I’m a Black woman in law school. I’m not surprised racism lives on my campus.

The following essay was written by Olamide Abiose, a student at Stanford Law School. As an undergrad, Olamide was a mentor to other Black students on campus. She received a scholarship from California Bar Foundation in 2017.

I went to elementary school in Iowa. One day, my social studies teacher told the class that Muslims are “backwards” people who should be “bombed away”. When she said these words, it felt as if every eye in the classroom was on me. My teacher knew I was a Muslim immigrant. She didn’t care.

I was two years old when I immigrated to the United States with my parents from Nigeria. Racism — implicit and explicit — has always been part of my American experience.

That’s why I’m not surprised that racism lives at law school campuses and other so-called “progressive” spaces, too.

At Stanford Law School, where I’m a first year student, a series of troubling events culminated with a white supremacist group plastering posters throughout campus calling for a “European vision” America, aka a white ethno-nationalist state. Professors, school administrators, and fellow classmates expressed outrage and disbelief. They should be outraged — we all should. But they shouldn’t be surprised.

Law schools are still very white spaces and over 80% of lawyers today are white, even in a state as diverse as California. Perhaps if law schools had more students of color, there would be less shock and more outrage.

Or perhaps if law schools listened to students of color, campuses would be better prepared to deal with white supremacy.

Every single one of my classmates — white or otherwise — will graduate with an incredible set of legal skills; with knowledge of how the justice system works. It should be our collective mission as future lawyers to use our knowledge to speak out, often and loudly. Let’s start by finally admitting what students of color have been saying for years: white supremacy lives right here, on our campus.