Adults, in Theory

The incidents at South Philly High School are systemic.

by Isaiah Thompson

Back in my sophomore year at Lincoln Park High School in my own sweet home, Chicago, my friends and I once had a problem with these two guys, "Diamond" and "BJ."

The problem wasn't so much that they had jumped my buddy after school, or that I had gotten punched twice in the face for intervening. It was that school security had emerged from the building and brought me and my friends inside — while Diamond and BJ sauntered away, watching.

What a conundrum: The school — adults, in general, really — hadn't hampered the likes of Diamond and BJ thus far, and we had little faith they'd do it now. Even if they were suspended, or expelled, their friends would know — and come at us. Diamond and BJ loomed big in those days, but the real problem was bigger than the both of them: Getting jumped was systemic. It happened all the time — particularly if you were white.

Awkward, isn't it? Who wants to tackle that? Certainly, adults didn't. But for us, it was an unspoken fact of life, and we felt that we were alone. So did "Guy," the subject of this week's cover story, when kids at South Philadelphia High School (SPHS) picked on him because he was Asian. But — unlike us — SPHS's Asian students had the guts to report such incidents to adults, long before more than 20 of their peers were beaten up after school on Dec. 3.

Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman — the ultimate adult here, in theory — has called the incident "everyone's problem" — exactly the kind of reaction (inaction, perhaps?) my friends and I anticipated when we decided to handle Diamond and BJ ourselves: We told them we wouldn't snitch and made a peace offering of a dime-bag of weed I found at the school's front door (true). It worked, but it didn't help anyone else — my little brother, for example, a freshman when I left.

"Everyone" hasn't been targeted at SPHS: Asians have been targeted. And "everyone" hasn't done the targeting. If the District wants to prove that Asians aren't being subjected to systemic discrimination, they should find out who those individuals are. The first thing they can do is actually listen to these kids, who, I promise, know what's up better than any adults.