Wheaton Student to Board: 'Accidental Racism' an Issue

A District 200 student expressed concern to board members and staff Monday that racism in her school is a “big problem” that has gone unnoticed.

Hannah Howell, a sophomore at , said that as she has gotten involved in school activities over the past two years, she’s heard her peers utter ignorant and inconsiderate remarks “without even really knowing it.” 

“My biggest problem is the use of the word ‘ghetto,’” she said. She hasn’t challenged use of the term as racist, but she has asked classmates what they meant by it.

“They always give me, ‘Well, a lot of Mexican people go here’ … or, ‘A lot of black people go here.’”

Or, “’This place is dirty’ translates to: ‘This is ghetto.’”

Use of the ‘N-word’ is also common, she said.

“A lot of the time it’s African Americans saying that about each other, and so people who are not African American feel free to say that because the assumption is, ‘If they’re saying it about themselves, why can’t we?’”

Schools have the obligation to teach kids how to interact; they have the obligation to teach kids how to talk about race in a healthy and productive way.

Black and Latino students are the two main groups that are subject to such comments, she said, “So they’re the ones that are most exclusive against everyone.”

‘Everyone’ means white people—or—the white people who think the exclusivity of the black and Latino cliques is peculiar. "That’s where stereotypes and negative thoughts stem from,” she said.

“Latino people hang out with Latino people and they’ll speak Spanish—because they feel like they have to,” to have their own identities, she said. “But then the white kids think it’s weird.”

Assemblies Suggested

Howell talked to board members during Monday’s “Chat With the Board” meeting. She said what she's seen and heard is “evidence for why we should have seminars, assemblies or even in-class visitors who could sort of raise awareness about the problem of ‘accidental’ racism. Most of the time, it’s very nice kids who are just too ignorant to know that they are saying hateful, hurtful and wrong things.”

“They’d say anything if it made them accepted I guess,” she said. “That’s just how people are.”

“They don’t say anything about mentally retarded people, because people would react that it’s mean … sure they’ll use ‘retarded’ as an adjective … but people laugh when people say something kind of racist.”

Howell, who is half-Filipino, has been aware that people come in different colors and from different backgrounds her whole life, said her father Brian Howell, a professor of cultural anthropology at .

“People look different and (these differences) are not something to be hushed up,” he said. “They shouldn’t be awkward to talk about and it shouldn’t be strange to refer to someone as black or white or Latina.”

Since she was a small child, Hannah would notice differences in color or the way people look, Brian Howell said. “She would come home (from school) and say ‘There was another brown girl in class’ and it was natural for her to talk about this.” 

“We’ve tried to help her recognize it’s because people don’t talk about this … They think there’s something wrong with the fact that we look different from each other.”

Brian Howell continued, "I would want the schools to make it easy to talk about these cultural and racial differences the students see anyway … I think they fill in what they see with stereotypes, so then they’re projecting what they see on television (or other influences) …because they’re not seeing any sort of message.”

Discussions at Home

Dr. Brian Harris, District 200's superintendent, said conversations about race should take place at home. Howell agreed, but said schools have the obligation to teach kids how to interact; they have the obligation to teach kids how to talk about race in a healthy and productive way.

“Some families aren’t equipped to have those conversations,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of racist conversation going on in Wheaton at home,” he added. “I do think there’s tremendous silence and kids are not being taught at home to talk about the differences they see.”

School is one place where different racial groups come together, Howell said. “It’s a good place to start.”

Rosemary Swanson, president of the District 200 Board of Education, said diversity is a core value in the district, and that Hannah Howell’s idea for assemblies addressing diversity is a “great idea.”

“One of the things we talked about in that conversation is all of the things we do from elementary school on up in order to talk about the differences between cultures and ethnic groups and so we are constantly working on that,” Swanson said.

“The key thing is that she came forward with an idea.” 

Hannah Howell said Monday she hadn’t had an educational experience about multiculturalism during her time in District 200.

She said she hopes speakers or school visitors on the subject will be people students can relate to, people who can engage students, and maybe share their own experiences, “not in a defensive way … but in a respectful way. I think it would have a much bigger impact than doing nothing, at least.”

Brian Howell said that the conversation would need to be school-wide, “not laid on the brown kids to teach the white kids—because they’re kids.”

“It’s got to be the adults who lead and teach our students how to have conversations and how to teach others,” he said.

District 200 Listened

Harris told Patch the problem Hannah Howell described to board members is a societal issue, “that’s difficult for adults and even more difficult for kids—on how to understand and manage differences in culture in the United States.”

He added that it’s a District 200 issue, and that he met with both high school principals Tuesday to brainstorm how to proceed in addressing Hannah Howell’s concern.

“That could have been a Wheaton North student. I don’t want it to be just to be Wheaton Warrenville South because that’s not the case. It’s a District 200 issue.”

Principal Jill Bullo agreed at Monday's meeting that Hannah Howell’s concern is a societal issue that’s not unique to Wheaton Warrenville South. A few years ago, an editorial ran in the Wheaton North High School Newspaper titled, “What About White History Month?” which led to a major issue that staff addressed with students.

Wheaton Warrenville South Principal Dave Claypool said Thursday it’s disappointing to hear that students are saying things that are offensive or hurtful to other students. “We work very hard here at South to create a climate and culture that’s not only kind and courteous to one another but also accepting to other backgrounds,” he said.

The first thing he plans to do is to talk to Howell, Claypool said, to hear firsthand what she’s heard and experienced, and work with her to come up with a plan.

“Maybe (she can) speak at a faculty meeting, or other ideas she may have,” he said. Hannah Howell said Thursday she plans on speaking to faculty at its next meeting.

“I think it opens a door for us,” Harris said, “obviously, to deal with some of the specific things she (Howell) said but it’s bigger than that. It’s more about appreciating culture.”

Howell said she was encouraged by her conversation with board members. “I was pretty happy with how it went,” she said. The board members seemed shocked, she said. “That was interesting to me, because it seems like you’ve got to be pretty sheltered to not see the racism that goes around—but then they are not in the high school for 7-plus hours a day … I was glad that they listened and asked good questions and were really wanting to learn.”

While Howell isn’t sure what her comments could set in motion, but “people should probably know about this.”