Not Every Black Girl Survives Private School

Our community needs to challenge the narrative that says white academic spaces are inherently better for Black children.

Sidney and I met on the school van the morning of our first day as 6th graders. It was rare for me to find another West African in our city, let alone another Nigerian my age, but her fathers’ heavily accented farewells were a dead giveaway . “Igbo” I asked the stranger, “Yoruba” she replied. From that day on, Sidney and I would be each other’s familiar face in the strange place we called school. As we awaited our first day tour guides, we joked about how much we stuck out in our new environment. We were the only black girls we’d seen on the campus so far and the staring was confirmation of that. Still, we couldn’t help but to notice how different this campus was in comparison to the ones we were used to. With its plush student lounges marked with signs that read “No Teachers Allowed”, floor to ceiling mahogany lockers and indoor tennis court, this campus was more than we could’ve imagined.

Throughout the day, we listened to the administrators rave about this being their most diverse year. We didn’t feel like 5 Black girls out of 48 was some huge accomplishments, but given that private schools in Pittsburgh were notorious for being “virtually all white”, (having a white student population of over 90%), we could sorta see…