Keeping Cultures Alive

By TAPTI SEN ‘21

With 43% students of color and 14% international students, Milton prides itself on bringing in a variety of cultures and races. But those figures are not enough to build a diverse student body; we need to provide students with better support systems. In Milton’s environment, support is vital for those who lack a traditional White American upbringing, so we have programs like Transitions, culture clubs, and various workshops, all trying to fill in the gaps. Culture clubs are especially conducive, acting as spaces for people to share their similar experiences. But here’s the unsolvable issue: these support systems are effective only if you have a community in the first place. Many of us students of color are the only representatives from our respective cultures, so we become, as my dad says, “the representatives of our countries in America.” Yes, there are people around us from similar cultures with whom we can bond. As a Bangladeshi woman, I love talking to people from the Middle-East, discussing cultural similarities and learning. However, in my experience, forcing connections with another person’s culture can be dangerous— you could lose your own culture.

Last year, even though I am not Muslim, I participated in Ramadan because I always did so while living in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country where Eid-ul-Fitr is a distinguished holiday. In retrospect, a big reason I loved Ramadan was the fact that I got to bond with others over that part of my culture. Although observing Ramadan was great, the fact that it was the closest thing I had to having my culture represented at Milton, despite being a Hindu, makes me sad.

We have to keep our cultures alive because the alternative is assimilation into mainstream American society, where our cultural identities take a backseat to other parts of our identity. At my previous school, where I was also the only Bangladeshi, bringing up my culture to my friends never felt like an option—I just never felt that people were interested enough. My identity as someone from Bangladesh became second to my other identities: a 16-year-old, a Harry Potter fan, etc. Some people might not be connected with their cultures. That’s fine, but we have the right to decide whether we want to be or not. I personally never realized how much I love my culture until I came to Milton, where I found community members willing to talk about who they were and where they came from. But still, I didn’t feel completely represented. 

We could take initiatives to fix this issue for ourselves, but shouldn’t that be the school’s job? Those who are the only people of their culture represented need even greater support systems than others, because many students at the very least have people from their cultures and countries with whom they can converse and bond. We single-culture kids have no one like that.

It’s Milton’s job to try to make our transition into and experience at this school as comforting as possible. There are multiple ways in which Milton can approach a solution to this issue. We could allow students to sign up for “excused” holidays of their particular religion/culture at the beginning of the year so that they don’t have to go to each of their dorm heads and teachers individually to explain their situation for each holiday. The OMCD can connect people to nearby festivals and events going on so they have a chance to partake in their culture. Either of these implementations would greatly improve the support systems for Milton’s students of color.

Milton is doing great for a New England prep school with the support systems it already has. But we can always do better.