Diversity programming and initiatives across schools and higher learning institutions have long served as crucial spaces for students and faculty to have meaningful conversations and promote inclusivity.
According to a 2023 report titled The State of School Diversity in the United States from the U.S. Department of Education, “Research suggests that efforts to expand school racial and socioeconomic diversity can yield positive outcomes for students from all backgrounds. School diversity is associated with increased social mobility, civic engagement, academic success, empathy, and understanding,” the report states. “Efforts to increase diversity in schools may also be a cost-effective school improvement strategy that has the potential to improve students’ academic outcomes.”
However, despite the many evidenced benefits of diversity programming for students, educators, and community members, “Progress toward increased racial and socio-economic diversity in schools has stalled in many communities.”
Though diversity within schools and institutions across the country faces significant challenges, Poly Prep, a co-ed independent school located in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, has managed to keep its diversity programming afloat. Today, 53 percent of Poly students identify as students of color, while 42 percent of teaching faculty as people of color, according to the Poly Prep website’s Fast Facts page. In the Middle and Upper Schools, there are 16 affinity and alliance groups for students to discuss topics about diversity.
How did Poly’s diversity programming get to where it is today? Who were some of the individuals who helped it get here?
The 1960s: A Lack of Diverse Representation in the Curriculum and Student Body
“My education at Poly from 5th to 12th grade was a good imperialist, white supremacist and
masculinist education, promoting chivalry, heroism, and noblesse oblige, all of which assumed
we boys were special, deserving of the opportunities we had but also responsible for helping
those less fortunate than ourselves,” said Dr. Peter Taubman. A former student and 1965 graduate of Poly, Taubman would later become the founder and a pivotal figure in diversity work at the school.
When Taubman was in the 6th grade, John Paker, the first black student ever admitted to Poly, entered his class. Taubman emphasized that the school’s approaches to diversity, especially in terms of curriculum, mirrored the severe lack of diversity within the student body.
“Race, in terms of that which was not white, was visible but only in marginal, often denigrating examples. Whiteness, like maleness, remained unspoken, rendered invisible, and yet everywhere, whether in the civilizations of old or the heroes of more recent history, whether in the faces of those who taught and coached us or in alumni photos hanging on the walls,” Taubman explained.
Students often read boys’ adventure novels such as Prester John, Kim, and King Solomon’s Mines, all of which Taubman noted “presented the ‘white race’ as superior to any other.” World history courses focused primarily on Europe, with passing attention to countries such as China and India. Shaken by the inadequate diversity within the curriculum, Taubman returned to teach English at Poly immediately after college in 1970, this time with a strong determination to incite change.
The 1970s: The Beginnings of Social Awareness and Gender Diversity
In the four years that he had been away from the school, according to Taubman, “The times, of course, were revolutionary and students had become somewhat radicalized…Anti-war sentiment and anti-racist sentiment were out in the open.”
It was this social awareness of the early 1970s that Taubman aimed to bring into Poly’s culture. Such efforts included expanding the 8th and 9th grade English curriculum by introducing literary works such as “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and Richard Wright’s “Uncle Tom’s Children.” Taubman also introduced open discussions of political prisoners, the Black Panthers and the assaults on them that were carried out by the FBI and police departments, alongside Nathan Bell, Marty Bowman, and Lennox Montrose, black students at the school whom he had become close with while teaching in the fall of 1969.
“There was certainly plenty in the news to discuss, but there were very few students of color in the school, outside of one senior class that had those three [Black students] and a couple of other black students,” Taubman said. After two years of working to bring diversity into Poly’s fold, Taubman departed from the school in the spring of 1971.
Thirteen years later, when Taubman returned to teach in 1984, he came back to drastic changes, especially regarding Poly’s implementation of gender diversity. “The Head of School at the time [Bill Williams], he had a vision of how it [Poly] needed to look more like the rest of the world. But that was mostly centered on this whole big initiative of his to turn the school co-ed,” said Interim Head of School John Rankin, who began his tenure at Poly in 1985 as a member of the English faculty.
Poly officially admitted its first female students in September of 1977, its first graduating class containing women was in 1979.
“The gender part of it was pretty full swing by the mid 80s. It was not a smattering of girls anymore – it wasn’t half the class, but it was a substantial number of them,” said Rankin.
While gender diversity within the student body and faculty continued to grow throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, the school still needed to address other aspects of diversity, particularly race, ethnicity, and religion.
The Early and Mid 1980s: An Influx of New Community Members and a Pressing Need for Diversity Programming
Upon his return to Poly in 1984 Taubman noticed that older faculty retired and younger ones came in along with the growth of the population of students of color and the modernization of the curriculum.
Bernieri recalled that during his time as a student from the late 70s through the mid 80s there was a growing number of African-American students as a result of Poly’s heavy involvement with Prep for Prep, a leadership development and gifted education program dedicated to expanding educational access for students of color. “[I remember] the first group of Prep students started to come to Poly, and so [the school] was really starting to change” said Bernieri.
With the sudden increase in diversity within the school community came the need to accommodate the needs of students and faculty from various backgrounds, both at Poly and within the broader independent school system. “My sense is that in the New York City private school area – I would say late 80s – there was suddenly a new consciousness, a need for diversity which hadn’t really been there before,” said English faculty John Rearick, who has been working at Poly since 1995.
Efforts towards fostering inclusion and belonging at Poly, especially for students, were spearheaded by Taubman, such as running an independent study for three Black seniors on race and racism. Despite trying to make diversity a schoolwide priority, Taubman admitted that at the time, “white students could still go
through their entire time at Poly without really addressing issues of systemic racism, white supremacy or digging into the racial history of the country.”
As attested to by Rankin, “There were some people, mostly housed in the English department, who had ideas about diversity in their thinking, but in general, with respect to the larger school [and policies], it was just non-existent and you just didn’t even talk about it.”
The Late 80s and Early 90s: Students Advocate for Poly-Centered Diversity Programming and Initiatives
The tail end of the 1980s marked a crucial shift in Poly’s approach to diversity programming, driven especially by students themselves.
In the fall of 1988, black junior and sophomore students Orlando Bishop ’90, Diahann Billings-Burford ’90, Rhasaan Manning ’90, Nnamdi Orakwue ’91, and Asaki Johnson ’91, came to Taubman with the request to form a Black Student Union with him as the designated advisor.
“I was more than happy to do so, and we spent several hours discussing what that would look like and how to present it to Bill Williams, the Headmaster. When I did present it to him, he argued it was divisive and exclusionary and didn’t support it, so we went back to the drawing board. Finally, we came up with the name: Anti-bias Coalition or ABC,” said Taubman. “When any racist incident occurred, and there was more than one, ABC organized hour-long chapels and day-long retreats for the Upper School. I organized ABC for parents, where white parents and parents of color worked together to have evening workshops that got heated but at least reached the more conservative white parent body,” said Taubman.
Despite having ABC as a space for discussing diversity issues, Bishop, Billings-Burford, Manning, Orakwue, and Johnson, as well as several other Black students, continued to push for a separate group dedicated to Black students at Poly.
Billings ’90, who had been elected Student Body President around the time, recalled the hesitancy of Williams and other senior administrators when it came to propositions of new diversity initiatives and organizations, especially a Black Student Union. “Their approach was much like the systemic approach to colorblindness, which is if we don’t acknowledge it […] why would we make space for factions?”
Despite receiving pushback, Billings stated that she made a conscious effort to use her voice and leadership to help Williams realize that despite being the leader of Student Government and having created ABC, there was still a major need for a space dedicated to the struggles and perspectives of Black students.
“They just felt like it was an unhealthy way to split the population, and so it took time to help them to understand. Quite honestly, […] It took time and it took a tragedy,” Billings said, referring to the 1989 murder of Yusef Hawkins, a 16-year-old Black teenager who was shot to death in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, after being attacked by a crowd of white youths.
“It really took a toll on Poly because Bensonhurst borders Bay Ridge. We had members of our school [saying] ‘he was in the wrong place [or] ‘this wasn’t murder.’ And we had members who were like, ‘that is insane,’” she recalled.
“We saw cliques breaking up, we saw all kinds of things happening around these issues. I was able to make the case [that] we would be better off as a population not to separate us, but to allow us to have certain conversations and safe spaces so that we can come back together,” Billings added.
“It was a good time to be doing the [diversity] work because there was a lot of enthusiasm for it, and the students were demanding it […] students were demanding, wanting, and needing a place to address some of their concerns and issues.”
Billings, Taubman, and other black students’ efforts resulted in Umoja, the first caucus at Poly. As ABC continued to meet and generate a large membership, Umoja also met and served as a dedicated safe space for Black community members. By 1994 and 1995, numerous other caucuses spawned under the A.B.C. umbrella and went through several iterations. Such examples included Interfaith, a caucus providing students of distinct races, religions, and ethnicities with a place to discuss their beliefs, non-beliefs, and spiritual, and religious values, W.I.G and Cell-16, the women’s caucus for discussing issues on gender and bias, and other groups such as the Asian Caucus and the Latino Caucus, having upwards of 20 to 30 students at meetings.
ABC and the caucuses continued to receive skepticism from students, parents, and faculty alike. As the Polygon article tackled, many community members feared that diversity-based groups would promote exclusion within the student body. But despite concerns, many people maintained that the exchange and conversations held were inclusive and beneficial.
“It seems that those who actually attend the meetings feel that the caucuses help to provide a forum for opinions and ideas on vital and yet often controversial issues, while those who do not attend are quick to label them as separatist and harmful to the unity within the school,” as the 1995 Polygon article stated.
Eventually, against Taubman’s wishes, Williams decided to change the name of ABC, then still referred to as the Anti-Bias Coalition. “The Head of School thought that the Anti-Bias Coalition was sort of too inflammatory, too political. It was going to be too divisive. So at that point, he changed it to Achieving a Better Community,” said Rankin.
However, ABC and the caucuses did continue their role in serving as crucial safe spaces and opportunities for meaningful dialogue amongst students, faculty and the Poly community at large.
