips or to their future colleges. Teachers confuse them with other Black students, or expected them to explain Black history or racism to their classmates. Acquaintances touch Black students' hair, without asking.

"I was sitting in my dorm's common room talking with my friends, and this girl who I barely knew started to touch and squeeze my hair," a class of 2021 student wrote. "It was so degrading in a place that I'm supposed to feel comfortable in."

Students also describe being called racist slurs and enduring other explicit racist speech.

"I was in my dorm room, doing my homework, when a white boy walked in without my permission, and called me shamelessly a [n-word]!" a summer session '18 student wrote. After the student reported what happened, the boy was called in for a meeting with his parents, and apologized, but he "wasn't kicked out or anything. I didn't forgive him because he wasn't sorry, he was sorry that he got caught."

Other stories are about racism from town residents and businesses, outside the school.

"Because I had experienced shop owners in Andover, I started to feel really grateful when white people downtown made eye contact with me and were kind/patient. I put them on a pedestal for being okay with my presence, with my being Black and shopping in their store or walking past them on the sidewalk," a class of 2020 alum wrote. "It's one of the things I'm going to have to unlearn after my time at Andover."

"Racist experiences also happen off campus in the town of Andover," another wrote. "While walking downtown with some other Black students, an older white woman held her hands up in the air as we passed her on the sidewalk as though we were going to rob her on Main Street. I am originally from the South, but that was my first overt experience of racism in 'liberal' Massachusetts."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.