Why doesn't MCPS care about Asian-Americans and feelings of bias/discrimination?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people from India and Pakistan agree that they share a similar culture? Narendra Modi and his Hindutva buddies are doing their best to make the point that not even everyone in India shares a similar culture.

To say nothing of the history of relations between China, Korea, and Japan.

Next you'll tell me that Turks and Armenians share a similar culture.

So silly, right?

And yet, here we are.

Well-educated families from Nigeria are automatically lumped in as ‘African-American’ and MCPS counts them the same as lower-income African-American families whose ancestors have been in the US for generations.

Surely, all AA families are not all the same?

When you say "lumped in," what do you mean? By federal law, MCPS needs to track and report on basic demographic categories. So, for those documents, ADOS and Black immigrants are obviously tracked together.

However, every "internal" school report card that I've ever seen breaks out Black/AA FARMS and Black/AA non-FARMS (they do the same for other groups in the school). They can't delineate by immigration status because they don't collect that information, nor should they, but they absolutely track low-income AA students separately from middle class AA students.

But if you are talking about magnet admissions, being Black but zoned for Pyle does not give you an advantage over any other Pyle student *unless* you receive FARMS, in which case you get the same "boost" that any other student receiving FARMS receives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

At our school there are school sponsored events that are absolutely targeted at Latino and AA families.

We have Black and Brown forums that are specifically geared to AA and Latino kids to discuss how to get into magnet programs and test-taking strategies, etc.

I would have to see if I could find past flyers for these types of events.

MCPS: These groups are vastly underrepresented in MCPS special programs at every step of the process. Let's plan some outreach that can be helpful for anyone who wants to participate.
You: Special treatment! No fair!

No. That’s not it.

When the public school system offers specific outreach towards one race of students, that is ridiculous.

The Black and Brown seminars and ‘test-prep tip’ sessions are specifically targeted towards AA and Latino students. It is not meant to be for ‘everyone who wants to participate’. The advertising specifically stated that these sessions were for Black and Brown students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

At our school there are school sponsored events that are absolutely targeted at Latino and AA families.

We have Black and Brown forums that are specifically geared to AA and Latino kids to discuss how to get into magnet programs and test-taking strategies, etc.

I would have to see if I could find past flyers for these types of events.

MCPS: These groups are vastly underrepresented in MCPS special programs at every step of the process. Let's plan some outreach that can be helpful for anyone who wants to participate.
You: Special treatment! No fair!

No. That’s not it.

When the public school system offers specific outreach towards one race of students, that is ridiculous.

The Black and Brown seminars and ‘test-prep tip’ sessions are specifically targeted towards AA and Latino students. It is not meant to be for ‘everyone who wants to participate’. The advertising specifically stated that these sessions were for Black and Brown students.

[Anonymous]

Shocking news for woke people:
South Asian people (with maybe the exception being Pakistanis) are Brown people.

India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives = Brown people, lots and lots of Brown people.

[Anonymous]

Can we all just get back to school first? Is Zoom discriminating against your kid? First things first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

At our school there are school sponsored events that are absolutely targeted at Latino and AA families.

We have Black and Brown forums that are specifically geared to AA and Latino kids to discuss how to get into magnet programs and test-taking strategies, etc.

I would have to see if I could find past flyers for these types of events.

There are also school-sponsored events aimed at Asian American parents, including events offered in Vietnamese language. That's a good thing.

while the events do have Asian language interpretors, I have not seen any events targeted towards Asian American families. MCPS has more events for URM because they are "under represented", and that's fine. I don't have a problem with that, but it's not correct to state that MCPS does have events targeted towards Asian parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shocking news for woke people:
South Asian people (with maybe the exception being Pakistanis) are Brown people.

India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives = Brown people, lots and lots of Brown people.

? Pakistanis are also "brown". Are there lighter skinned Pakistanis? Sure, as there are lighter skinned Indians, but the vast majority of Pakistanis are also brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not that PP but when people I know use the words "Asian culture" they often mean Asian American culture which is something kind of imposed on Asians in the United States since they are lumped together as a census category.

Yeah, and generally when people in the US refer to "European culture," they're white ethno-nationalists trying to justify anti-immigrant xenophobia.

I'm the "Asian culture" PP, when I say "Asian culture" I mean the culture in Asian countries, not the Asian American culture.

When my spouse, from Europe, says "southern European culture" vs "northern european culture" or "western european culture" vs "eastern european culture", it's not about xenophobia.

So, the culture in Kazakhstan, Singapore, Yemen, Thailand, Philippines, Bahrain, Nepal, Korea...

Could you please list some factors common to the cultures of Turkmenistan, Singapore, Yemen, Thailand, Philippines, Bahrain, Nepal, and South Korea?

You are right that there are differences.

Just like there are absolutely differences between my ‘practically white’ neighbor from Argentina, and my co-worker attorney from Columbia. Versus your El Salvadoran housekeeper and Guatemalan gardener.

Yet, amazingly MCPS lumps them all together as ‘Latinx’. Regardless of background.

See how ridiculous that is? How useless it is to lump kids together by race?

In other words, you agree there is no such thing as "Asian culture" or "Latin culture."

Then why does MCPS argue that is the case?

Apparently, according to MCPS, there are only four possible groups.

Asians and Whites, who are somehow privileged and do better in school. And AA and Latino families who need extra help in order to succeed.

FTR, I think it’s ridiculous and has created way more problems than necessary. But, alas, that is how MCPS leadership sees the situation in our schools.

Does MCPS give extra help to specific groups? I thought these things were need based and race played no part in it? So if an Asian family wanted free lunches it would be harder for them to qualify?

At our school there are school sponsored events that are absolutely targeted at Latino and AA families.

We have Black and Brown forums that are specifically geared to AA and Latino kids to discuss how to get into magnet programs and test-taking strategies, etc.

I would have to see if I could find past flyers for these types of events.

+1
My child was explicitly excluded from a "minority" program run by an MCPS group because my child is not Latino or Black. There were rich kids who are half black or half Latino who were allowed in to this program.
This definitely happens.

[Anonymous]

It is weird how Asian Americans do not qualify as underrepresented even though they are by many measures. In all of MCPS there are many more Latinos and Blacks. Couldn't you say Asians are under represented overall in MCPS?

When I last looked at the selection committee for the magnets a few years ago there was not a single Asian person on them. Black and Latino members were overrepresented based on their make up of teachers and make up of the school population.

If there were no Black or Latino members of the magnet committees people would be crying bloody murder but since it's "just" Asians no one seems to care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not that PP but when people I know use the words "Asian culture" they often mean Asian American culture which is something kind of imposed on Asians in the United States since they are lumped together as a census category.

Yeah, and generally when people in the US refer to "European culture," they're white ethno-nationalists trying to justify anti-immigrant xenophobia.

I'm the "Asian culture" PP, when I say "Asian culture" I mean the culture in Asian countries, not the Asian American culture.

When my spouse, from Europe, says "southern European culture" vs "northern european culture" or "western european culture" vs "eastern european culture", it's not about xenophobia.

So, the culture in Kazakhstan, Singapore, Yemen, Thailand, Philippines, Bahrain, Nepal, Korea...

Could you please list some factors common to the cultures of Turkmenistan, Singapore, Yemen, Thailand, Philippines, Bahrain, Nepal, and South Korea?

You are right that there are differences.

Just like there are absolutely differences between my ‘practically white’ neighbor from Argentina, and my co-worker attorney from Columbia. Versus your El Salvadoran housekeeper and Guatemalan gardener.

Yet, amazingly MCPS lumps them all together as ‘Latinx’. Regardless of background.

See how ridiculous that is? How useless it is to lump kids together by race?

In other words, you agree there is no such thing as "Asian culture" or "Latin culture."

Then why does MCPS argue that is the case?

Apparently, according to MCPS, there are only four possible groups.

Asians and Whites, who are somehow privileged and do better in school. And AA and Latino families who need extra help in order to succeed.

FTR, I think it’s ridiculous and has created way more problems than necessary. But, alas, that is how MCPS leadership sees the situation in our schools.

Does MCPS give extra help to specific groups? I thought these things were need based and race played no part in it? So if an Asian family wanted free lunches it would be harder for them to qualify?

At our school there are school sponsored events that are absolutely targeted at Latino and AA families.

We have Black and Brown forums that are specifically geared to AA and Latino kids to discuss how to get into magnet programs and test-taking strategies, etc.

I would have to see if I could find past flyers for these types of events.

+1
My child was explicitly excluded from a "minority" program run by an MCPS group because my child is not Latino or Black. There were rich kids who are half black or half Latino who were allowed in to this program.
This definitely happens.

"Explicitly excluded," how? Your child said, "I want to participate," and MCPS officially said, "No, you're not allowed to."? Do tell.

[Anonymous]

It wasn't MCPS. It was a group at an MCPS school. Think: PTA or other group running the activity with the involvement of MCPS employees. It was actually an MCPS employee who made this rule. My child applied and was dropped from the email list somehow. When I inquired I was told my child was not part of the "target" group. We were told this activity was for Latino and black students ONLY.

[Anonymous]

There are some minority scholar programs where they make it clear the child needs to be Black or Latino. They say minority but they don't mean minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It wasn't MCPS. It was a group at an MCPS school. Think: PTA or other group running the activity with the involvement of MCPS employees. It was actually an MCPS employee who made this rule. My child applied and was dropped from the email list somehow. When I inquired I was told my child was not part of the "target" group. We were told this activity was for Latino and black students ONLY.

I don't know if this would stand up to anti-discrimination laws. But who wants your child in an activity where the organizer does not want a child because of the child's race and everyone looks at you like you are taking advantage of the situation because you are not the "right" type of minority?

[Anonymous]

I've always been curious about this. I get that private groups can offer scholarship to certain races, but how does it work when public universities or other entities like public school districts are involved?

A PTA is not the school but if the school is heavily involved like a teacher is an advisor to this activity doesn't that require the district not to discriminate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some minority scholar programs where they make it clear the child needs to be Black or Latino. They say minority but they don't mean minority.

c'mon. You know what they mean.. they mean URM, and I understand why that is. You guys are being purposefully obtuse and/or pedantic.

I do think that MCPS needs to do a better job reaching out to ALL lower income students as they have more challenges and hurdles to overcome than the rest. IMO, MCPS seems to care about the overall numbers rather than the individuals. That is why they lump lower income Asian American students with upper income Asian American students, and upper income black students with lower income black students.

It should never be about race but about SES.

-signed an Asian American who grew up lower income