Our teacher completely froze as the tension climbed. But more concerning was that four years at a racially diverse school hadn’t been enough to challenge my classmate’s belief that whiteness, on its own merit, made her more deserving. Our school’s “racial harmony” might not have created that assumption, but it didn’t help her unlearn it either. A lack of confrontation had done her no favors. As high school came to an end, I took this lesson with me and became determined always to question what looks like unity at first glance.
