Black Students Demanding Change (BSDC) is a by students for students organization. Our goal is to foster a centralized community space where Black students feel heard, supported, and celebrated. We work to implement racially equitable reform in independent schools across the nation by serving as an intermediary between Black students and our administrations. Our platform amplifies the voices of our peers by translating concerns and ideas into actionable steps to make our institutions actively anti-racist and authentically inclusive, thus improving the educational experience for all students. We aim to work in conjunction with our administrations to implement changes, ensuring accountability and transparency along the way. 

BSDC’s first order of business was to curate a list of collective demands that expressed Black students’ concerns and requests. BSDC representatives then tailored these demands to fit the needs of their respective schools. Since the inception of BSDC in June, we have made unforeseen amounts of progress. Some of our most notable accomplishments include having 13 schools agree to our demands, expanding nationally, reaching over three thousand followers on Instagram, hosting our inaugural BSDC virtual conference, and being hosted on WBAI’s radio segment called ‘Good Morning Nueva York.’ 

As Poly’s first BSDC representative, I wrote an action plan for Poly specifying ways we could work towards becoming an anti-racist institution. The administration accepted these demands, and since the summer, me and my fellow BSDC representatives Makieda Mckenzie ’21 and Nyla Liburd ’24, have been involved in meetings discussing how to actualize the demands . This year , we will continue to partner with the administration to improve the experience of Black students, as well as host BSDC sponsored workshops and forums. There is a lot of work still to be done, but the existence of BSDC represents a call for change from students at schools across the nation, demonstrating that racial inequity is not unique to any one place. Our outcry is indicative of a need for systemic reform across educational institutions in America.