When immigrating from South America to the United States, my parents decided to move our family to Scarsdale, New York, because of the amazing academic reputation the school district has. Scarsdale High School (SHS) is one of the best public schools in new york state and the entire country. I quickly found out that the lack of diversity negatively impacted my social life, and I was isolated, receiving a lot of racism and xenophobia. Here are some of my experiences, as someone who just graduated from Scarsdale High School, the school known for its seemingly perfect reputation.

“My family is from Iran. I have Muslim family members. If you actually spoke to someone Muslim, you would know that their religion is based on peace. People who do these kinds of things are not truly Muslim, they just use religion to justify their actions.” I don’t remember what else he said. I just remember hearing the words family and terrorists. I couldn’t choke back the tears anymore. My teacher cuts the boy off before he can say anything else and thanks me for my contribution before quickly changing the topic. I start shaking every time I think about it

Vermont is notorious for having a nearly all-white population. In fact, 96.2% of Vermont’s population is white. Locally, I could count the number of people of color that go to my school on one hand as well as the number of republicans. I love to preach the importance of civil discourse, but civility is easy when you're arguing the same point. I don’t know what there is to debate.