Using Instagram to Expose Racism

“I have seen outcry in some MLWGS group chats sparked by this page, saying that ‘whining about microaggressions and hate speech’ is just a political front. As a victim of both of these, I have to say that it isn’t. It is legitimate racism.” 

This quote came from a post made on July 13, 2020, by the Instagram account @POCatMLWGS, or People of Color at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School. The account was created by a MLWGS alumnus of color in the summer of 2020, as the nation was embroiled in discussions of race and diversity and many MLWGS students and alumni were frustrated with the lack of action surrounding anti-racism on the part of the administration and the regional school board. The account’s intent was to provide a space for students and alumni of color to anonymously share their experiences regarding the school’s history of diversity and inclusion. 

From July 4, 2020, to January 4, 2021, @POCatMLWGS accumulated more than 700 followers and provided 73 anonymous submissions, with posts containing everything from reports of microaggressions in class by teachers to frustrations over the student culture at Maggie Walker and seeming inaction by administration. 

On the Instagram page, posts are flooded with stories of racially insensitive comments students have experienced or witnessed, with students and alumni describing their feelings of discomfort and embarrassment in many situations. A common theme across the submissions is an uncomfortable atmosphere over different classroom experiences at Maggie Walker. One student mentions how one teacher and their “fetishization of Black people and Black culture led to so many racist and ignorant comments.” The student continues, stating that their teacher’s actions “contributed to white and non-Black students seeing us [Black students] as caricatures, jokes, and less than [non-POC students].” 

One commenter on the same post added, “Can confirm. She made constant jokes about Black people and talked about how she ‘identified’ with them. She was also super antisemitic, homophobic, and feminist to the point it got in the way of her teaching.”

Microaggressions by teachers and fellow students in the classroom also caused numerous students to feel astonished and humiliated: “I was embarrassed. [They] made me a prop,” one student explained regarding a microaggressive comment a teacher made. 

On another post that named a particular teacher, one commenter wrote, “I never had him as a teacher, and I know many people loved having him and still have fond memories. But it is embarrassing that this was allowed to happen for so many years.”

While the posts themselves have not been verified for accuracy because of their anonymous nature, many are supported by other student accounts, including assent from the comment section of each post. Some comments agree with the online submissions, providing shared experiences from other students and alumni. One comment reads, “I too witnessed a strange fetishization of Blackness in [that] class. It was deeply uncomfortable. And weird.” Another comment added, “The time [teacher] taught, I did feel like a caricature of a Black woman.” 

Curriculum and Consequences

The diversity of Maggie Walker’s history and English curriculum is also a common topic on the Instagram page. Students and alumni express their frustration with the lack of time and effort spent on certain sections of the curriculum and even certain sections that were not included at all. “Why is 90% of our global and American history white history? Maybe white students would appreciate cultural differences if history was taught from an unbiased perspective, not a white perspective,” one post reads. 

Another student shared a similar idea, saying, “There is so much more emphasis put on learning white European history.” They added, “In my freshman Global Studies class, my teacher “ran out of time” to learn about the entire continent of South America… we learned absolutely nothing about Latin America; yet, in sophomore Global Studies, we spent an entire semester on Europe.” 

Current and former students also expressed severe frustration with the handling of many of the experiences and submissions on the Instagram page, citing a lack of action and communication by administration. “Sometimes, students actually get in trouble for racism,” one submission wrote. “But the punishment is so little. Students who are racist should have their privileges to join clubs removed. We need to treat these issues more seriously; otherwise, nobody will see them as real problems.” 

Another student added, “I think it's also important to acknowledge not only the individual behavior of students and staff but the curriculum and the environment it creates. MLWGS puts itself on this pedestal for supposedly providing students with diverse perspectives in the learning environment, but the school remains predominantly white, both in administration and the student body.”

Many posts prompted further discussion and debate in the comment section. One MLWGS alumnus who later became a high school teacher wrote in response to one post, “Thanks for sharing this painful experience. All teachers need to remember how much weight our words and actions carry.” 

Another post written by a Black alumnus cited discouragement from MLWGS counselors toward applying to Ivy League colleges, stating, “When I was applying to universities I encountered a lot of what I felt was racially motivated bias. I felt like my guidance counselor actively discouraged me from applying to Ivy League schools, implying that it would be difficult for me to get in so I might as well not bother trying.”

The post received multiple comments from other alumni who went through the same experience, with one comment saying, “I had the same experience to a T...wow,” while another user shared, “I could have written this post myself.” 

Disagreement and Debate

The page has also given a taste of the political tension surrounding the matters discussed under its posts about Maggie Walker and the world at large. Many comment sections in the account also included disagreements about political implications, topics like affirmative action, and the significance of certain posts. 

Numerous skeptical comments from another user initiated many strings of debate with comments like “How is anti-Black and anti-Native American racism the foundation of the United States?” and “Affirmative Action hurts minorities the most.” 

The Instagram account was viewed by many students in the summer of 2020, and exposed many students to potential conflicts. Junior Mariam Jafari-Nassali said, “Because it was my first year, I hadn’t had those experiences [discussed on the account] yet or hadn’t met those teachers yet, or been in the classroom environment yet, so I thought it was all helpful.” They added that the account gave them “some kind of insight on what to look out for or what to avoid,” and that they were not shocked when seeing the posts, given the largely disproportionate demographic makeup of the student body at MLWGS.

“Reading the submissions was insightful,” added junior Carolyn Zhuang about the Instagram account. “It doesn’t fix the problem that students aren’t willing to speak up about these problems as themselves, because the account was anonymous, but it did reveal a lot of problems about the school that many students weren’t previously aware of, and that needed to happen.”

Administration Responds

The rise of the @POCatMLWGS account has raised serious concerns for Maggie Walker’s administration regarding disciplinary action for both students and teachers, and underscored the need for a system for reporting incidents of racism witnessed throughout the school. The news of the creation of the Instagram account eventually reached administration during the peak of its submissions last summer, with the account moderator communicating, “I have gotten word that administration is aware of this page and have read the submissions.”

However, besides this communication from the moderator, administration largely remained silent about the account, making no formal message to the student body addressing the submissions. “There was complete silence about the account,” says junior Carolyn Zhuang. “Nearly everyone in our grade knew about the account, but I don’t remember there being any message from administrators about their goals for improving equity as a result of this.”

Although administrators did not provide any direct responses to the page in 2020, Director Dr. Robert Lowerre has acknowledged related conflicts over diversity at the school and pledged goals for improving the cultural environment, including working with the Regional School Board to adopt a 5-Year Strategic Plan that emphasizes inclusion and equity for all students. 

Maggie Walker’s Student Advisory Council (SAC), a committee made up of faculty, students, and parents that works to provide feedback for the school, responded similarly to raised discussions about inclusion, releasing the results of a Racial Climate Survey in 2021. The survey was developed as a way for students in grades 10-12 to provide feedback on social activities, classroom environments, racial climate, and interpersonal relationships. It specifically advised the development of an anonymous mechanism for students to be able to report racially insensitive comments and actions of students and staff, a recommendation that arose as a result of the discussion caused over the @POCatMLWGS page.

Such a mechanism for anonymous reports would be crucial to ensuring that instances of racism and microaggressions are properly handled by administrators, instead of submitted anonymously to the Instagram page, something that administrators acknowledge but have found challenges with implementing. Assistant Director Max Smith remarked on logistical challenges over the potential system, emphasizing that discussions had been brought up, but that a final decision had not been reached. “The debate over having an anonymous reporting system was what to do with it once we got an anonymous report in,” he said. “With its anonymous nature, there would be no one to be able to follow up to give contacts, to give context, to give more detail. How it is that this would be used was a cause for concern, if it could be used to retaliate against other people or carry out grudges. There’s still an open discussion as to how to operationalize that so that we can follow up and take appropriate action, and whether we could sift out the possibility of people weaponizing something like that.” 

Remarking on other pertinent challenges, Smith added, “We’re also not sure if we have the legal authority to do something like student discipline, especially with students who are communicating online or after school hours. There are a number of cases on students and their rights of freedoms of speech, so that gets into some key legal issues.”

Discussions are ongoing, but until a system is implemented, students are largely unsure what they should do if they do experience an instance of racism from a staff member or fellow student; a direct message on this has yet to be communicated to the student body, and was never brought up in 2020 when the Instagram page was created. When asked for a solution, Smith replied, “Come to one of the administrators so we can follow up, particularly if it’s something involved with a staff member.” 

However, given the creation of the @POCatMLWGS page in the first place, it’s unlikely that students will take this route. “No one spoke to administration about these concerns last year because administration isn’t approachable,” Zhuang noted. “The Instagram account didn’t really promote any effective discussions, either.”

The other obvious option for students is to go directly to their teachers with their concerns. However, this, too, is not an infallible option, evidenced by more of the Instagram page’s submissions. While talking to a teacher one-on-one can be effective in expressing personal concerns, one governor’s school alum argues, “It can be a scary burden for a young person to advocate for themselves in front of a teacher who holds their grades, college recommendations, etc.” Another alum added, “There’s a power dynamic present when it’s a teacher vs. just another student… with a popular teacher, there’s a lot of social pressure to keep quiet.”

For his part, Lowerre says that he was saddened and surprised by the submissions on the account. “No teacher would ever want one of their students to ever feel that way,” he said. “I don’t think we have anybody here that would intentionally try to make a child feel bad, but I do think that because of history and the way we’re raised, we say and do things we don’t realize.” Lowerre also added that several teachers who were named on the account came to him over the summer, expressing regret and disbelief with how their actions were perceived. “I don’t know if shocking is the right word, but it hurt,” he said, referring to the experiences that were documented on the account. “To a certain extent, shame. I thought, Oh my God, what are we doing? It’s not something to be proud of.”

To combat potential reluctance to communicate with administration and work towards an overall more inclusive environment at Maggie Walker, the SAC further recommended hiring a Diversity and Advancement Part-time Position that would support MLWGS’s diversity and inclusion efforts, and help handle reports of racism like those documented on the Instagram page. 

This development has been strongly supported by administration and would be substantially beneficial for issues that have been raised, but has yet to be implemented as a result of budgeting conflicts. “When that recommendation came out, our budget for this year was already approved by the school board. It’s something that’s going to come up in our budget discussions next year,” Smith said.

Adding that he would like to see such a position come into place, Smith continued, “In my findings from my own research, the only way to move an organization significantly is having someone that is dedicated to changing that cultural inclusivity. If no one is working on it as their sole job, no one can dedicate significant amounts of time. It needs to have authority; it needs to have follow-up.” 

Additionally, to address other concerns raised by the @POCatMLWGS account, Lowerre has emphasized the importance of diversifying the student body and faculty, noting in particular that the only Asian teachers at MLWGS are currently only seen in the respective foreign language classes, despite Asian and South Asian students comprising nearly a quarter of the student body. On top of this, staff development focused on increasing cultural competency is planned to be implemented through a two-year cycle, and professional development efforts among MLWGS faculty have changed to reflect many of the circumstances brought up by @POCatMLWGS. 

Regarding the submissions themselves, Lowerre stated that many staff members had reached out following the release of the posts to reflect on instances that had occurred in their classes. “I saw that teachers were genuinely hurt that they came across in a particular manner to students,” he noted, going on to mention that faculty have discussed ways to make their classrooms more inclusive. In regards to her recent observations about the posts on the Instagram account, one student remarked, “I could tell [teacher] was trying to make some changes.” She went on to state that “teachers overall are trying to be more culturally diverse and aware of what they’re saying.” Jafari-Nassali also agrees that change is possible for the near future, stating that MLWGS is capable of making improvements in curriculum and overall school culture.

A Nationwide Pattern

The @POCatMLWGS account, however, demonstrates a response that has occurred all across the country; in 2020, hundreds of “Black At” and “POC At” accounts shared gut-wrenching stories from educational institutions that allowed racism to largely go unpunished. Just beyond the walls of Maggie Walker, two such accounts have sprung up in the feeder counties of Henrico and Chesterfield. 

The account @blackathcps has a total of 358 posts sharing the experiences of students and staff who are currently or were formerly part of Henrico County Public Schools. Similar to the POCatMLWGS account, these anonymous posts detail personal experiences of racism, with the last post being made in January. Submissions came from students at schools across Henrico County, and a few even detailed situations at Maggie Walker, submitted by MLWGS students living in the county. One such post commented on “the hostile environment created when students wear MAGA hats,” and how doing so “is disgusting and spits on the face of [Maggie Lena Walker’s] legacy and name.” They added, “There is a POCatMLWGS page but, of course, none of the white students are taking it seriously.” 

Another account, @blackatccps, posted anonymous messages from POC students, alumni, and staff of Chesterfield County Public Schools. The comment sections under their posts, like those on the Henrico account, were flooded with shared feelings of enraged disappointment. One user wrote about a nauseating instance of racism at Cosby High School, in which a group of male students discussed their shared view that Black girls were “too disgusting” to be attractive. A commenter replied, “It seems that CCPS has helped normalize this kind of behavior with its students since they do absolutely NOTHING about it; they just brush these incidents off as kids being kids.” Individuals in the comments also habitually tagged the official public school accounts of either county in an attempt to attract attention to these issues.

Even in higher education, accounts like these have gained traction, such as @blackatharvardlaw, which accepts submissions from students and alumni of Harvard Law School. With over 6,000 followers, the account shined a spotlight on issues like unjust financial aid policies, professors spreading misinformation, and racist legal firms. One post written by a member of the class of 2020 detailed their story about receiving a “drastic reduction in grant aid” after attending a paid internship. The money they had earned was needed to support their “low income immigrant family,” but the financial aid office was obstinate, “refusing to give [them] any of [their] grant money back.” They claimed that the student had made a choice to help their family instead of spending the money on school, so they refused to help and instead continued their pattern of putting “low income students in even more debt.” 

In another post, a female Asian student from the class of 2014 wrote about her experience with a partner at a law firm who spoke in opposition to affirmative action with the words, “Asians use their brains, Hispanics use their brawn, and Blacks just cry victim.” This appalling incident motivated the student to write a letter to the firm, but she was instructed by Harvard’s Office of Career Services not to send it because it would make her seem “sensitive.” The school’s decision to silence her left her “dumbfounded” and demonstrated that even in highly esteemed educational and professional institutions, racism remains an intimidating, infuriating issue.

As the moderators of “POC At” and “Black At” accounts at their own schools, many students have shared similar goals for their pages. The moderator of one such account at Montclair High School in New Jersey expressed that her intent was not to “put a target on anyone’s back,” but to motivate the school board to “begin holding teachers accountable.” She also voiced the common frustration that the push for change should not have to come from Instagram pages but from schools being more conscientious. Accounts like hers emphasize the overall atmosphere of toxicity at their schools, not necessarily the individual details of stories and who exactly is involved. Although anonymity limits the ability of schools to take immediate action, it also prevents the accounts from becoming destructive to people’s reputations and taking focus away from the main goal: affecting systemic change.

In 2020, @POCatMLWGS functioned as a crucial place for students to advocate for themselves and share their experiences, serving as a valuable tool for understanding conflicts that have historically gone unaddressed. However, the existence of the account itself raises serious problems; a lack of dialogue between students and school leadership was a key reason why students felt the need to turn to Instagram—something that administration recognizes and is working to address. “I hope that students and alumni do what they can to make MLWGS a safe and welcoming place for all students,” the moderator of the page wrote. For now, only time will tell.