Aviva
HEAD-ROYCE SCHOOL
11TH GRADE
1.How do you identify? Have you always felt comfortable in this identity? Interpret this question however you'd like, whether it be your gender, ethnicity or nationality.
I identify as a black, white, Jewish, cisgender female. Of course, being cisgender doesn’t make me a minority at all, but being black, white and Jewish is definitely not something you encounter every day. Sometimes, I forget that’s who I am. My different-ness doesn’t really register until I walk into a classroom full of predominantly-white students or I look in the mirror and see my skin tone and the Jewish star around my neck. I’ve noticed lately, though, that when I need to mark my ethnicity and I have the option to mark all that apply, I’ve stopped marking “white” along with “African-American.” I live with my mom, who is African-American, so that part of my identity has always been more present. I feel more comfortable being bi-racial when I attend Be’chol Lashon, a summer camp created for Jewish kids and teens of diverse backgrounds.
2. Talk about the environments and communities you've been a part of and the ways in which they've affected the formation of your identity. Tell your story!
I think I’ve begun to feel more proud of my identity. I’ve been attending Head-Royce since kindergarten, and I notice that for the majority of my time here, there were few African-American kids and even fewer Jews. I didn’t know that people were curious about Judaism and the customs I practice until high school, when identity became a more serious topic of discussion. I feel really proud when I can answer people’s questions about Judaism.
Sometimes I feel like I have to be really sassy because I’m an African-American woman. I’m not denying any level of sass that I do express on a daily basis, but occasionally, I take it up a notch because that’s what people “expect.”
Besides what I mentioned above, I’ve never felt the need to overcompensate as a minority student. I try more to raise awareness about the different ethnicities that a student may encounter at Head-Royce. That’s why I restarted J-Club with Ruthie DeWitt-to find Jews and non-Jews I could have a good, educational experience with.
3.Where do you feel most safe as a racial minority at Head-Royce?
I feel most safe my closest friends. I don’t feel the need to fill some sort of expectation of who I am. We’re all our own people and if we do something weird or something that would be judged by anyone else, we all just laugh it off and continue with our day. I love them for that.
4. Do you think you've ever been treated differently in the classroom because you are a minority. If so, talk about your experience.
Most definitely. This actually happened recently. I’m going to keep all people besides myself anonymous in this situation. I was in class, and it was one of my classmate’s birthdays. Well, there were a sizable number of people who I knew were familiar with the “skip around the room” tradition, so I started chanting it as a joke. The teacher, however, was unfamiliar with this birthday custom, so they asked me, “Aviva. What on earth are you talking about?” So I responded, explaining the fun behind skip around the room. The teacher then commented, “Oh wow. I had no idea what you were saying. All I heard was some African chant coming out of your mouth,” then started class. I don’t want to say I felt humiliated, because I wasn’t. I was shocked. The fact that one of my teachers thought that that was an appropriate comment to make in class to a student was extremely surprising to me.
5. Do you feel as though individuals of your race are properly represented at HRS. Whether this is through the literature that we read, members of of our staff etc...
I personally don’t think there are enough African-American students and faculty at Head-Royce. Off the top of my head, the only African-American faculty that I know are at HRS right now are Mr. Adams, Ms. Pryor, and Ms. Paul. That needs to change. Of course we need to work on diversifying a small private school in the middle of Oakland, I just don’t know how to do it. In terms of literature, we need to read more books by and about people from non-white backgrounds. 10th grade English really did that for me, but junior year has lacked a lot of diversity in the English department.
6. If you came back to visit HRS in 10 years, what would you have liked to see changed?
I want to see more students attending J-club. I want the campus expansion to be finished so that the student body can be increased, as well as the number of minority students and faculty. I want a properly funded arts department, but that’s a problem for another day.
7. Tell me about a time when you were insensitive about someone else's identity.
I was attending a game night at a friend’s house, and our transgender friend was attending. This was before he changed his name from the female name given to him to the male name he chose. I was absentmindedly referring to him, so I said his name followed by “she,” completely accidentally. Both he and another one of my close friends quickly corrected me. I said, “I’m sorry,” then continued with my story. I texted him later that night, realizing that “I’m sorry” wouldn’t cut it. I had to tell him that it would never happen again. And it hasn’t.