Black students at a Connecticut private school have taken to Instagram to point out derogatory comments made by administrators, teachers, and fellow students.
Since June 2020, the account “Blackatking” has detailed hundreds of student accounts of alleged anti-Black racism at the King School.
A Black male student said he was forced to run through the woods at night as a 6th grader, pretending to be on the “underground railroad” with other students and teachers acting as “slave catchers.”
He wrote, “We were led by another white counselor to a ‘safe house’ and made to hide in the bathroom. The ‘slave catchers’ then found some of us in the bathroom and captured us, splitting us from the group.”
On this account, over 100 examples of racist remarks and statements from teachers and classmates “fetishizing” and “sexualizing” Black students are mentioned.
One post from a female student read: “I heard a teacher talk to a mother about my hair and how ‘different’ it was. She complained about how other girls’ hair was neat and straight while mine was curly.”
Students said that teachers were “completely obsessed with policing Black women’s bodies” and “sexualized” the students they worked with, according to the account, which details many allegations regarding specific school faculty.
Racism at the school went far beyond dubious school events and improper conduct.
White faculty members would often complain to other white teachers that the school’s director of diversity and inclusion was “pushing the agenda again,” according to a post claiming to be from a former teacher. Another post accused the school’s administration of being “hostile” to Black employees, making it “impossible for Black employees to create inclusive workplaces.”
The King School issued a statement this week apologizing for the “pain suffered by anyone within our walls.”
“Since last summer, King School embarked on an intentional journey to examine every area of the school through a lens of equity and inclusion, with an overarching goal of becoming a more inclusive and anti-racist school,” the statement wrote, acknowledging that the incidents highlighted in the Instagram account were “not isolated events.”
The school also stated that it was working to improve “cross-cultural competencies” and make curriculum and administrative policy adjustments to be more “inclusive.”
Students at other schools have also used Instagram to express their dissatisfaction with racism in the classroom. The account “BlackAtPingry” featured posts from students at The Pingry Academy, a prep school in NJ, who said that other students dubbed the end-of-year fundraiser “Senior Slave Day” and referred to COVID as the “China Virus” regularly.
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