Where’s the Diversity?

by Riley Whelan ’18

Sherwood celebrates its diverse student body. We pride ourselves in the wide variety of clubs and activities offered here, accepting and incorporating everyone’s interests. Recently, however, the nominated homecoming court was anything but diverse.

Seven out of the ten female nominees are white and eight of them are members of the cheerleading or poms teams. Although the male nominees are more racially diverse, all but two are student athletes. In years’ past, the homecoming court consisted of seniors from many different friend groups, with different backgrounds, extracurriculars and interests. This provided a more accurate representation of Sherwood as a whole.

Sherwood has fallen into the trap of every high school movie stereotype about “popular kids” running the school. The fact that almost all of the nominees are from the same friend group and involved in the same exact activities inevitably raised some suspicion about the legitimacy of the voting process. Because of these questions, the SGA should re-examine its platform for how students nominate and vote for homecoming court. Unfortunately, any future changes to the process will come too late for the Class of 2018.