In his opening remarks of the school year, Upper School Director Dominique Gerard focused on an incident this summer that shook members of our community and the nation as a whole because of its bold attack on a cherished value — equality.

“We need to talk about Charlottesville,” Dom told the assembly of Upper School students, “because a mass rally of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, KKK and armed militia cannot occur and go unmentioned. Because racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy are wrong.…There is no excuse, no explanation and no justification for those hate-filled ideologies in Charlottesville, here in Pennsylvania or anywhere else.”

Though acknowledging that the “everyday marginalization” felt by those experiencing racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia can be overwhelming, he told students, as members of a Friends school community, that it was possible to “find answers in the radical Quaker philosophy of equality.”

He added that AFS offered an especially promising environment to pursue those answers.

“We have the extra blessing of being here in an intentionally diverse community. Friends, this may be one of the most diverse communities you will ever be a part of. There are few places that more truly represent Philadelphia in all its diversity. We have people from around the corner and around the world. Here we are together in one room. Though it can be challenging at times to bring all these people together, the mess is worth it. In that mess, we have the opportunity to develop the answers, the antidote to the hate.” (Click here to read the full text of Dom’s opening remarks to students.)

Dom invited students who wanted to reflect on Charlottesville to a discussion later that day. In response, about 20 students and five faculty members gathered in an Upper School classroom, where they shared how they felt when they first heard about the march in Charlottesville and talked about the images they found disturbing and the speech they found troubling. Dom described the noontime session on September 7 as “a reflective space.”