Dear Hawken Community,

Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” I write to you as it is past time for us to deepen our understanding.

Because Hawken is an intentional community organized around the ideal of Fair Play, we not only have the ability to do better and to be better; as educators we have a moral obligation to the students we serve to do so. Our community can be, and should be, a safe haven for our students ‒ a place where they can trust that the adults who serve them have their best interests at heart, understand their challenges and concerns, and are dedicated to helping them become prepared to enter the real world. Well, that real world is not so easy to prepare them for these days.    

The world outside of Hawken, in America in particular, is increasingly unsafe for our students. We have a deadly pandemic, a potential economic collapse, and nationwide social and political unrest happening at the same time. Students cannot learn or grow when they do not feel safe. Psychological safety is a precondition for a healthy school. At a time when our students most need safety and love, they are seeing and hearing about fear, death, and hatred.  

There are two challenges in the United States that undermine the ideals of Hawken School, and they are making it increasingly difficult for us to serve our students well. Those two challenges are: America’s failure to address our original sin of slavery by the perpetuation of institutionalized racism and the failure to address the impact of polarized economic outcomes. Income/wealth polarization is a worldwide challenge, and it has fueled an increase in economic populism that seems to elevate latent racism and xenophobia to become overt. Blaming some “other” for the troubles of a country is currently a winning political strategy in many parts of the world. As a community of people of shared values, we, at Hawken, are the “other.” We are aware that people of Asian descent are being unfairly blamed for the COVID -19 outbreak, and we are aware of the threat of institutionalized racism, like that which triggered the recent widespread protests in response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

I cannot know what it feels like to be a parent of color right now. As a white man, I have the unearned privilege of only worrying about one of my sons getting a speeding ticket, not worrying about them never coming home at all. My experience with police started early, as my father was a Homewood, Illinois police officer. Other than being a dad, it was probably the thing he was most proud of in his life. I grew up tagging along with my father in the police station. I hung out with cops, who were like older friends, when I was in high school. My impression was that these were good people trying to do a job that was, at times, terrifying. I know that one of the ways that police officers cope with the stresses of a job, where on any given day they may not come home alive, is to have a fierce code of loyalty, an all for one, one for all mentality. When the culture of a police force is healthy, this is a good thing; it keeps them alive. However, it is clear that in too many cities, on too many police forces, this “always cover the back of your brother cop” culture is infected with racism in ways that result in the abuse and death of people of color, and too often black and brown teenagers. This is the danger of institutionally-enabled racism. My dad is gone now, but I know that he would be sickened by the murder of George Floyd while three fellow officers stood nearby watching. The students at Hawken are also watching, and they rightfully cannot tolerate such inhumanity.

At Hawken, we also have our own fierce sense of loyalty, and that is to the ideal of a shared humanity. The Hawken ideal of Fair Play calls for all of us to become a community where differences are celebrated and equity is an ever-present and shared goal. Every student, employee, and parent should have an equal right to all of the opportunities of being in the Hawken community; all that is asked in return is that they live up to the obligations that come with those privileges. That set of obligations has at its center: empathy for their fellow Hawken community members, respect for each other’s identities, and an appreciation for the strength of our collective diversity. Knowing that in our wider society we are not living up to these rights for, and obligations to, our fellow citizens should elevate our concern and sense of empathy for our fellow Hawks and fellow citizens.

We will need the Hawken community to come together to help our students through this time of anxiety, uncertainty, and fear. From our founding in 1915, the partnership between the home and school has been central to our mission, and it is ever so important right now. In our current socially-distanced reality, our normal means of building community and supporting our students are somewhat compromised. That means we will need to work even harder to make sure that the supports children are receiving at home align and reinforce those they will be receiving at school. We are engaged in vital conversations about ways that we can actively support our students, parents, and faculty in the necessary journey we need to take together to make Hawken a safer and more just community. In the coming days and weeks, you will be receiving additional information and invitations to deepen our collective understanding together.

I hope and believe that the COVID-19 threat will diminish, the economy will improve, and our government and society will work collaboratively to combat institutionalized racism. That day may come, but it will not be soon, so in the meantime we must redouble our collaborative efforts to attend to the growth, development, and launch of our current generation of Hawken students. This requires us to acknowledge the painful external realities and understand the stress and pain this causes for our community members. But it does not require that we feel helpless. We can come together in allyship to stand against racism and call out injustice. We can educate our children, and we as adults can educate ourselves about the cycle of systemic racism and oppression, making sure that we acknowledge our own prejudices, figuring out the work that each of us has to do in building a better and just world together.

Small communities, like Hawken, will figure out how to create fair, equitable, and just societies long before nations will. These equitable communities will become stronger, link their efforts, and, ultimately, win the day. In the meantime, our focus on that work should serve to provide our students a healthier and safer place to learn and grow. I call on all of you to give your best to make that happen.