The Third Rail

To what extent can someone be punished for their actions? Well, in a small bay area community named Albany, this is exactly what people were wondering. Friendships were broken and money was lost due to lawsuits. The book Accountable, written by Dashka Slater, talks about a horrible racist social media account , created in 2017, that swept the nation by surprise. It depicted horrible images of Black female classmates in nooses and the classmates being compared to gorillas. It dives deep into the emotions of people and how the perpetrators were pushed out of their community. In correlation to that, the implicit bias engraved in community systems greatly contributed to incidents like the one at Albany High School. It created an ignition for other events to occur and it created a hostile environment for everyone involved.

Systemic Racism in the Albany town system greatly contributes to incidents like the one at Albany High school as it creates an ignition for other discriminatory events . Even after the racist social media account was exposed, there continued to be racist remarks made. When two perpetrators were walking in the town fair, they were jumped by 2 Black kids. When the police arrived at the scene a “White woman in her early forties, stayed to give a statement.[...] pointing out two black teenagers. Except they weren’t. They were just two random kids who happened to be Black”(Dashka 383). The woman pointed out two Black kids who “fit the description” which shows how Albany is actually filled with racism. This was an act of bias as she is discriminating against their race. She sees two Black kids and thinks that they were the ones to beat up the other guys. During a parent meeting a parent named Lewis says “Lord knows, anytime a person who looked like me misstepped[...]Justice is blind”(Dashka 266). This comment proves that there has been implicit bias in the community but people don’t want to talk about it as they turn their eyes away from it. However, now whoever made the account is getting punished and it doesn’t matter what their race, sexuality, or ethnicity is. It’s something that they have been dealing with but it became their top priority when their kids are getting harmed.

Implicit bias held a great role in shaping students' lives and how they saw each other which created a hostile and dehumanizing environment. Where half the residents are White, 13% are Latinx, a quarter are Asian and 4% are Black, Albany was home to one of the most prestigious high schools in the Bay Area. However, if you were Black the pressure to graduate from a public four university was higher because the likelihood of it happening was 33% lower. At Albany High School, some normal incidents happen to you when you’re Black, for instance during a “class discussion of slavery; everybody looks back at you”(20). Another event is if you did well on a test “People say things like ‘I didn’t know you were smart’ "(20). Without meaning harm, they put stereotypical ideas into their heads. Andrea, one of the affected girls, cut her hair because of all the remarks and comments she received. Teachers would say what does “Your hair do when you go underwater’’ or “Did you know Black people don’t get lice”(21). The girl felt like she was an attraction at an amusement park, and she was the main show. She was seen differently, and out of this world by the teacher, and they shouldn’t have seen her that way. When the account was discovered, all of the boys were suspended, and when the perpetrators came back they required bodyguards. The school was scared that the boys would get assaulted. This is because everybody in the school hated the perpetrators and it was even to the point where there was a riot and they broke one of the perpetrators' noses. All students evolved in the situation were now living in an environment where they were not comfortable being in.

There is implicit bias in many systems and it greatly contributes to incidents like the one at Albany High School. It makes the people affected feel dehumanized and it takes away their feeling of safety. Comparing Albany High School to San Rafael High School is mostly based on the percentage of each type of student. Generally, I believe that the San Rafael High School principal Mr. Dominguez would handle this situation very seriously if it were to happen on campus. Hopefully Mr. Dominguez would be more cautious about how he updates the families and not update them with every single finding. In the book the principal sent out an email about a noose which caused the riot to occur.