Senior Alexia Vernet Speaks on Race at South in Remembrance of Martin Luther King

By Winson Ye

News Reporter

South Senior Alexia Vernet joined students from Oak Hill and Brown at Temple Emanuel Monday morning to present their speeches written in commemoration of Newton’s 47th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration.

Superintendent David Fleishman, the principals of Newton South, Oak Hill, and Brown, and Mayor Setti D. Warren were among the community leaders present during the celebration.

Traditionally, the celebration has showcased students’ original essays that are inspired by the ideas and beliefs that Dr. King fought for in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Vernet’s essay, titled A Zebra Among Gazelles, detailed her transition out of the school system in Cambridge, a city she felt was relatively diverse, into the Newton Public Schools, where she saw a predominantly affluent, white population.

“I had recently just moved from a diverse city, Cambridge, MA, where the majority of the kids were mixed race or like me, the first generation born in the U.S. But here, it seemed like everyone’s history was written on starch, crisp, neat white paper” Vernet said. “However, it wasn’t until I entered Newton South later that year that I realized how much volume white privilege spoke in this small city.”

Identifying as an African American student at South, Vernet felt her situation was comparable to being “like a zebra among gazelles.”

“I was either the only or one of two black people in all my classes. . .  It’s a bittersweet thing in a class with all white kids,” Vernet said. “The only thing that should separate you is a few degrees of melanin, but instead it’s often money, and background, opportunities, and where you go home to.”

Unlike that in Newton, Vernet adds that her social circle in Cambridge consisted of a more diverse group of peoples.

“In Cambridge, my closest friends had been Egyptian, black, white, Haitian, Latino, Indian and Somalian and so on but here in Newton, despite all the white students I was in class with, I made the bulk of my closest friends with other black students. . . It was almost as if I was subconsciously seeking allies and I wasn’t the only student who’d felt that way either,” she said.

Vernet described the stigma that many African Americans at South are associated with, and how it leads to a form of indirect discrimination and racism.

“These kids were almost always in the lower-achieving classes, and they were the kids who got in the most trouble. . . I could see there was something wrong with that, but it also, for some reason, was what I expected,” Vernet said.  “I can bet that’s what you’d expect too. And it’s a sick concept, that to whatever extent we may claim we’re not racist, these underlying stereotypes can ring so true.”

Towards the end of her speech, Vernet acknowledged how difficult it is to deal with the biased perceptions of white students.

“It gets hard not to slink into the background, not to detest the white kids’ ignorance, and not to lash back at their ignorant comments. It also gets hard not to want to prove the system wrong,” Vernet said.

Despite these struggles, Vernet is determined to overcome the racial boundaries she has faced and to secure for herself a position among the world’s leaders.

“I refuse to be just another minority student, a fill-in seat for the quota. . . I want to be seated in the classes that breed leaders; because content and knowledge are colorblind. Good ideas are especially colorblind. I can push past a little discomfort to make that point.”