An admittedly privileged perspective of attending boarding school as a Black American student, Admissions is Kendra James' coming-of-age story while enrolled at the elite Taft School in Connecticut. You won’t find anecdotes of boarding school scandals, drugs or partying in its pages, but you will become well acquainted with the cultural and societal growth of a young girl obsessed with role playing, instant messaging, Star Trek and Dogma, who also happens to be the first Black American legacy student to graduate from Taft School.
Torn between appreciating the opportunities given along with Taft’s $35,000 tuition price tag and the sense of otherness that opportunity afforded her, James remembers her time at Taft in degrees of extremes. There is no rage or rebellion in its pages, only sincerity and self-awareness. James admits her own naivete and ignorance of code switching, microaggressions, and respectability politics at the beginning of her boarding school career, but upon graduation realizes many aspects of the Taft School experience for students of color are questionable, problematic, and oftentimes traumatic.
James’ reflection on her time at Taft and career as an admissions counselor reveals both the subtle microaggressions and outright racism towards Black and Latinx students in a predominately white school and why minorities of elite boarding schools seldom return or enroll their own children. This is a must-read for anyone who felt like their circle of friends was chosen for them or limited to one table in the cafeteria, and for anyone who assumes the lives of wealthy Black students are devoid of racism.
You can find this original book review and many more at LibraryJournal.com
0 Comments.