Rachel Parsley (Class of 2021)

Rachel Parsley: I’ve been here since kindergarten, so I haven’t really known anything else. My Jewish identity wouldn’t have been the same in a different environment. Since elementary school, I’ve been involved in the arts community and I’m really passionate about that. I’m also a writer and wrote a comic book on diversity for my senior WISE project. 

RP: I’ve always been a vocal person; I know what I want and what I believe. For a long time, I was afraid to speak out on issues of race in particular because I was very insecure about being the only black kid in my grade—and sometimes in the whole school—and that would be very alienating at times. Not that I was noticeably aware of it constantly, but subconsciously, I was hesitant of making people more aware of my differences than they already were. I was worried that I would be labeled with stereotypes like obnoxious or angry because I kept talking about one issue. For a long time, I remained silent or I only confided with a close number of friends about how I really felt. My junior and senior years, I became more confident in myself and over quarantine, when I wasn’t faced with seeing everyone every day, I became more passionate and outspoken. 

It wasn’t until my junior year when I realized I was going to graduate soon and I needed to do it if I wanted to at all. I met with Mr. Bassin in September, and told him: I’m about to graduate and I feel like I haven’t done enough to make my community the community I want to be part of. It was this moment that all these years of passion and frustration came to light and I decided I wanted to make as much of an impact as I could before I graduated.

RP: I shared what I had noticed growing up in this community and how faculty and administration had responded over the years. At that moment, I couldn’t respond to any questions that came up. In elementary school, I had some more outright racist incidents where a few students said something offensive to me and the school dealt with them appropriately. Later on, there were more microaggressions. In middle school, someone asked me if I was Jewish. They were not actually serious about it, but the fact that they thought it was okay to ask even though we had been going to school together since kindergarten was hurtful. There were little moments where I would wear my hair naturally and someone would make fun of me for it. There was small stuff like that that became so normalized for me that I didn't even realize there was anything wrong with it. Sometimes someone would say something that wasn’t obviously racist, but enough to where others would notice, and there were no consequences. We talked about what anti-racist training could look like and how to move the school toward handling it appropriately. 


Q: What was it like serving on the planning committee and being the only student panelist for this spring’s Yom Iyun, titled "Race, Identity, and Responsibility”?

RP: There was a mix of anxiety and pride. I think people feel like I’m responsible because I’m the only black person they know, so they go to me for their education, which I don’t really like. I do appreciate having a platform to put myself out there and have my voice heard. I think my presence [on the panel] helped in that it was a familiar face from our community. It was different than hearing about inclusivity from a stranger. I loved being able to speak in front of everyone and get that kind of support after sharing my message—I just wish there were other options.

RP: Finding a balance between my political activist side and my normal teenager side. During summer 2020, this [work] completely consumed everything I did and I wanted to take a break at a certain point but I was not sure if I could go back to posting [on social media] like a normal person. Would I be labeled as performative? Now, all these people were watching me because of what I was posting on social media after George Floyd was killed. I felt like I had to maintain this image as this really woke and informative and educated person, and I couldn’t be normal. There was a lot of going back and forth with figuring out what image I was presenting and how much of it I could allow to be authentic. 

RP: Before this year, I would have said something related to the arts. Now I would say it’s my advocacy. In 10 years, I would want people to think Rachel Parsley, Class of 2021, the conversation starter. I do not want everything I’ve done this year and last year to be something that I did or the one thing the school did once. I want all the work that I put into this and that the administration has put into this to have a ripple effect and for the conversations on inclusivity and racial sensitivity to really continue. I know there are some Black kids in the Lower School and Middle School, and I want them to be able to experience Leffell in the best way possible. Not everything is going to be perfect, but I feel like I’m doing it for them and want to make sure they have a great learning environment. That’s what I’m most proud of: that I came this far and made that impact already. All I can hope for the future is that this impact leads to more. 

RP: It crossed my mind early in the process that I could apply to a historically Black college if I’m eager to have Black kids in my grade. I ended up only applying to schools in the Northeast. As much as I’m going to be attending a predominantly white school in the fall, The New School will still have more diversity. I won’t be the only Black kid on campus and there will be clubs and organizations that I can get involved in. When I was looking at colleges, I made sure that they always had a Black Student Union or a Caribbean Student Union. As much as college is for education, I want to be able to find people who aren’t all Jews from Westchester. I want to have Muslim friends; I want to have Hindu friends; I want to have Asian friends. I want to have a really diverse group of friends.