The story of Latino American discrimination largely begins in 1848, when the United States won the Mexican-American War. I thought everything that Ive been taught to strive for, like financial stability and securing safe housing, going to a good college, these things would have been threatened if I spoke up, and I would have basically wasted my opportunity to go to Latin, which is supposed to give you more opportunities to step up in life than you could have ever imagined if you stayed in your neighborhood, she said. Editors Note: South Chicago resident Randy Pierre, 18, is a senior at the Latin School of Chicago, one of the citys top private schools. On the @bipoc.payton Instagram, students recount being called racial slurs by their peers, profiled by school security, confused for other students of color, ignored by faculty and discouraged by counselors from applying to top-ranked colleges. By clicking Sign Up, I confirmthat I have read and agreeto the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. This school has prepared me for college and life beyond like no other possibly could. Latin School of Chicago 2013-10-06 16-29.jpg. I had to learn that I couldnt bring my culture there with me. But it got worse, to the point where people, white people, were just saying the N-word around me as if I wasnt there.. In Person or By Mail: Submit complaints directly to OSP in person or via USPS mail to 110 N. Paulina St., Chicago, 60612. Fewer than one-in-four Latin teachers identify as people of color, according to the school's latest annual report. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get our public service journalism emailed directly to you. Their teachers are much more likely to be white, hold advanced degrees, and teach in classes with low pupil-instructor ratios compared to Chicago Public Schools teachers. "I left from a classroom at High Jump that was 60-70% Black and brown to a class where I was the only Black person in the space. Media. I thought that maybe she just had a bad experience, that I would be different., But Randy saw for himself in the summer of 2017, five days into the school year. Many times, I would cough or sneeze in class because of allergies or a clogged throat. The Latin School Of Chicago. She says the faculty member who fielded the complaint, a woman of color, threw it out and supported her. 1888. The spokesperson said the group is also drawing inspiration from the ongoing uprising against white supremacy and police violence in America. Industry: Primary & Secondary Schools. For the first time in years, I felt like I was able to be my authentic self. Within the first weeks of the new school year, the students said, there were already incidents where racial slurs were uttered during remote learning, including by someone who apparently crashed an online session. After a lengthy, painful deliberation (where some people on the body's biases were clearly showing), we decided to give them both an out-of-school suspension. About a quarter of Latinos who are bilingual (28%) and Spanish dominant (25%) say they have experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly, compared with 19% of English-dominant Latinos. Editors Note: You can click here to hear more about Latins goals for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Randy, the rising senior from South Chicago, said that he attended a leadership conference with hundreds of other Black youth last year and returned to Latin committed to speaking out against racist abuse. Were demanding structural change in institutions that deprive many of us of a healthy high school experience., The spokesperson said that a group of current and former students is crafting a set of demands for Latins administrators that span from increasing the power of marginalized students voices relative to the board of trustees, to hiring more BIPOC administrators and teachers and restructuring our required curriculum across the school to incorporate the stories and histories of our BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students., A post shared by @survivorsoflatin on Jun 30, 2020 at 10:18am PDT, In an email to Latin families and staff several days after Latin Survivors went live, Latin Head of School Randall Dunn, the first Black person to hold that position in Latins history, acknowledged that members of our community have reached out to me and others with reports of racial traumas endured both in the past and recently.. "We're demanding structural change in institutions that deprive many of us of a healthy high school experience. Her father was applying for his citizenship at the time, she said, so the comment hit close to home. Alex Moreno, a 2017 graduate, said that reporting racism at the school was intimidating because of some of the big names associated with Latin, whose board of trustees is stocked with business leaders and millionaires. Dunn's letter also acknowledged that the culture, systems, and practices at the 132-year-old institution "have promoted racism implicitly and explicitly." While it has its issues, as every school does, I would choose to go to Latin 10 times over. The teachers never said anything either. If the grand jury investigating the white-on-black violence during the 1919 race riot in Chicago is to be believed, Irish American gangs played a central role in attempting to extend the bloodshed. Amid the summer outcry over racial injustice, young people of color at some of Chicagos most prestigious high schools started using social media to share their own experiences, challenging administrators early in the new school year to reckon with what the students and alumni say are entrenched cultures of racial inequality. That fell below 10% by the early 1980s. The city also has a very cold, brutal and unrecognised history which is still felt today by our people. Denevi's leftwing extremism was evidently not merely confined to racial topics. Chicago, IL latinschool.org Joined March 2009. I don't remember the details, and for confidentiality's sake it would probably be best that I don't share them in any event, but two white students were brought before us for incredibly racist actions against a POC. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city's Chicago Department of Public Health on Thursday declared racism a public health crisis . Those include an anti-racist curriculum with nonelective courses on Black culture and history and reforms to the admissions process, such as an end to legacy admissions. Randys sister, Marilyn Pierre, arrived at Latin in 2010 from High Jump, a free academic enrichment program based in Chicago that operates on the campuses of Parker, the University of Chicago Lab Schools, and Latin, where it is headquartered. Moreno also accused some teachers of reinforcing the idea that she wasn't supposed to be there. In this piece, Randy reflects on his experiences with racism at Latin School and how the school has responded since July. His parents preferred Latin, and his sister, a 2014 Latin grad, praised its academic rigor. ", Another story says: "My Mexican mother was waiting outside the building to pick me up when another mom asked her if she was my nanny." Community Organization. That conference, he said, gave him the courage to share his story with Latin Survivors, and with Injustice Watch. I grew up here, went to public schools here, and attended college here. Despite the challenges, many Black students and students of color still show resilience in such environments. Middle East. The white segregationist Senator from Mississippi until 1978 has a surprising imitator in Chicago . While Latin Survivors central focus is anti-Blackness, the submissions also include stories of alleged sexual misconduct by teachers, and sexist, anti-immigrant, anti-Latinx, and anti-Muslim statements by students, parents, and educators. One of the first, from an alum, reads: I have nightmares about Latin. Others shared stories of being bullied, verbally harassed or addressed with racial slurs. I really do appreciate the productivity and the communication thats going on between the Black students and our new administration," Hughes said. image. The school treated violations like isolated incidents and rarely punished offenders, she said. Via Email: Submit complaints to civilrights@cps.edu. Randy, the rising senior from South Chicago, said that he attended a leadership conference with hundreds of other Black youth last year and returned to Latin committed to speaking out against racist abuse. This is just the beginning. Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune). Indeed, several current Latin students and alums interviewed by Injustice Watch told stories of confronting authority figures about racism and sexism, raising their voices to fight against oppression, and organizing other students of color. "We are acting in solidarity with movements across our country demanding structural change in the government," the spokesperson said. She warned her brother, too: She told me I would have some of the worst experiences Ive ever had in my life there, Randy said. Today, a near-record 14% of the country's population is foreign born compared with just 5% in 1965. The 15-page letter of demands also calls on Parker, where tuition is about $39,000, to focus more of its curriculum on the experience of LGBTQ people and to change the way the school handles disciplines to minimize bias. ", Another submitter shared how after a Puerto Rican Muslim speaker addressed students at a school assembly, a white student walked up to a Mexican-American girl and said he didn't know what was worse, that the school had invited "an illegal" to speak, or that he the speaker was "a terrorist.". Keiara Stallworth, a 2020 Latin graduate. Nancy Reagan is the school's most famous alum. Two youth organizers with GoodKids MadCity share what activism has taught them, how it has affected them, and how they want to transform Chicago. I still remember my first visit to the Latin School of Chicago. Latinos are now the city's second-largest racial or ethnic group, growing by 5% from roughly 779,000 in 2010 to nearly 820,000 . Throughout the decades, the school has remained one of the finest in the nation . One story reads: "I am of Indian descent. Those revelations come on the heels of recent outcry over racist transgressions at other highly touted Chicago schools, including the private University of Chicago Lab Schools in Hyde Park, and Walter Payton High School on the Near North Side. This was the year that I started to discover who I am, thanks to the Student Diversity and Leadership Conference. That was something I never had to experience before.. At the conference, I joined a discussion of what it meant to be Black at a predominantly white institution. According to its website, High Jump helps prepare elementary students from households "of limited economic means" for entrance exams and academic success at prestigious public and private college prep schools. Injustice Watch is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism organization that conducts in-depth research exposing institutional failures that obstruct justice and equality.
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