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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

A Day of Unmasking at MARDC


Early this winter, Ms. Ayers [Upper School Director of Diversity] offered the members of BSA [GA’s Black Student Alliance] an opportunity to attend the Mid-Atlantic Regional Diversity Conference. She said that the conference would be a great experience for us to discuss topics concerning diversity with students from many schools. On Halloween, Cobree H. ‘19, Tai H. ‘19, and I arrived at GA early in the morning. Ms. Ayers provided transportation to the conference, which was held at Abington Friends School. When we arrived, we heard a keynote speech by Rodney Glasgow, a renowned public speaker, who was dressed as Dorothy from “The Wizard of OZ”. This talk focused on masks and the times in our lives when we decided to remove our masks and embrace the strengths that we had.

Following this talk, we were divided into home groups, where we would spend most of our time throughout the day. A very cool thing about this conference was that it was organized in large part by students and the home groups were facilitated by students. The first activity we did in the home group dealt with identity and how our true identity differs from what the rest of the world sees. We each received a blank masquerade mask, and on its front, we wrote adjectives that others would use to describe us at first glance. On the hidden side of the mask, we wrote the things that someone would not be able to see just by looking at us, and there were a wide array of responses that each person put wrote down.

After that session, everyone piled into the school gym to take part in the silent movement activity. In the gym, Mr. Glasgow went through a list of different types of diversities that included race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socio-economic background, family life, and physical, mental, and emotional health. In each of these categories, he would say a phrase like “I identify as ___” and each person that fit that category would walk to the middle of the gym. They would then be asked to observe the people standing in the middle with them, as well as those still standing by the walls. This activity showed the extent of diversity that each person possessed and how someone could be so many things all at once. When we returned to our home groups, we did another movement activity. We stood in a circle and the student moderators went down a list of diversity categories. Anybody in the group was allowed to step into the middle and make a personal statement regarding the category. Anybody in the room whom this statement resonated with would step into the middle in solidarity. This activity had a similar effect as the previous one and everyone felt very safe and willing to share personal experiences.
Akosua and the GA cohort at Abington Friends School.

During lunchtime, we were able to choose a specialized workshop to attend. The GA participants chose to attend the seminar on catcalling and the effect it has on those receiving it. Overall, the conversation was light and entertaining and we were able to hear points of view from both sides of the situation. Following this, everyone broke up into their affinity groups, which were separated by race. In my affinity group, we talked about racial stereotypes and the experiences that people of different races deal with simply because of how they look. The overall idea of that meeting dealt with “Don’t Box Me In”, a movement aimed at breaking preconceived stereotypes. Each group of people was then tasked with creating with a short rap that dealt with the idea of “Don’t Box Me In”. This was by far the liveliest and part of the whole day and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

To conclude the conference, we returned for our closing statements in the main auditorium. This was the most emotional part of the conference. Students expressed the gratitude they had for the conference and how it had helped them through very tough situations that they’d experienced. Once again, there was the air of candor and those who shared were unfiltered when they expressed their stories. We closed off the day on a good note and left with a new sense of awareness about how similar our experiences can be to those who seem to lead different lives.

~ Akosua A. ‘17

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