Over the past week it has surfaced that on February 29th, 2016, a group of three students at my alumni private school made a video with black face. Let's just say that they did not depict the black woman in the most flattering way. Isle of Wight Academy is a small rural private school located in Isle of Wight County, VA. Before I go in to my thoughts on this, let me first give some background so we can be fair.

For their Government class, students had to make a video depicting a famous Supreme Court case and had to make it into a "mock" news broadcast. The group that decided to do black face, picked Mapp v. Ohio from the Supreme Court case in 1961. The individual at trial was a black woman. Police arrived at her apartment and asked to search her apartment. After she declined, police forced themselves into the apartment without a search warrant.

On February 29th, the groups in the government class showed their presentations. When it came time for the Mapp v. Ohio video to be presented, some in the class expressed shock as soon as they realized that they were watching a white girl do black face while screaming in a non-flattering dialect. The teacher immediately buried his face in his hands. For his credit, the teacher in my opinion did that which was in his power. After class, he pulled the students aside and told them to delete the video or they might face potential consequences for their future. Unfortunately, before the teacher talked to the group, one of the students had already shared the video with the senior class and by the end of the day, most of the class already had seen the video.

After this, many outside of the school are not sure what happened. According to the school administration, the students were quickly punished and reprimanded for the video while also explaining why the video was wrong. According to the Headmaster Mr.Vaughn, "the three students responsible for the video were disciplined immediately after it was presented." He declined to say what the punishment was citing privacy issues, but stood by his statement. However, according to many students who informed news outlets like Fusion, and The Daily Press, the administration did not do anything about the video until the video surfaced online.

Last Monday, the video was emailed to a feminist blog (user @lexi4prez) based in Florida. An unknown Isle of Wight Academy student leaked the video to the blog.She promptly tweeted screenshots of the video and a sixteen second clip of the video depicting a person in black face at a kitchen table being questioned by her peers.

The twitter user placed the following caption with the tweet: "So I just got an email from a student who's [sic] classmates did a video with an immense amount of highly offensive black face and said that the school took the side of the students who made the video & r [sic] expelling any students who speak out or distribute the video of black face..."

According to many students, speaking on the condition of anonymity fearing repercussions, the tension at the school has been really high since the video was leaked on Twitter. Following the email, many students reported that the school launched a school wide investigation. Some students were even pulled out of class by teachers asking if they leaked the video and if not if they knew who did.

Now that we have some background, let's go into my thoughts on what happened. It is no secret that Isle of Wight Academy has a history of racial tension. The school was formed in 1967 in response to the ruling of Brown v. The Board of Education. Basically so White parents could ensure their children were not around black people. In the 1980s, they even lost their tax exempt status for a year due to their discrimination against Blacks.

As evident by social media, and simply just looking at some of my fellow classmates' tweets and statuses, many do not see any issue with what the group did. In fact, they along with other students that attend school, have been verbally attacking and intimidating the minority of students who have spoken out against the video. A teacher that I know but will not name, even put the following information on white board a few days ago:

"(A certain teacher's classroom) has taken to posting quotes on the board every day (from God, the Bible, the actor Sylvester Stallone), implying those who shared the video outside of school should consider the consequences of their actions."- Fusion.Net

As a former student at this school, I am sadly here to call out what I have noticed as an environment of racial discrimination and one where diversity is not viewed kindly. This attitude is not only perpetuated by students, but also by some teachers.

Some recent tweets by students who let's just say disagree with all of the hype...To be as respectful as possible, I blotted out the individuals' names for privacy reasons.

Just to be clear, my intentions are not ruin the future of the girls who presented the video. While it is disheartening that they claim they saw nothing wrong with the video and that their parents approved of it, my vendetta, per se, is against how the adults handled this at Isle of Wight Academy. Then again, I suppose the IWA Seniors are adults. But I'll gloss over that for now. As a former student, I am sadly inclined to believe that the school tried to cover it up and did not discipline the students. I am also inclined to believe that teachers and students were intimidating those that spoke out against the video.

I do not write these words with ease. I have many found memories at this school. Not everyone their is racist,a bigot, or what have you. I also met some of my best friends there. Yet, a culture of racial tension remains to this day and as a Christian I am called to speak out against incorrect views of God's children and injustices perpetuated against them. So here I am today. One who is not saying that I am perfect, but saying that this is not what a CHRISTIAN based school should tolerate or stand for. This part dismays me even more. What a horrible witness for those that are not Christian. But I digress.

I recall many instances of full blown discrimination or even racism being showed at the school ever since I transferred there. For instance, I recall when my brother was still there telling me of the nasty comments and attitudes people at the school displayed when the only black girl there won homecoming queen. Still not convinced, okay let's go deeper. I recall when we had a black man on our football team. Some of my fellow classmates were amazed on how "nice" he was. A student even exclaimed that he was 'one of the good ones." Basically, they he acted White. Let's sweeten it up a little bit and I'll say one more incident: Here I was, sitting in class one day, when all of a sudden, I overheard someone basically bragging that his Father was in the KKK.....UM, OKAY.

As I sit here and type this, I can already imagine the backlash I might get and some friends that I will probably lose. To those of you whose hearts I know are not tainted by the school's culture and history of discrimination, let me just say this is not for you. At the same time, maybe it is. For I remember being a student there and recall many times I could have spoke up against blatant racial slurs or bigotry. Yet, I did not. Sometimes I did, but let me be clear. There were many times where I felt intimidated by the majority to not speak up. If you are still at this school, please do not follow my footsteps. After leaving that school, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and many mentors at ODU have taught me through words and action how silence in the face of injustice is just as bad. Hence, why I am writing this right now.

To those of you that I know whose hearts need healing of incorrect views of "the other" or who are outright racist, I pray for you. I really do. You see, this article is not just about the video that surfaced. It is about the culture of racial prejudice I saw at my school. I know you might unfriend me, or message me unkind words, but know that I will meet you with love, but also boldness.

To those of you that consider yourselves "colorblind", that does not solve our problems. I will explain why I am against this through my Christian faith.(Since most of you are Christian.) Being colorblind is essentially saying that everyone is White. For the majority culture in America is in fact White Culture. It is also forgetting that God made us all with our beautiful differences for a reason. Not only to more fully represent himself, but to also be a testimony to his greatness. Being colorblind is a disservice to our Lord. Do not believe me? Message me and I will be glad to show you just where in that Bible it says it quite clearly. So please, if you do have sensitivity training like I heard you were going to, please do not try solve ignorance with more ignorance by preaching color blindness.

To the people that made the video, I doubt that you did not know what you were doing. The long history of pain and ridicule many still recollect in the Black community today. If you did not know what you were doing, I hope that this incident is perhaps a lesson. I hope that you're future is not ruined. I really sincerely wish you the best. But know that although we have freedom of speech, your actions have consequences.On whether or not I believe the video should have been leaked by students, let's just say that it is irrelevant now. But, I will say. We must ask why they did so. Perhaps because they felt nothing was being done about it? Nonetheless, it is out.

Isle of Wight Academy, you have provided me with many great things and I love many of you there, but we (Because I am still a part of this institution) must grapple with the history of discrimination our institution has exhibited while also learning from this incident. Until then, I will sadly have a little bit of shame every time I say that I came from your institution. And that really is a tragedy. Because you have many great loving and caring people there and also provide a great academic education. Perhaps you lack in diversity and inclusivity, but I hope that will change with the times.

Sincerely, a former student.