Exploring Identity and History

The Dana Hall community kicked off Black History Month with an all-school Flex Block presentation on Tuesday, February 4, which focused on the history of African Americans and labor, this year’s national theme. The presentation was led by Director of Community, Equity and Inclusion Rachel Nagler and included six members of SHADES, Dana Hall’s Upper School Black and Latinx affinity group.

Nagler and the students focused on the history of Black women and labor, beginning in the 1600s with slave labor in the fields and plantation houses, moving through the factory, mill and mine workers of the Civil War era, to the domestic servants and farm laborers of the Reconstruction period, continuing on to the early 20th century, the Great Depression, New Deal and WWII to the present. They also explored gender and racial pay gaps, and the unpaid domestic work that primarily falls to women.

Another theme of the presentation was intersectionality, and Nagler helped students understand how a person’s various identities — such as their gender, race, sexuality or disability — can present multiple avenues for discrimination. “Identity is your relationship to your family, your school, your neighborhood, your history,” she said. “It’s doesn’t exist on its own; it’s all connected to something.”

The all-school presentation kicked off a month of activities including weekend outings focused on supporting the Black community, a library display and special meals in the Dining Hall.