I love winning things, especially things that I really want. I LOVED reading this great book that I won in a goodreads giveway! Admissions is about life in an elite boarding school and about uncovering the privilege, marginalization and racism that is inherent in academic institutions
Kendra James attended Taft as a "legacy" meaning that her father had attended when he was a teen. Even though Taft is technically an integrated school, and was when her father attended as well, the school is really not integrated in the way that one would intend for that word to be used. Throughout her three years there and the time she spent in admissions programs following graduation, Kendra describes how Taft and other elite boarding schools in the Northeast United States were plagued by systemic racism using several personal examples.
When most (white) people think of racism we often think of the blatant, politically-sanctioned, violent, and/or media-covered racism such as events related to the civil rights movement, the Indian Act or more recently, BLM. Moreover, people may think they are not racist because they agree that Black Lives (or, cringingly... "All lives") matter or because they have a good friend who is BIPOC. Racism is much more complex than agreeing or disagreeing with a facebook post or even calling someone a derogatory name, it is about the way that privilege and marginalization are inherent in the day to day actions of the people in public or private institutions, and even in society as a whole. Kendra does an excellent job of pointing out microaggressions - daily interactions or "small" acts of racism, intentional or unintentional - in a way that might invoke reflection for readers who may have unintentionally committed these microaggressions in the past.
Kendra also examines the role of economic privilege in creating and maintaining this segregation within an integrated institution. "Token" diverse populations, or the idea that institutions have quotas of marginalized people they must hire/admit/include etc do not solve the problems of racism and segregation because throwing a few people in a room as a minority does not make the majority population suddenly stop being racist (intentionally or not). Additionally, this places a burden on the BIPOC members of an institution to try to train or "help woke" the others to see things from their perspective. Saying you're inclusive by pointing out the few people you included isn't actually inclusion, it is integration, or in some cases still segregation. As a result, Kendra does not spend her whole memoir coming up with solutions, that is not her job. Instead, Admissions is an opportunity for readers to begin to acknowledge the problems so that we can be part of the solution in our own institutions.
Admissions is an excellent mix of YA drama and non-fiction diverse stories to be interesting for a variety of audiences. The blame is placed on the people within a specific institution, but readers can make parallels to their own lives and reflect on their own experiences. It is well written, easy to follow and informative but also interesting. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about microaggressions and the role privilege and racism play in the experiences of BIPOC people. Also if you are interested in boarding school culture this book would be a great read for you.
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