Through his detailed descriptions of schools across America, Kozol (1991) demonstrated the symbolic impact of the physical space of schools with disturbing examples of institutionalized racism made visible. Thus, Savage Inequalities also initiated a critical pedagogy of place by questioning the relationship of racial identity to the quality and condition of physical spaces in schools. This essay historicizes and deepens such an analysis through a critical exploration of space and place at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, and notes how institutionalized racism is enacted in schools and how it informs student experience.