How Racial Tensions At School Helped This Student Discover The Power Of Her Voice
Maggie Noel, co-founder of the #BlackAtBLS movement in 2016. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
For Meggie Noel, the high school experience could be an isolating one. Noel went to Boston Latin School (BLS), where black students like her made up just 9% of the student body.
“When you’re in the minority at school, it’s this constant environment of self-doubt,” she said. “You don’t have teachers who look like you. You don’t have those role models. You don’t have those guides.”
Noel said those feelings were made worse by a barrage of bad news affecting her community.Ā During her tenure at BLS, which lasted from 2010 to 2016, stories likeĀ the shooting death of Trayvon MartinĀ and the suffocation of Eric GarnerĀ were unfolding. It all was taking a real emotional toll on her, she said, and the events were being talked about constantly by her loved onesĀ in Roslindale. Yet, every day when Noel went to her prestigious exam school, she recalled, “It was silence.”
At the time, racial tensions in the halls of the Boston Latin School were also palpable and growing more intense. Noel remembered regularly hearing racist comments. She said she endured more subtle discrimination, too, like when students in her U.S. history class turned to stare at her when the lesson turned to slavery.
Read the rest of this story at WBUR’s website.