Accountable Essay

Accountable by Dashka Slater: Friends to Enemies

A racist instagram account created in 2017 by a group of teen boys discriminating against their Black classmates. Accountable by Dashka Slater is based on a true racist incident that occurred in Albany High School, California. An instagram account made to be funny quickly turned into chaos after being discovered. Teens and adults involved led to bigger issues. Systemic Racism and implicit bias contributes to institutional responses to racism

Systemic racism means; The oppression of a racial group to the advantage of another as perpetuated by inequality within an interconnected system. Systemic racism has always contributed to school racist incidents. Racism has always been a huge problem in the United States, “Between 1887 and 1950, atleast 4,384 black people were lynched in the United states… In public displays of brutality and terror” (Slater 32). Privileged people always try to feel superior by making others feel inferior. Making them feel bad about their skin color, hair type, or comparing everyone to their stereotype. High school teens thought it would be funny and not racist to post, “ A picture captioned twinning is winning that showed Lolia and her basketball coach with nooses drawn around their necks.” (Slater 30). Posting a picture of a peer with an edited noose on, is extremely racist for a teen that claimed not to be racist. He knew what the noose meant and that is why he posted it; knowing how negatively affected an individual can be over a post that was meant to be a “joke” shows how they truly meant what they posted and why they posted it.

What role does implicit bias play in shaping individual and institutional responses to racism? Everyone plays a part in how individuals react to racist incidents. Mainly teachers and parents; Adults thinking teenagers can deal with complex situations like this when they couldn’t deal with them. A child isn’t born racist, a child is taught what they know, “... Stereotype threat. It’s what happens when anxiety about conforming a stereotype about your identity-” ( Slater 317). Stereotypes play a huge role in how others view you. Confirming your stereotype is many people's biggest fear. Mainly, Black students, they students targeted. Students targeted by peers because of their skin color, hair texture, or their race. Feeling like an outsider because of simple things like that can really affect individuals, “‘ Get your nappy hair out of my face.’” (Slater 18). The negative attitude someone shows towards another demonstrates the hate they might have towards a certain person or group of people. The negative attitude shown towards Andrea demonstrates how she was personally affected by it, straightening her hair everyday to fit in and not be judged. Implicit bias plays a role in how students and adults react to certain situations.

Systemic Racism and implicit bias plays the role of affecting individuals personally. Responses vary due to implicit bias but can all recognise that what the teen did was severe and affected many of his peers. This book is a warning to us highschoolers, notice how you treat others and think about how they might respond. How you would respond if someone was racist to you or any of your family members. Highschools are institutions but that does not mean we have to repeat history. Discrimination is never an option, everyone has their own challenges to face, do not add one more.