They have a race problem, plain and simple. When I worked there, I was told by an authority figure that the way my natural hair grew was "too intense" for students and I was asked to "bring it in" so I would be more palatable. This administrator told me that there were students who were expressing discomfort about my appearance and specifically my hair. He later denied that students said anything to my direct supervisor, and I was told that it was a miscommunication, but the fact of the matter was that I was a black man with long hair who was asked to change my appearance because it was making people uncomfortable. That is not a positive work environment, and I would have expected so much more from a school that caters largely to low-income students of color.
While I was there, there was also an instructor who would come to us with complaints about her students of color that were blatantly prejudiced in nature. One student in particular who she made complaints about ended up dropping, and it was my job to try and convince the student to stay in an environment where he was being discriminated against. I brought my concerns to my boss as well as hers. In response to my complaint about the instructor, the same white man who told me my hair was "too intense" came to my office and assured me that Charter was an institution that respected and cherished diversity. They, like so many other institutions across this country, will tell you that they love diversity in one breath and disparage you for who you are in the next.
I wasn't planning on saying anything about this, but with everything going on in America right now and so many people of color coming forward with their stories of workplace discrimination I feel I have a responsibility to put this out there. If you are black, indigenous, a person of color, LGBT+, etc. and thinking about working at somewhere like Charter, keep looking. You deserve better experiences than the one I had, and there is a place out there for you that respects you for who you are.
To close, I'm sure there are many employees of color at Charter who have never experienced any kind of discrimination and that's wonderful for them. Even so, my experience happened and my experiences at Charter College matter. Charter College can insist that they value diversity until they're blue in the face, but you can't love diversity and allow discriminatory staff and administration to continue without consequences. That's not love, that's lip service.
