By Ritu Marwah. Indian Currents
The rope, a symbol of racism and hatred, with deep roots in segregation, sends a deliberate message of exclusion.
Symbols of racism in the schoolyard
On November 15, 2022, the Saratoga-Campbell community was shocked by reports that dolls of color were discovered in nooses slung around their necks on the playgrounds of three public schools: Redwood Middle, Prospect High, and Saratoga High.
"When we got back to school on Monday we didn't see anything. We learned about the incident through a note sent by the administration," Arshi Chawla, a member of Saratoga High's Anti-Racism Task Force, told India Currents. The incident occurred on a Friday night? November 11? and the schools informed the students after the weekend.
(Image Courtesy: Ritu Marwah)
"We know where it happened. I saw a group of people gathered around a ladder leaning outside of Ms. Kramer's classroom," said Raghav, a Redwood High School student, describing the scene in which a dark-skinned doll was dangling, with the head in a noose
racism is not a joke
At his school, Raghav said, students had shriveled into their classrooms with awkward smiles and an air of nonchalance. They tried to play it as a rude joke.
"Like when a student is rude to a teacher and you know it's not funny, but you still laugh like it's a joke," he said.
"We don't talk about it." Raghav appeared embarrassed when asked about the reaction of the only black student in his grade. “We are not going to ask him about it. It's too personal." He shrugged at the incident. "I have never experienced hate. This is SARATOGA! Here we have a mestizo culture."
At Redwood Middle, another student, Allison, said her parents were worried, wondering, "How far will they go?"
The school administration was quick to react.
"A noose is a reprehensible symbol of hate and violence," Ken Geisick, superintendent of the Saratoga Union School District, said in a statement released immediately on Nov. 16. Authorities launched a hate crime investigation. The sheriff's office described the incidents as "heinous acts" and that they are taking these cases seriously.
A diverse school district
In the diverse community of Saratoga in the South Bay, where the median income is $200,000 and the median home price is $2 million, 43 percent of the population is foreign-born.
The residences located in Saratoga feed two high schools: Saratoga High and Los Gatos High. Saratoga High is over 60 percent Asian and Los Gatos High is over 60 percent White. Redwood Middle feeds into Saratoga High. Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Unified High School District is ranked among the top three school districts in California according to Niche.
Why the parents were silent
While staff, students and school authorities openly condemned the incident, Saratoga parents were unexpectedly silent.
"At Redwood Middle School, a pre-planned parent meeting ?before the rope doll incident? suddenly saw that the parents did not attend after the incident. The issue was not discussed," Chani Modi, president of the Redwood High School PTA, explained to India Currents.
"Perhaps they think there is little they can do about the incident," Modi surmised. Although several Asian parents had called Modi to discuss another issue, the resignation of music teachers, when it came to racism on campus, parents at the school were strangely reticent.
"My mother saw the email from the school about the incident. He asked me about it and then raised his eyebrows in a disappointed look," said Raunak, a seventh grader at Redwood Middle.
Kaasha Minocha, former news/entertainment editor for the Saratoga school newsmagazine, Falcon, explained that parental apathy may stem from a lack of understanding of rope symbolism. Perhaps many immigrant parents cannot fully understand the pain associated with the "n" word, a homophobic slur, or a lynching threat. In their newly adopted nation, they can be disassociated from the story of pain that generations of Americans have internalized.
“In most cases, students understand the symbolism of a rope better than our parents do because we have read about it and our curriculum exposes us to black history, including slavery, Jim Crow laws, and segregation. in the '50s and '60s," said Minocha, who graduated in 2022.
lack of understanding
"My mom doesn't understand the issue. I mean, she knows it's bad, but she doesn't understand the problem," said a high school student who speaks Mandarin at home. "She's not from here. She didn't grow up in the United States."
"My parents? Oh, my parents didn't understand the seriousness of the whole incident. My parents grew up in India. They are not exposed to everything that we are exposed to in school regarding black history," said Shreya Rallabandi, a member of the Saratoga High Anti-Racism Task Force.
Immigrant families on the path to achieving the American Dream may perceive and interpret racist acts differently than their own children, who learn about racism and segregation at school. Among Indian families, racism is often a taboo subject. So for them, acknowledging a racist incident may mean admitting shame that their first-generation children are still outsiders in their new homeland, despite their parents' financial success.
Who are the culprits?
The perpetrators were caught on the school's CCTV, NBC reported. "Surveillance photos show what the district is calling two persons of interest." Photos of the suspects were shared by the school and in an article on Nextdoor, a community news app.
"Hanging a dark-skinned doll from a noose is not the same as 'unpleasant'. That amounts to a hate crime," Rebecca Andreasen told her neighbors on Nextdoor.
"This is shocking and terrible," responded Carmen Tan Miller, another resident.
“No one has come forward to identify the suspects. I don't know why these schools were targeted or if it was an inappropriate prank, but it really shocked our community as any form of racism and hate has no place in our schools or in our community," said Tanya De la Cruz, the first public information officer ?PIO? district, a position created this year by the school district to improve communication with the community.
Racism spits on social media
Bay Area school students took action in response to the racist venom that exploded on the internet, in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the BLM movement that followed.
Four Saratoga High students formed the school's first anti-racism task force to raise awareness and address hate speech flooding social media.
At Los Gatos High, El Gato News reported the Instagram appearance of the KKK's "Los Gatos chapter" promoting "Stop the white genocide!"
“An account with the username @lghskoolkidsklub ?Los Gatos High School KKK? appeared on Instagram," warned El Gato News. The report identified actively circulating links to other schools, including @whskoolkidsklub ?Wilcox High School KKK?, @harkerkoolkidsklub ?Harker KKK? and @shskoolkidsklub ?Saratoga High School KKK?.
The Instagram post invited students "to attend a ?KKK Rally?," El Gato News reported. It included a threat that read: “This is not a joke. If those animals want a race war, the side with guns will obviously win[,] and you can guess which side they're on haha. Will it start soon? get ready."
The private account, which has since been deleted, was one among several other "KKK" pages targeting Bay Area students.
encounters with racism
Hate crimes continue to occur in the Saratoga school district.
On November 1, 2021, EL Gato News reported that surveillance cameras caught three different groups painting hateful, racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic slurs on the walls of Los Gatos High, smashing pumpkins, and then filming their work with their cell phones. .
Los Gatos High chemistry teacher Ken Porush was one of the victims of the hate crime. He told the Saratoga Falcon that he believes these incidents reflect a larger problem that transcends campus grounds to the broader community.
According to the Mercury News, Los Gatos Mayor Marico Sayoc, a woman of color, faced aggressive verbal attacks from an anti-vaccine and anti-LGBTQ group who identified themselves as supporters of former President Donald Trump.
In a cell phone video, they told the mayor: "We don't want you here. You have to get out of this town."
Racism has no place in the community
In a statement to the California Legislature. Assemblyman Evan Low condemned the attacks, stating that hate has no place in the community.
"Harassment, bullying and intimidation at public gatherings is absolutely unacceptable on its own, but we were appalled to learn that the mayor, the only person of color on the City Council, and her family have also been targeted outside of town. property of the Town. This is especially alarming in light of the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the pandemic."
an exclusion symbol
Dana Henderson, who was born and raised in Saratoga, told Nextdoor that she saw it coming.
"I saw the demographic changes in the last few decades and thought it was going to happen sooner or later as the right unleashes the worst on society."
But that malevolence, Rallabandi declared, reveals itself in more complex and quiet ways at his school.
“You will not find explicit hate crimes or physical violence. The reality is that the way racism manifests itself in the community is very quiet."
The noose, a symbol of racial hatred with deep roots in segregation, sends a deliberate message of exclusion, Wendell Stemley, emeritus director of the National Association of Minority Contractors, told the Post after noose was found on construction sites.
«The mission of the rope is not that of? I'm going to hang you at lunchtime?».
"The mission of the rope is that you are excluded."
You can read the original note by clicking here.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
You may be interested in: Science fiction: a way of making visible the social problems of ethnic groups
