White Accountability Space Seeks Greater Student Involvement

While white students constitute a plurality of the Athenian School population, their participation in a space created for white students appears to be disproportionately low.

The Athenian White Antiracist Group (AWAG), which later became Athenian White Accountability for Racial Equity (AWARE), formed as a response to calls from students of color to white Athenian community members to engage in white accountability work. This call was made in 2020 at an open meeting of a student-led group that existed at the time, called “The Color Collective,” shortly after the murder of George Floyd. A group of white students and adults at that meeting responded to this call at the time, forming AWAG as a result.

In 2021, AWAG was first presented to the school at a community meeting, garnering attention but also misconceptions.

“It was one of the first community meetings where [AWAG] was referred to as the affinity group and that wasn’t the right terminology. One student said people thought that it was a group for white people to come and be in affinity with each other, or to celebrate whiteness, and that’s certainly not what we do. [That misconception] kind of grew out of control before I knew that it was a problem,” said Maria Luca, the co-facilitator of AWAG and AWARE.

Another co-facilitator of AWAG and AWARE, Britt SchlaeGuada, elaborated on the purpose of accountability space in comparison to that of affinity space.

“Affinity is for a particular identity group to come together in community to talk about their experiences and shared identity; that is not what we do in AWARE. There are a lot of harms caused by white people toward people of color in ways that we are as white people taught not to recognize. The intention of the group was to create a space where white people can come to learn about these harms that they are engaging in and begin to learn how to do things differently,” said Britt.

11th-grade AWARE leader Henry Gillette spoke about how the misconception that the space was exclusively for white people was amplified by miscommunication.

“AWAG was presented poorly. I misunderstood in the beginning too. I think that when you have emails that say ‘Hello white students of Athenian,’ like we had, there was a misconception that this is only for white students. Non-white students can join and they were [in AWARE] last year,” said Henry.

Britt also clarified that although the space is for white people, it is not white only.

“While the group is designed to specifically talk about whiteness and white identity, anybody can come. And everybody has a connection to the racial affinity they define for themselves. We may have people who identify with whiteness but don’t appear to be white externally. People who have one parent or grandparent who is white may appear to somebody else not white but identify with that in some way whether that is because of their upbringing or the type of environment they grew up in. People who want to talk about things who are not white are also welcome,” said Britt.

This misunderstanding eventually resulted in the rebranding from AWAG to AWARE: “It became very socially not popular to attend, probably partially due to misconceptions. Because AWAG had become so tainted with misconceptions, it felt like we were going to get nowhere if we kept calling it AWAG, so we moved into AWARE. Also, it became more student driven,” said Maria.

However, some students offered alternative explanations for low student participation.

“I know that barely anybody has gone for the past couple of years, which is why they wanted to rebrand it to AWARE, but I think even then the student results were minimal. I think that some people don’t share the belief that white people are inherently racist, and they don’t want to be educated or reprimanded,” said Zara Alam, the 12th-grade leader of the Muslim Student Union.

Maria, recognizing the potential discomfort in attending the space, explained that AWAG and AWARE are not meant to make white people feel guilty.

“The point is not to make white people feel bad. That’s not the goal. It is recognizing that we’ve grown up in a culture that values whiteness. I am not pointing to people and saying ‘Hey you are all a bunch of white racists.’ We’ve been raised in a culture that values whiteness in a lot of different ways that are hidden and very subtle,” said Maria.

Britt also emphasizes the relevance of the agenda put forth by AWAG and AWARE at Athenian.

“I think a lot of what is considered to be normal in schooling is still connected to those systems of oppression like white supremacy, capitalism, and racism. If you look at the racial breakdown of who’s the faculty and the staff on this campus, and what is the demographics of the students we serve, it doesn’t match. If you are white, then you are conditioned and socialized into whiteness, which is what is expected in a classroom. The culture of whiteness is so pervasive that a white teacher doesn’t even realize the way a student of color in their classroom interacts differently with the material,” said Britt.

While many white students recognized the value of accountability and racial justice, many of them indicated that they had not attended AWAG or AWARE. In general, many students, when asked to express their opinions on this matter, were reluctant to be interviewed.

“I think in society as a whole, there should be accountability taken by [the white population], but I think the way AWAG went about it was not right,” said Clare Middlemiss, a 12th-grader. Clare said that she knew a number of students who had attended once, but not returned.

Zara added that the space understates the need for collective work on addressing racial justice.

“I think that [racism] is not specific to white people, and as a minority, I can speak to that. I’ve witnessed people [utilizing] the fact that they are a minority to overlook discriminatory statements. Certain people that identify as minority think that it is okay to say discriminatory statements because Athenian only has the white antiracist group and not [a space for] any other race,” said Zara

Henry emphasized the importance of mutual communication for the improvement of the space. 

“If you can talk to us about what we could be doing better, that would be wonderful because there’s always a room for improvement, always a room to make sure that the future generations of Athenians are able to address difficult topics better,” said Henry.