As a Black student at Drake High, the joke was on me

On Tuesday night, the Tamalpais Union High School District board will have its next meeting. At that meeting, members will discuss an opportunity to join the nationwide movement against racism by renaming Sir Francis Drake High School.

For me, a Drake High graduate, that name is personally traumatic and must be removed.

In 2005, my senior year at Drake, our varsity basketball team was playing at San Marin High in Novato. As a player, usually what you hear is simply energy from the crowd, without any discernible words. The nword is an exception to that. It cuts through that wall of sound as if it’s the only thing being said in the gym. When I heard that word coming from some San Marin student fans I had no reaction. To me, the joke was on them because at Drake High School we stood for something better than racism.

I know now that the joke wasn’t on them — it was on me. I was being called that name by the opposing fans while wearing the name of an explorer who was involved in the slave trade proudly across my chest. No child should be put into this kind of unsafe place.

I’m far more upset about that day now than I was back then. Growing up, I knew some kids were racist. There was always going to be times I would be called names and I knew how to deal with it.

It wasn’t the first time I was called that name and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. What makes me angry is not the memory of the racists in the bleachers. It’s the betrayal I still feel from an educational system that left a Black child feeling proud to represent a man with connections to the slave trade whose discoveries led to European colonization.

Despite wearing his name, our school system never taught us that Drake was aboard ships that likely carried many slaves. We had never been told how colonization decimated the Coast Miwok indigenous people.

I felt, at the time, that the school system had my back. Now, I believe that what it was literally doing was putting a symbol of white supremacy on my back. Every bone in my body knows that is a form of racism. Had I known about Drake’s complicated history at the time, I would have never put on that jersey.

What folks need to know is these names and symbols that represent white supremacy are being taken down across the country for reasons that aren’t just superficial. When we’re surrounded by these symbols, especially as a child, they act as a form of socialization that reinforces the ideology of white supremacy.

White supremacy inherently needs to establish racial inferiority for it to exist. I have experienced this personally.

These symbols are both a symptom of white supremacy and a cause. The obvious outcome is racial prejudice extrapolated to a societal level. The expected outcome is a society in which people of color still have to scream that their lives matter, with the hope that their voices are heard.

We must scream because racism too often goes unseen and unnoticed. White supremacy is so embedded in our society that those perpetuating it may not even know they’re doing it. Racism is normalized to the point where it completely blends in. This is why it’s so important to listen to the voices that so easily slip through the cracks.

When I see or hear Drake’s name or image, I can’t help but associate his actions with my ancestors being taken from their land, shackled and enslaved, with no hope of ever seeing their homes again. The feelings attached to these visuals are nothing less than recurring trauma.

The Coast Miwok have also expressed their experience of similar and worse trauma related to European colonization of Marin after Drake’s initial contact to claim land for the English Crown.

I encourage everyone in favor of renaming the school to go online, join the board meeting at bit.ly/2OoFwQY and ask for the members to change the name. It needs to come down.

Had I known about Drake’s complicated history at the time, I would have never put on that jersey.