Juneteenth

Dear Buckley Community,

Today is Juneteenth. Chances are you did not learn about this day in school. You may have only learned about Juneteenth in the last week or so, in the wake of civil unrest throughout the country over systemic racism and police brutality.

Unless you are Black. Then you may have grown up celebrating Juneteenth, with your family, with your friends, with your neighborhood.

Or, like Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard, you may have grown up in the Black community, but not known about the holiday until college or adulthood.

As students in our summer Intersections of Identity course learned today, Juneteenth commemorates the date when those in Texas, the western-most Confederate state, heard that the enslaved were free. The news was delivered late -- two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation -- in order for slave owners to reap one more harvest. They did not want to relinquish the financial gains the system of slavery provided them.

“These days,” Gates writes, “Juneteenth is a day to celebrate and to speak out.” Or, as activist and scholar Angela Davis explains, to harness radical imagination and envision a new future.

Inspired by Gates, Davis, and the Black community at large, Buckley is reckoning with its past in order to create a new, better future. In recent days I have been reading stories from Black alumni who tell of racial trauma they experienced while at Buckley. The stories are revolting, stomach-turning. I am outraged and embarrassed.

White alumni have also written. They share stories of having observed racist behaviors, having heard racist comments. The bravest among them recognize that they were complicit. “I knew better and I didn’t speak up. It’s why I am speaking up now.”

I am proud of these alumni, both Black and White, for coming forward. As our Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Ralinda Watts wisely says, “Speaking out is an act of love.” These alumni expect better of us, and it is long overdue for us to heed their cry. Here are our first steps:

This Summer

We want to hear your stories and engage in dialogue. The nuances of your experiences will inform our next steps and shape our future. Staff and administrators will interview any alum or student who volunteers to share their story. If you have a story to tell, please complete this form.
The Office of DEI has offered the first-ever “Intersections of Identity - Parent Edition.”
The Office of DEI will design regular, ongoing, and required professional development for faculty and staff throughout the coming year.
The Admission Office will continue outreach to Black, Latinx, and Asian communities as well as to other under-represented groups.
The Assistant Head of School (AHOS), Human Resources Office, division heads, and the DEI Office will cast an even wider net for any open positions.
The AHOS and division heads will revise the faculty and staff evaluation system to provide greater accountability for faculty and staff to create an equitable and inclusive experience for all in the Buckley community, and in particular for students of color.
Our community read this summer, for faculty, staff, and administrators, is The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, by Michelle Alexander, a historical examination of systemic racism, police brutality, and incarceration. In addition, our DEI Office has put together this antiracist book list for the community.
Faculty and administrators are actively seeking and reviewing additional literature highlighting diverse identities, in particular Black lives, to add to classrooms and libraries.

During the 20-21 School Year

Trustees will receive training in governing with antiracist practices.
Faculty, staff, and administrators will participate in required, regular, and ongoing professional development about race, racism, privilege, and systems of oppression.
Faculty will review and revise curriculum to include explicit education about race, systems of racial oppression, Black history, and Black culture, as well as that of other Indigenous People and People of Color (BIPOC).
The senior administration, in partnership with the DEI Office, will determine a process to assess student, family, faculty, and alumni experience of equity and inclusion on campus.
The senior administration, in partnership with the Board of Trustees, will explore the continued expansion of financial aid (in the last two years the board has invested heavily in Financial Aid, increasing total funding by 40 percent, not including the additional support needed as a result of Covid-19).
The division heads and faculty will examine how to modify the school calendar to require that all Middle and Upper School students and faculty attend DEI Symposia.
The director of DEI, division heads, and dean of students will examine the disciplinary and restorative justice process to address acts of racism and bigotry and to make recommendations to the AHOS for improvements.
The AHOS, HR, and the DEI Office will continue to train division and department heads and faculty on best hiring practices and implicit bias.
The Alumni Office, in partnership with the Office of DEI, will engage alumni with the school’s DEI efforts.

And then?

During the coming school year we will develop a list of specific and measurable targets for the 21-22 year and beyond that will include a goal to expand the number of students and teachers of color at Buckley, and to grow DEI education for faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and trustees.

The wounds of racism are deep -- lifelong and intergenerational. They deplete, they demoralize, and they destroy. I challenge us to find the strength to do the hard work -- to be introspective, reflective, humble, and honest. To learn, to hear, to dismantle, and to grow. It’s going to be painful, whether we have stories to tell or stories to hear. But together we have the resilience we need to rise up, rise above, uplift, and soar.

I’m ready to do the work. I hope you are, too.

Alona