Dear Analy High School: Words from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in your community. 

The following experiences were anonymously submitted and originally published via the Analy Activists Club Instagram page. We are republishing them in the Tiger Times with permission from the Analy Activists.

Dear Analy High School, 

My senior year, my teacher asked me if I could wait after class. I thought he was going to talk about the homework I had trouble with. Instead, he pulled out a brochure for an event for undocumented immigrants. This event was for students and families who are undocumented, to educate them on their rights, and on how DACA works. He assumed I was undocumented and told me to tell my family about it. I felt humiliated, angered, and overall appalled. I will never forget how embarrassed I felt in that situation. I told him “I was born here and my parents are citizens.” He ignored my comment and insisted I attended that event. 

Dear Analy High School,

I felt really out of place. I felt like I didn’t belong because I was a different race and majority were white. I don’t live with my mother who is white I grew up around majority black people and I live with my father. I also have an identity crisis because I am too black for the white kids and too white for the black people. I felt like I couldn’t relate to anyone at school. And I have experienced racism at school before. I was scared to always be in the parking lot at school.

Dear Analy High School,

A teacher kept mispronouncing my name, and for the first month of school I tried to correct him, then I gave up, he never learned. It probably wasn’t on purpose but it would have been nice if there had been a little effort, names are important parts of cultural identity. And it certainly didn’t help me feel like I belonged. Later I was talking to another teacher about it and was told that that teacher had once confessed to “being afraid of Black people”… It felt like a microaggression to me.

Dear Analy High School,

As a person of color at Analy I didn’t experience racism but I have heard racist remarks from other students. I didn’t enjoy analy sophomore-senior year due to personal problems but also because I felt like I didn’t fit in. You know my family is from the south, Baton Rouge Louisiana so it’s very different. I felt like I couldn’t be myself or else I’d get called ghetto or people would think that I’m too weird. So I just stayed to myself most of the time at school.

Dear Analy High School,

My junior year, I was with a teacher talking about college and they told me that “I might have a hard time getting into school” and looked me up and down. I had a high grade in that class and pretty good grades in my other classes so I felt humiliated. None of my family went to college so it was sad hearing that. I applied to college, but was super anxious and that teacher’s comments have stuck with me ever since. If I was white, this wouldn’t happen. 

Dear Analy High School,

My sophomore year, I walked into the library and someone told me to “get out ch*nk” and then said some other offensive things relating to Asians. They were with a group of people and they all started laughing at me. They said some pretty offensive things and I was really surprised. I’m not Asian, but I am a POC. I really think analy needs to do a better job at educating their students.

Dear Analy High School,

In PE my freshman year, I heard someone talking in an Indian accent and joking about “working at 7/11”. I wasn’t personally affected, but someone around me could’ve been and no one stopped him.

Dear Analy High School,

During my freshman year, my class was talking about an earthquake in India. The teacher asked me if I had any relatives in India. She didn’t finish her sentence, but alluded to it and I was very embarrassed because the class started laughing. It was very uncomfortable.

Dear Analy High School,

During this year, my teacher was sick so they hired a substitute in their place. While everyone was talking, the sub started to talk about some random things and said “n*gro” and everyone quieted down. We were all visibly uncomfortable.

Dear Analy High School,

Freshman year when we were reading [To Kill A Mockingbird], and I was purposefully chosen to read the parts with the n word because I was the only black (poc) in the entire class.

Dear Analy High School,

Racism towards asians is so normalized at analy and it’s truly saddening. Being asian myself, hearing my peers fake indian accents and seeing others being called “baljeet” or “ravi” makes me ashamed to be a part of analy. my east asian classmates get called “bat eater”, “dog eater”, “do you have the coronavirus?” a surprisingly large amount of times. it seems like i can’t even speak up about it anymore because i’m supposedly too sensitive. racism is racism. stand up for ALL BIPOC.

Dear Analy High School,

Racism towards people of color has always been present at Analy. And to be completely honest the staff at Analy doesn’t do much. As a person of color I’ve experienced racism at Analy, most of them being micro-aggressions towards my ethnicity. However, when you bring this up to staff they always gaslight the situation and make it seem as though it wasn’t meant to be “hurtful”, (How would they know, majority of staff at Analy is white, and if there are teachers of color they are not black). As much as the staff at Analy preaches about equality they have never once allowed a real conversation about racism that involved each and every student at Analy. Majority of the students at Analy are white, and even though a lot of them are allies, they still have a lot to learn about students of color’s experiences in school and how they have benefited off systemic racism. Just because you have seen someone experience racism and you know it’s wrong doesn’t mean that you’ve actually dealt with it in your life.I feel that the staff at Analy has failed us students of color especially black students by prioritizing white students uncomfortableness in the conversation of racism. BIPOC are not supposed to teach anybody about racism, you have the resources to you available if you want them. White people, white students, and white staff SHOULD FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE when talking about racism especially in our school system because they have all benefited from it in some way or other. Showing each class a 5 minute video preaching that you are accepting to all people’s and putting your black students in it, is truly disgusting. If that is your idea of “talking about racism” and showing how diverse the school is, you all as a staff should really consider individually learning about racism(not just the stuff that you were taught in schools written by white authors, I mean really learn about racism). Analy as a school needs to do a much much better job of addressing racism, since the town of Sebastopol is predominantly white. I don’t care how “peaceful” you think Sebastopol is. Everyone needs to learn about the deep rooted injustices BIPOC have faced and still continue to face. 

Dear Analy High School,

I once approached my friend during lunch while they were with some other people that I knew, but wasn’t completely close with. I made a lighthearted joke and was told to shut up and “go eat my fried chicken”. Some of the students laughed, I did not. I didn’t feel that my tease was enough to warrant racism. It wouldn’t have happened if I was white.

Dear Analy High School,

The proportion of students of color in advanced classes is sad. And teachers prioritize their white students over BIPOC students in these classes. White students don’t recognize this at all and the lack of support for students of color is awful. 

Dear Analy High School,

In my freshman social studies class we were learning about immigration, and the girl in front of me kept going on and on about how Mexican immigrants were stealing here grandma’s money and all the jobs. Myself and another kid tried to educate her, but it just didn’t sink in and it was exhausting. Your ignorance might be bliss but it is also soooooooo draining to POC around you who have to deal with it.

Dear Analy High School,

Analy and Petaluma high would call us wet backs and grape pickers during football games.

Dear Analy High School,

Being in Ap classes, the ignorance in privilege that many cis/white kids express is astounding. Many talk about their support systems and how great their SAT scores are and some of us don’t have that there’s a pressure to be like them and they don’t recognize the kind of impact their words have.

Dear Analy High School,

In my freshman year I was called a wet back by some kids in the parking lot. They thought it was very funny and it was mean and I didn’t tell any of my friends because they are white and they probably would have said I was being dramatic. The teachers don’t care. 

Dear Analy High School,

I am mixed races, white, black, and Hispanic. I look mostly white though, so I’ve never really had someone be racist towards me. I’ve definitely heard things that were offensive even though the person saying it was just trying to joke around. I’m going into sophomore year and I think our school just needs to have a better conversation about racism next year after everything happening in the world right now. I love analy but I don’t want it to be known as a racist school because I’m very anti-racist. I think our school needs to do better at being less divided, and being more of a community. We should have more spirit, do more activities, and just make school a more fun and enjoyable environment for everybody!

Dear Analy High School,

I remember I was leaving from one of the teachers classrooms and that day I had gotten in a little trouble at school for goofing off and got sent to the office…When the bell rang and the teacher came up to me and told me “if your father tries to hit you or beat you let me know..” and I was shocked because he assumed that my parents beat me—I don’t think he would’ve said this to any other non poc student at school..I just felt uncomfortable and I felt I couldn’t be myself at Analy because people would judge me, or people would ask permission to say the n-word around me it made me uncomfortable