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An Open Letter to the Bi-College Community

Editor’s note: Opinion pieces published in the Clerk represent only the views and ideas of the author. This letter was originally released here by Black Students Refusing Further Inaction, a coalition of Black students at Bryn Mawr and Haverford colleges.

Echoing the voices of wider America, the Black students of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges are calling to you: “We can’t breathe.” For the last few months, we as Black people have had to contend with an avalanche of smothering events: the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately taking the lives of our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, and the violent execution of George Floyd, recorded and streamed for all to see. These, among numerous other events, have exacerbated the stress and torment we feel. The sorrow and anger that we feel are due to the myriad of Black people that have lost their lives at the hands of white supremacy and white privilege.

The recent tragic and terrorizing deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade have at last brought the nation to begin reflecting upon the pertinence and fatal ramifications of whiteness. The fact that “Black lives matter” is a novel revelation for many, including those within the Bryn Mawr and Haverford “community”,[1] is a part of the problem. However, no aspect of this statement, nor the conditions of genocide that necessitate it, are new to Black people. With this awakening of our non-Black peers, once again we are expected to feel grateful or indebted for your coming to the most basic terms of human compassion, but this time we ask for action in place of our gratitude.

While encouraging, we cannot wait for non-Black people to choose to accept President Raymond’s and President Cassidy’s invitations to action. Black students need and deserve more from the institutions that benefit so greatly by having us here. Our lives are worth more than the comfort of leisurely involvement. As writer and public academic Rachel Cargle said, “Anti-racism[2] work is not something that white people can do to make themselves feel good.” Anti-racism is not a trend. Anti-racism should not be commodified for white hegemony, and in the instance of doing so, becomes another mode of violence. We as Black students do not have the choice to pick and choose when we want to engage with racism; instead, our lives are a daily battle against white supremacy, racism, discrimination, etc. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the white members of the Bi-Co communities casually perpetuate anti-Blackness, racism, and several forms of systemic oppression. This discrimination is present at every level of the institution, including the corporation, administration, faculty, professors, and fellow students. We, as Black students, have experienced discrimination by the hands of the college in the following ways:

Haverford Grievances

Academics

  • Classroom Climate
    • Professors allow students to play “devil’s advocate” on racially charged topics, to the detriment of Black students’ well-being in the class. This is often viewed as discussion for “learning’s sake” and is done without correcting harmful views.
  • STEM
    • Until very recently, no Black faculty in STEM
    • Very little support for students of color in stem outside of student-led initiatives
    • “Students from historically underrepresented backgrounds disproportionately left STEM courses at a rate of 59%, compared to other students at 28%.”[3]
    • “In Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science (but not Biology or Chemistry), numbers of underrepresented students decrease disproportionately between their first and second semesters and into the second year. For Bio/Chem, this decrease happens between second and third year (e.g. after Bio 200 and Chem 222).”[4]
  • Social Sciences
    • Socioeconomic status is often used as a proxy to explain injustices that are systematically associated with race and anti-Blackness (e.g. in Health Studies, History, and Sociology classes).
    • Expectations of Haverford students with regards to academics, but no expectations of understanding how race, discrimination, and anti-Blackness constitute the foundation of American society.
      • Students are expected, for example, to write in full sentences, know basic equations, be able to craft essays, etc., but are not expected at any point in their Haverford career to understand why, for example, the “n-word” when spoken by non-Black people, perpetuates violence. There is no accountability for this knowledge, and thus conversations about race in the classroom cater to white students and their feigned “ignorance,” not only prioritizing white students but putting Black students in a position to educate their peers, and often their professors, repeatedly throughout their undergraduate careers. There is no system to put all students and professors on a “base level” of acknowledgement or accountability in terms of understanding race. Moreover, Customs fails to fulfill this role.
  • Departments (as are personally relevant to some of the authors)
    • English
      • Surface level exploration of Blackness and Black writers
        • No requirement of Black authors, and the required curriculum rarely moves beyond the basics of Black literature (e.g. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass).
        • Little effort to consciously include Black authors in the required curriculum—both Black authors who are “writing about race” and Black authors whose voices show that “race” is not the only thing Black scholars think about.
        • Minimal coverage of queer Black authors and female Black authors
    • Spanish, French
      • Severe lack of Black authors and the exclusion of Black dialects, such as Francophone Africa.
      • Extremely few professors of color and no Black professors, with the exception of Professor Koffi Anyinefa (in French).
  • Haverford’s definition of a Person of Color
    • The Office of Admission releases the class profiles, which show an upward trend for admitting students of color, but is not being transparent with how many of those students are Black. After the Class of 2020, Haverford stopped releasing statistics of the ethnic background for the students of color admitted. Oftentimes, when discussing what makes applicants more competitive for Haverford, the school is, in actuality, promoting adjacency to whiteness. 
    • Tenure-track faculty of color are 22%, tenured faculty of color are 19%. As the numbers for Black faculty are even lower, these numbers are already inexcusable.
  • Honor Council often functions as a disciplinary and punitive body rather than the “restorative justice” role it is advertised as fulfilling. Honor Council recognizes dishonest academic actions as “violations” of the Honor Code, but does not consider the privileges of academic background, private tutoring, or legacy status in the admissions process as violent and harmful cheating in itself. 
    • International students of color are surveilled by professors for their nationality status, language use, and race far more than domestic students and white students in similar situations of potential academic dishonesty.
    • Honor Council rarely hears cases of racial discrimination, and there are very few in its history. This is due to the fact that Honor Council was not constructed to hold white students accountable for discrimination, positioning it as a system that threatens only to further perpetuate anti-blackness and racism. See 1987 Sylvia1994 Charlie’s Angels, 2019 The Matrix, 2019 Kardashians, and 2019 High School Musical.
  • Display and Special Collections
    • Regarding the Bryn Mawr Anthropological Collections, many of the African artifacts available on the college’s “TriArte” include very little about what country and/or region, family, or individual each African piece originates from, or how it was acquired. Approximately 70% of the items in the African Collections are under the “Neufeld” Collection, referring to Mace and Helen Neufeld, namesakes of the collection[5] who are believed to have stolen many of these artifacts while deployed in various parts of Africa with the U.S. Navy. Please see more on this information here. These objects are displayed without any context of their original creation or use, and without recognition of the violence with which they were acquired. 
    • Throughout the KINSC building at Haverford, and most notably in Zubrow Commons, there are African artifacts in glass cases similarly displayed as in the Bryn Mawr collections. This extremely well-known form of racism and US imperialism has remained largely unnoticed at Haverford.

Social

School-Wide Initiatives

  • The Clearness Report[6]
    • The college cannot feign ignorance to the plight of Black students. The 2018–19 Clearness Committee Report (and surely many before this iteration) clearly demonstrate some of the ways in which Black students are being failed on campus. Even with an under-sampling of Black students, many of the results are statistically significant. Significant excerpts noted below:
    • “Our respondents were quite close to representative of the student body in most ways. In terms of race of respondents, we are slightly over-sampled on White students and slightly undersampled on Black and Hispanic/Latinx students compared with where we would like to be.” (p. 3)
    • Our demographic breakdown on this question indicates that Black students and transgender students were substantially less likely to think that professors cared about their problems and the problems of students like them… The fact that Black and transgender students as groups agreed less to this question is very indicative of the institutional lack of support.” (p. 24)
    • “Given that at least 40% of our respondents identified as marginalized, it seems concerning that only 24% of respondents interact with the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and a fifth of those who did, found it unhelpful.” (p. 25)
    • Black students and Latinx students reported feeling academics were inaccessible at a significantly higher rate than white students, Asian students, or multiracial students who identified in part as white.” (p. 37)
  • The school’s decennial re-accreditation process, which includes the self-ethics study, has virtually no student involvement, and does not accurately reflect the discrimination and systemic racism that the school perpetuates. 
  • The Office of Multicultural Affairs does not support Black students and actively works to support white complacency on campus.
    • Minimal staffing is unable to support the quantity of students on campus.
      • The office only has two employees, Theresa Tensuan and Benjamin Hughes, for 1,353 students. Comparable offices like the OAR, Campus Life, or Residential Life have a more robust staff that is supported each year by at least one graduate assistant.
    • Most multicultural programing is done solely by students without the assistance of OMA
      • From 2016 to the present, all events organized by the Black Students’ League were planned, coordinated, and promoted solely by Black students without the assistance of the OMA. Campus-wide events, initiatives, and programming that have become Haverford traditions (eg. BSL Fashion Show, We Speak) were created and continue to be led by Black students without any institutional support. When listed, the OMA’s name was for appearance purposes only.
  • The wellness space and renovation of the BCC were student directives and when involved, the OMA led to the delay and/or demise of those projects. Specifically for the renovation of the BCC, the Office of Student Life and the Office of Residential Life had to step in to support students after funding was thwarted.
  • OMA Intern projects are done without support from the administration and are directed inefficiently.

Interpersonal Interactions

  • Microaggressions
    • Though microaggressions are explicitly stated as violations of the Social Code[7], they are still tolerated on campus by both faculty and students
      • Honor Council has not been made into a safe space to address issues of racially-charged injustices, especially in regards to calling out faculty, staff, and students who bring cases to trial based on racial biases. Again, see 1987 Sylvia1994 Charlie’s Angels, 2019 the Matrix, and 2019 High School Musical.  
      • We understand and acknowledge the work done by the Community Outreach Multicultural Liaisons, while also recognizing that many students still feel that Honor Council is inaccessible with regards to racial issues.
  • Overwhelming amount of justification needed for Black- and POC-oriented clubs to receive funding as opposed to majority-white clubs and groups. In addition, undue justification required for the use of spaces for events.
    • For example, Lunt Basement and the lack of space available compared to the amount of space available to white students.
      • “White students are significantly more likely to party in the Apartments than Black students, Hispanic/Latinx students, and Asian students.” (Clearness Committee Report 2018–2019, p. 7–8)
      • “International students are less likely to party in the Apartments than domestic students while over 80% of varsity athletes say they party there, dramatically more than non-varsity-athletes (50%).” (p. 8)
      • Lunt Basement hosts proportionally more students by marginalized groups: more non-binary students than women and more women than men, more students of color than White students, more bisexual students than straight students, and more transgender students than cisgender students, all by margins of 20%-30%.” (p. 8)
  • Previous experiences with Quaker Bouncers:
    • The interrogation process for Black students entering parties vs. white students was discriminatory prior to January 2019 conversations between Quaker Bouncers and the BSL, as it was assumed that white students posed less of a threat to campus safety than non-white students. However, the Quaker Bouncers board has addressed the fact that this discrimination is longstanding at Haverford, especially following instances in recent years. The QB board has instituted diversity training[8] and other procedural measures to address this discrimination, which are well-intentioned but could be developed further and with more depth.

Specialized Programs

  • When led by white faculty and staff, programs like Mellon Mays and Chesick do not fulfill their intended goals; the framework from which the programs operate are what Toni Morrison describes as the “white gaze.” MMUF states that its “fundamental objective is to address, over time, the problem of underrepresentation in the academy at the level of college and university faculties.”[9] The problem of underrepresentation within faculty at colleges and universities begins with necessitating white approval and vetting of the BIPOC within the colleges, in mentoring, hiring, and beyond. 
  • Additionally, within the recruitment and application process of MMUF, educational background, color, and class privilege should be strongly considered. This is especially true given that fairer-skinned students are currently overrepresented within the MMUF cohorts. 
  • Chesick also stands to benefit from reforming their recruitment process in regards to educational background.[10]

Treatment of Campus Staff

  • By and large, the way Black staff members are treated on our campus is unacceptable. The idea that if I make a mess it will magically disappear, there will always be food prepared for me to eat, or that my living space will always operate perfectly, exemplifies the entitlement many members of the community hold. Students will often say, “It’s their job, they’ll clean it up anyway” or “I pay them for… so they have to do it”. We are here to remind you that they are people, not just workers, and that your actions towards them have very tangible effects. In an anecdote from an alumni, we were told that “Dining Center staff would comment on how they would have Campus Safety/police called on them for just being on campus/napping in the car, even while wearing Haverford-branded clothes and uniforms. It was constant.” This violence towards Black staff members has to end. Anti-racism work begins with personal interactions.

Sports

  • To understand the grievances brought forth by the Haverford Athletes of Color Coalition, see the letter here.

Bryn Mawr Grievances

We acknowledge the recent letter sent out by President Cassidy on “Actions Against Racism”, and offer more ways to amplify support for Black students, staff, and faculty. 

Academics

STEM

  • Students of color are continuously alienated from and lack support within STEM departments.
  • The college does not employ enough Black faculty in the STEM departments.
  • The number of tenure and tenure-track faculty of color in the STEM department is extremely low.
    • “From 2015 to 2019, the percentage of tenure and tenure-track faculty who identify as African American, Latinx, Asian American, Pacific Islander or Multiracial has increased from 19% to 30%. We understand that we have not made as much progress in STEM fields as in other parts of the curriculum. Provost Mary Osirim is focusing on this issue with chairs of upcoming faculty searches.”[11]

Specialized Programs

  • The Posse foundation brings a diverse group of student leaders on campus to fulfill its mission of “leaders of the 21st century reflecting the country’s rich demographic mix.”[12] Every year, talented students compete for a spot as a Bryn Mawr Posse scholar and prove their leadership, communication, and problem solving skills. Yet, the same high expectation has not been applied to selecting their mentors. Thus far, a significant number of scholars have had mentors who hold harmful views and lack knowledge on the complex ways racism affects Black people.
  • The Mellon Mays program serves to give access to and diversify the academy; as such, attention must be paid to class, educational, and geographic backgrounds in the recruitment process

Social Sciences

  • Africana Studies still is not a department/major.
    • Due to the lack of institutional support, the program is underfunded, understaffed and inadequately prepared to meet student interest.

Institutional Initiatives

  • The Bias Incident Report is an ineffective resource for dealing with acts of bias, discrimination, and microaggressions in the classroom.
    • The process lacks transparency with students on the progression of their case and what actions can be taken.
    • There is no analysis of the process and its efficacy, as well as a consideration of how to rectify it.
  • The current structure of course evaluations fails to assess the racial climate of a classroom.
  • The college does not employ enough faculty and staff of color across departments.
    • The college employs only 6% Black faculty, and 21% faculty of color overall.[13]
    • Faculty and staff of color across departments are doing unpaid emotional labor to counsel students through the racist social sphere of the school while experiencing it themselves.
  • The College does not make an effort to help first-generation, low income (FGLI) students transition into college.
    • There is a lack of a summer or spring break program on education surrounding diversity, inclusion, and preparation.
    • The college does not have a credit-bearing, community-building summer program for first-generation, low income (FGLI) students like the Chesick and Horizons Programs at Haverford College.
  • The college claims to “prepare its (students) for lives of purpose, ” yet lacks an explicit requirement to learn about Black liberation, social justice, and racism. Therefore, the current structure fails to train its students to utilize their knowledge and education to contend social issues.

Social

  • The address of concerns surrounding race, class, and other identities falls on the shoulders of student groups and the smaller Pensby Center.
    • There is no official acknowledgment of Black History Month by the college. Furthermore, AMOs such as Sisterhood* often do not receive enough funding to host events such as the annual Black History Month keynote speaker event.
    • Black students who stand up to implicit bias and injustices are socially alienated and labeled as angry and divisive.
    • The ECC, significant both as a cultural space and a dorm, is an afterthought in social and financial support and attention to facilities; alums are not allowed to donate towards the support of such a facility.
      • The ECC does not have enough space to accommodate every Black student who wants to live there, and many students are rejected every year for that reason. 
      • The Pensby Center does not currently employ Black staff, to the detriment and alienation of Black students.
  • The Counseling Center does not currently employ enough Black staff or staff of color, to the detriment and alienation of students of color.
    • The Center currently only employs one Black counselor and two Black social work fellows.
    • Students of color, especially Black students, are unable to find a safe space or access to therapy/therapist with a background in acknowledging/addressing issues of race.
  • Students are misled through the dispersal of admissions materials and lack of transparency surrounding race and class dynamics on campus.
    • Images of students of color are used for the benefit of the college and its image, without regard to the reality of their experiences there.
    • Access to Philadelphia is used as a drawing point, though in reality transportation to the city remains largely inaccessible.
  • Black people on campus are racially profiled by campus safety and non-Black students.
    • Events hosted by Sisterhood* and BACaSO are over policed by Campus Safety, Student Activities, and other students.
    • Family members and friends of BIPOC students disproportionately have had Campus Safety called on them without reason.

Public

  • The response to the call to rename Old Library and remove Thomas’ name inscribed on the building was inadequate.
    • In the current moment of protest against systemic racism and anti-blackness, considering actions taken towards the removal of monuments to racist figures, the removal of Thomas’ name must be reconsidered.
  • Support of only “peaceful” protests is patronizing and does not reflect care or solidarity with Black students.
  • Failure to speak out against the Montgomery County Police Commissioner does not reflect care for Black lives.
  • A significant and accessible relationship with the city of Philadelphia requires a dedicated investment into organizations fighting for racial justice in the city.

Our list of grievances is by no means exhaustive, but in writing them here, we want to bring them to your attention, and ask that the Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges commit to the long-term process they necessitate. Furthermore, we ask that the colleges work to end the continued marginalization of Black people on the Bi-Co campuses in ways that do not further burden Black students, staff, and faculty.

Demands

Our lives have been made dispensable, and little has been done to acknowledge that we matter in the Bi-College community. Currently, we have groups and offices on campus such as CODEI, the OMA, the Pensby Center, etc., but these entities do little to nurture Black students on campus. Bryn Mawr and Haverford often speak of “diversity and inclusion”, though this initiative has been co-opted to make white allies feel comfortable while doing little to recognize and interrogate the ways in which Black students feel antagonized on campus. Diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism cannot stop at theory; they must become praxis. We, the Black students of your campuses, are disappointed with the lack of urgency with which this crisis was addressed. After a week of violence, protests, and trauma for the Black community, the college’s statements were lackluster and underwhelming. With ample time to prepare, we expected more resources and especially more action on behalf of the college, and our disappointment will not be masked. This is not the time to cower behind closed doors, and as accomplices,[14] it is imperative that your anti-racist efforts be committed out loud. These institutions have the choice to join in the efforts led by Black people across the country to influence its community as stewards of justice and Quaker action. 

  1. We demand a Bi-Co course on Blackness and white privilege as part of the college-wide requirements implemented in the next academic year (2021–22). The course would be designed alongside Black students, faculty, and staff with the objective of exploring the history of race to understand current social, economic, political, and cultural conditions. It will educate on the history of police brutality, explicit biases, and address microaggressions, cultural appropriation and other forms of hidden biases.  
  1. We demand the formation of a credit-bearing, community-building summer program for FGLI students at Bryn Mawr, focusing specifically on introducing them to STEM courses and other preparatory courses so that they may be further prepared for college life. In addition to this, emphasis will be placed on social justice and leadership, and a continuation of programming will continue on into the year. This program would be four weeks long, and offer the ability to earn two credits, free of cost, including excursions. Program facilitation is modeled after Boston College’s OTE program and Haverford’s Chesick and Horizons Programs.
  1. We demand an increase in representation by hiring Black faculty and faculty of color in both colleges. This demand includes increased attention to retaining and supporting existing faculty of color in each department as well as creating new administrative positions dedicated to anti-racism within the colleges. The hiring process for these positions will consider the extreme workload and labor required of such work, and refrain from attributing multiple jobs’ worth of work onto one/a few individuals. Lastly, this demand includes creating opportunities for more Black students to be stakeholders and serve as representatives in faculty search committees.
  1. We demand an implementation of yearly faculty diversity training encompassing cultural competency and the need for social justice in their day to day work. This training must be developed by people with significant expertise and scholarship in social justice work. Furthermore, as part of new faculty orientation, all faculty will be required to read chapters of Ruth Enid Zambrana’s Toxic Ivory Towers, The Consequences of Work Stress on Underrepresented Minority Faculty. Current professors will be required to read these chapters as well, the summer before the 2021–22 academic year. 
  1. We demand the implementation of a “reparations fund” towards a yearly allocation of funds to Black students in the form of grants for summer programs, affinity groups, multicultural spaces, and individual expenses such as books, online courses, and therapy. This fund will be pooled from tuition in the form of a $31.26 fee.[15] This fund should also be used to support the local Black community in Ardmore, Lower Merion, and particularly the residents that were displaced in the creation of the Haverford Apartments
  1. We demand the Colleges’ formal recognition of Black History Month as well as allocating funds for events to be hosted: keynote speaker(s), special catered dinner, physical display/banner.
  1. We demand the removal of M. Carey Thomas’ name inscribed on the Old Library building façade.
  1. We demand the Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges take an active role in police and prison abolition. Currently, the Campus Safety departments at both colleges claim to work very closely with the Police Departments of Haverford and Lower Merion Townships. These relationships must be terminated immediately. The colleges will also divest, both in and of themselves, from any partnerships that may exist, with companies that rely on prison labor. In addition, the departments must reopen all racial discrimination cases against Campus Safety and take actions accordingly. Finally, we call for a stop in hiring those who have had a history working with law enforcement. 
  1. We demand the immediate creation of an Africana Studies major, including taking appropriate actions toward coursework and hiring faculty for its fruition. 
  1. We demand that Bryn Mawr College Special Collections recognize the history and ongoing colonial racism that the existence of the “African Collections” commits on their website. This demand requires that the college engage in active, dedicated, research toward finding the specific origins of each item, and above all, create an action plan toward repatriation of these items to the fullest extent possible. We also demand that Haverford take these actions regarding the artifacts on display in the KINSC and other campus locations. 
  1. We demand a revision to course evaluations to include a question concerning the racial climate of the classroom, to be implemented by fall 2020. 
  1. We demand that Haverford and Bryn Mawr follow in the footsteps of our peer institutions and make monetary contributions to local Black Lives Matter efforts. These efforts include but are not limited to BLM Philadelphia Chapter,The Mainline NAACPPhilly R.E.A.L JusticeFree Mumia CampaignThe Abolitionist Law CenterHuman Rights CoalitionCoalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration, Philadelphia Community Bail FundShut Down Berks Coalition, etc. We expect the colleges to recognize the ways in which they have extracted from local Black communities and use this as an opportunity to begin the process of amending said relationships.
  1. We demand protection and support for Black staff and staff of color, which includes an annual report similar to the Clearness Report on the working environments for Black staff and staff of color, access to apply to the reparations fund discussed in demand fiveand the offering of a free semester at Haverford or Bryn Mawr for staff of color/Black staff.
  1. We demand that Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges respond to each of the individual above demands in the form of concrete action and change. First, we expect a statement issued within two weeks time in response to this letter, and a timeline created by the end of the fall 2020 semester detailing how specific demands will be fulfilled. The schools will maintain transparency with the entire community as the demands are fulfilled (remembering that the brunt of this labor should not be on the backs of Black students, staff, and faculty) but will employ underclass and upper-class year students in the fulfilling of these demands.
 Should our colleges openly refuse or fail to meet these demands within the given time period (two weeks time), we are prepared to be uncooperative with standard college procedures and expectations until expeditious, recognizable, and vigorous efforts are made.  

Conclusion

While the grievances listed above do not constitute all the ways in which the Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges have been complicit in the harm of Black people, slightly different forms of these demands have been brought to the administrations’ attention on multiple occurences from as far back as the 1970s. We come again with unwavering dissent and urge these colleges to make significant structural changes. E. Raymon Wilson, first head of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, wrote in 1943, “We ought to be willing to work for causes which will not be won now, but cannot be won in the future unless the goals are staked out now and worked for energetically over a period of time.”[16] Although the battle against white supremacy is systemic and cannot be won overnight, we cannot afford to settle for expressions of care. The responses from our colleges must be oriented toward long-term change. Once again, if there is a lack of effort to alleviate our grievances and eliminate systemic inequities, we are willing to remain uncooperative with our institutions until change occurs. Once our demands are implemented, we as students can finally do what we came to these campuses for: learning. 

Signed,

Camille Samuels HC ’21Aishah Collison-Cofie HC ’22Lourdes Taylor HC ’21
Aszana López-Bell HC ’21Zakiyyah Winston HC ’22Alma Sterling BMC ’21
Rihana Oumer BMC ’21Vic Brown HC ’23 Mammie Barry BMC ’22
Shaylin Chaney-Williams BMC ’22Mercedes Davis HC ’20Jasmine Reed HC ’22  
Shoaib Shamsi HC ’21[17]  

[1] “Haverford College is a community of friends only by means of our socialization… This process presupposes the commonality of the experience of each member of this community. The assumption, then, of this community is not diversity but homogeneity. Since the notion of community assumes homogeneity the institution is opposed to the individual qua the individual—the ‘different individual’ is then doubly suspect.” In 2020, as it was in 1972, the ‘different individual’ is the Black student at Haverford. (1972) The Haverford College Black Students’ League, “Our Specific Concerns”. Accessed: June 6, 2020.

[2] Anti-racism and anti-ractist action as “the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and  shared equitably”, not solely as a keyword used to trivialize past acts of racism and satisfy white guiltiness with terminology instead of action. (2020) ACLRC, “Anti-Racism Defined”. Accessed: 6 June 2020.

[3] Source asked not to be cited.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Anthropology Collections, Bryn Mawr College.

[6] Read the full report here.

[7] “We understand that these discriminatory acts can take many forms, and smaller acts such as microaggressions are also devoid of respect and thus violate the Code.” Haverford Honor Code, Article III Section 3.04 Social Responsibilities, 2. Social Code.

[8] See “addressing Quaker Bouncer issues”, January 28, 2019, via Quaker Bouncers to @hc-all.

[9] See the MMUF Mission statement here.

[10]  We suggest doing this by prioritizing students who attended public school per Anthony Jack’s book The Privileged Poor, which indicates that students who attended public school are doubly disadvantaged and could benefit from a program like this.

[11] Annual Report, DEI Framework for Action, (2019-2020). Diversity and Equity Report [PDF file].

[12] Cripps, K., & Cnn. (2020, May 27). Mission & History. Retrieved June 16, 2020.

[13] Barry, R., & Palumbo, L. (2020, February 25). 2019–2020 Employee Factbook. Retrieved June 16, 2020.

[14] Accomplices of white supremacy and racism. (1989). Peggy McIntosh. White Privilege, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Retrieved June 6, 2020. 

[15] This number was decided upon as an amalgamation of the graduation years of the first Black students at each institution. Enid Appo Cook graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1931 and Osmond Pitter graduated from Haverford College in 1926.

[16] E. Raymond Wilson, first FCNL executive secretary. Letter in 1943.

[17] Special thanks to Shoaib for coding our ‘In Support’ section with Zakiyyah. We couldn’t have done it without him!

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