An Open Letter to the International School Community: Our Role in the Black Lives Matter Movement and Anti-Racism Work"In the context of race, international schools in the Global South are often advertised as sites of racial diversity, tolerance, and acceptance. Thus, many in the community believe there is little to no work to be done in reckoning with the racism that exists on international school campuses. This, of course, is false. Worse, it engenders a culture of bystanders to racism, allowing overt and covert racism to exist and remain unchecked. As such, instead of educating a cohort of youth who are more likely to stand up against acts of racism and commit to being anti-racist, international schooling in the Global South creates a culture of complacency, of youth who believe “this doesn’t pertain to me,” who may fail to identify racist acts as such because it was never explicitly discussed in their educational institutions.
International schools, then, become susceptible to colorblind racism, where folks claim to “not see color.” This gives way to racist behavior from those who are either consciously or unconsciously committing acts of racism. This often leads many students of color in such settings to suffer at the hand of racism by their peers, but to stay silent on such issues, as they may lack the language to identify and articulate their experiences."
