FROM THE EDITOR, HOLLY MIRAU: If you have been on campus at Marshall in the past 40 years, it is likely you have encountered the stunning mosaic created by Sister Christopher Pavlich on the Fregeau Auditorium foyer wall. The artistry speaks volumes on its own, but the inspiration Sister Pavlich shares compels us to examine ourselves deeply to see if we are indeed embodying the kind of community where each member going out into the world knows they always have a place at Marshall.

When we decided to dedicate this issue to equity and inclusion, two things became very obvious very quickly: first, that we needed input from alumni, and second, that this is not a one-and-done conversation. We hosted a video call with a diverse group of alumni and asked them to share their feedback, their experiences, their hopes and dreams for the students here. They brought so much insight and so many thought-provoking perspectives that we had two more conversations and considered how to best share them, focusing right now with the particular lens of what it is like to be a Black student at Marshall.

Here are selected quotes from our conversations, along with a call from Regina Seabrook ’92—a member of Marshall’s Board of Trustees—for each of us to engage in these conversations no matter where we are.

As a school, we know we have more questions and more work to do than we have answers, but we are committing to continue our equity and inclusion work, and we want to share it with our Hilltopper community.

Over the next several issues of the Hilltopper Magazine, you will find deeper dives into what needs to be done to ensure that Marshall School is a safe community for each member and how we are taking steps now to move it forward. You will also hear from a more diverse mix of voices sharing experiences and calls-to-action.

 

During my junior year at Marshall, I attended a “diversity” event for private schools. I remember the difference in experience between the car ride to St. Paul and the car ride back to Duluth. I, along with a few classmates and members of the Marshall School leadership team, spent a day at the St. Paul Hotel with a racially integrated group of students from the various schools. I attended different sessions and made friends with other students of color. As the only Black student in my class and as the only Black student throughout most of my school experience, this was exciting.

I engaged in dialogue with others about similar school experiences. It was validating to be heard and to be understood. Actually, it was life-giving!

On the car ride to St. Paul, I remember feeling hopeful. I was happy to have been invited and I was interested to learn more. On the car ride home, however, and after having so many experiences that affirmed my racial identity, I was deeply disappointed and maybe a little heartbroken. When I attempted to share my experiences and the insights that I had gained about unique aspects of Black culture, I was not heard by the adults in the car, but rather invalidated and silenced. At the time, there was no language to communicate the different kinds of microaggressions like microinvalidations, but this is what I think I encountered. I could not understand why talking about Black culture made the adults in the car so uncomfortable. After all, the topic never made my mother, who is White, feel uncomfortable. The experience was such that it has stayed with me to this day. When I received the invitation to participate in the Equity and Inclusion dialogue with fellow Marshall alumni and members of the leadership team, I was willing to go on a new “car ride” and I am thankful that I did. It was a much better experience than the car ride home almost thirty years ago. Hearing the experiences of other alumni made me realize that now is indeed the time to build on the meaningful changes that have been made in support of all students and staff.

Today, we have both the language and the research to talk about why it is so difficult for many White people to engage in conversations about race and racism and the harm that occurs to people of color and indigenous people when these conversations are not had or followed by meaningful action. We also have a greater sense of urgency to “get it right” so that others may simply live safely as Americans in our country.

My hope is that the reader of this article will engage with the content with an open heart and an open mind. It is important that our experiences and perspectives, as alumni, be heard and understood and that they inform future action as Marshall continues to live into its vision and mission.

BIO: Regina is an Equity Program Specialist for Equity Alliance MN. With her team, she plans, coordinates, and provides educational equity-focused professional and organizational learning in collaboration with school leaders, schools, and districts. She brings the experiences of a classroom teacher, district administrator, and cross-sector partner to her work in support of Minnesota’s schoolchildren. She has degrees in Sociology from Hamline University and Social Studies Education from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, a Master’s Degree in Education from Hamline University, and her K12 principal and superintendent credentials from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, and also serving on the Coalition to Increase Teachers of Color and American Indian Teachers Steering Committee, the Conflict Resolution Minnesota Board of Directors, and the African American Leadership Forum Education Workstream.

QUOTE: I wanted the students of color in the room to know that they have a choice. It's not going to be an easy road, but they have a choice and I needed to model to them both critical thinking and resiliency. I needed them to see embodied in me a belief that I matter, I have value, my life is a good life, and that they matter, they have value, and that they are good and that they can have a good life, too. And it's not our fault, as people of color, if we have to spend a lot of it thinking about race or racism or feeling like we have to be on the defensive and in self-protection mode because we are on the receiving end of racism. We still have some choice in terms of the environments we can create together and with others, where we can feel more joy and grow more hope. Our kids are not necessarily getting that message or that kind of resilience modeled to them in our schools.

My hope is that the reader of this article will engage with the content with an open heart and an open mind. It is important that our experiences and perspectives, as alumni, be heard and understood and that they inform future action as Marshall continues to live into its vision and mission

 

 

 

CB BAGA '08

BIO: CB (they/them/theirs) is a trial attorney at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath in Minneapolis, MN. A 2008 Marshall grad, and 2016 UMN Law grad, CB’s legal practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, with expertise in risk management, sports and recreation, insurance, trade secret and non-compete litigation, and complex contract disputes. Their pro bono work focuses on increasing access to justice for marginalized communities; they founded the LGBT legal clinic through the Volunteer Lawyers Network and train the legal community on LGBT cultural competence.

QUOTE: In terms of making progress on inclusion, it’s not enough to have awareness; it really takes education, self-interrogation, unlearning racism, unlearning white supremacy, understanding how we support white supremacy in our day-to-day lives. It takes action and it takes being willing to make some people upset. It also takes hard conversations where maybe you can find synergies with people that disagree with you, but that whole process is really required for actions to be authentic. You can’t skip steps; if we jump to action without really doing that self-interrogation piece, it becomes performative allyship and white saviorism. So it’s crucially important that for each of us going through this inclusion process, we go through it authentically and honestly. I just want to make sure that our conversation is coming from that really authentic place, because otherwise, it’s going to become performative very quickly.

 

MAKAIO GOODS '16

BIO:  As part of his undergraduate studies, Makaio has worked to gain strong experiences and background in order to pursue a career improving the lives of others. Through working at organizations such as the ACLU, Trial Group North PLLP, and the Minnesota Senate, he is realizing the ways in which well-placed legislation and representation in law could alleviate some of the harm caused by current disparities within the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. He has sustained mentorship roles with Brotha-to-Brotha, Men as Peacemakers, and the Boys & Girls Club, and spent a semester in New York at Columbia University’s Justice Lab focusing on the societal costs of mass incarceration. This year, Makaio spent time as a visiting student at the University of Oxford before the pandemic and also founded a thirteen-person advisory board for Hearts Open Primary Education (H.O.P.E), a developing school in Tanzania with the aim to obtain U.S. non-profit certification status in the near future (stay tuned!). This summer, Makaio completed UC Berkeley’s Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship Program virtually.

QUOTE: If an issue about race is put out, an action needs to follow it. Otherwise, in some people’s eyes, it might just be seen as an attempt to protect Marshall’s image rather than a genuine concern for its students. It’s easy enough to put a publication out and say we care about race, but what efforts are being invested into improving the experiences of underrepresented minorities at Marshall? I believe these initiatives should also include prioritizing the recruitment of faculty members or staff of color and investing in improving all students’ experiences and understandings of the impact of race in the United States.

 

AJANICE KNOX '19

BIO: Born in Oak Park, IL, Ajanice moved to Duluth at the young age of five years old. In the sixth grade, she became an official Hilltopper and has been a proactive member and leader within the Marshall community ever since. She participated in various student groups during her time as a Hilltopper, including being Co-Founder and Vice President of the first Black Student Union at Marshall. Knox now studies at the University of Minnesota-TC, double majoring in Sociology: Law Criminology & Deviance, along with Political Science, and double minoring in both French and African & African American studies, with graduate plans of attending law school.

QUOTE: I feel like from sixth grade to freshman year when my race or ethnicity was brought up, it was awkwardly talked around me as if I was not a part of that identified group. But then eventually that’s all that people saw. And it was like, I’m so much more than a black woman. I’m so much more than my physical appearance. My accomplishments of being a merit/honor roll student, active community member, and respected individual both in and beyond the Marshall community, would always be reduced to the color of my skin and my gender. So, I’m very glad that we started these conversations, that things have progressed at Marshall, and that both students and faculty are progressively becoming more aware of issues that do not necessarily directly impact the majority of students at this institution. At the end of the day, we’re not just black, we’re not just women, or stereotypes; we’re scholars, we’re friends and family, but most importantly, we’re human.

 

JOE FIFIELD '11

BIO: Joe is a Regional Program Director for the YMCA Center for Youth Voice, a statewide program devoted to civic education and experiential learning opportunities for young people around Minnesota. In his role, Joe is specifically responsible for working closely with schools in the Southeast region of Minnesota as well as managing the Minnesota Student Election Judge Network, a vehicle for young people to become election officials in their local communities. Joe also joined Marshall’s Board of Trustees this year. To read Joe’s extended bio, turn to page 2.

 

QUOTE: I was really excited about this conversation. Kevin [Breen] mentioned that the school is going a million miles an hour during back to school stuff, yet we have a really cool opportunity to completely reinvent the wheel, right? We have to redesign how we’re working with our young people and what a classroom looks like, both in-person and virtually. And opportunities like that open the door to redesign something in a more inclusive way. So I wanted to make sure that’s happening at the faculty and staff level, that these conversations are being woven into everything that’s happening. Because I don’t want us to throw away this opportunity.

 

SARAH PERRY-SPEARS '92

 

 

BIO: Sarah worked in the field of education as a health educator, middle school math teacher, fundraiser and event planner, and Director of Admissions and Financial Aid. Sarah attended Carleton College and received her M.Ed. from Harvard University. Sarah, her wife Megan, and their three children live in Duluth. Sarah teaches middle school math at Marshall, where her three children attend school.

QUOTE: We want to follow this story up with action. It’s important to be honest about what kind of work Marshall has done regarding diversity and inclusion in the past, and what it will do moving forward. If not as much can be done as some people want, or if the work is going to be slower than some would hope, it’s important to be up front about that. The important thing is that Marshall is committed to the work and moving forward with commitments to hiring faculty and staff of color and creating and maintaining an actively inclusive environment for everyone.

 

GRACE KIRK ' 20

BIO: Grace is a first year student at Brown University where she will play college basketball and major in English. She hopes to become a civil rights lawyer and move somewhere warm.

QUOTE: I think a black teacher would not only be beneficial for the students of color in the building but also a learning experience for our white counterparts, because I know on a daily basis most of them don’t go through experiences with black people. They don’t interact with them at all. Like, it just doesn’t happen, so bringing an adult with credentials into the building to teach them—and also call them out when needed—is essential to their development. They should have to feel uncomfortable sometimes, and then also put in their place sometimes; they should be able to learn from anybody, and it’d be good for them too.