Racial issues in DCPS for mixed race kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WOW! I just checked the demographics on Shepherd Elementary School on its profile page at DCPS website. It's 79% Black, 9% Hispanic, 8% multiple race, 4% White, and 0% Asian. This doesn't seem diverse to me. Also, only 32% of the students live in bounds. So, it makes me wonder why the majority of the residents who live in the Shepherd Park area don't send their children to Shepherd. Where do the other residents in that area send their children?

Oyster is truly a diverse school. I just checked out their profile and their school's page as well. I love the diversity that is represented there. Are there any other elementary schools in DCPS that have an international environment like Oyster?

Try Silver Spring if you want your pick of Benneton schools.

[Anonymous]

Stay away from PG County. You'll catch a lot of flack from one droppers if you want to be known as biracial. As long as you identify as black though, you'll be fine. You'll have to be okay with hearing a lot of anti-white talk. Just goes with the territory. Might be the same at a white school. Don't know. Just sharing my experience as biracial in Upper PG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Oyster is an outlier because of its location, high attendance by people with high SES and its Hispanic population. The schools that are problematic are majority AA with AA administrators and student body.

I would have thought that AA administrators were a positive influence.

In Shangri-La perhaps, but we're talking about PG County- Land of Keep Up With Old School Jones's. You're kid will be looked at like they have two heads if they don't fall in lockstep with Jim Crow rules about race and ethnicity.

My friends daughter is biracial and actually looks like a young Jennifer Beal. She has said nothing but good things about her kids school in Bowie. I get that you don't like PG county for your own bias reasons, but you spew a lot of misinformation because of your prejudices.

Thank YOU! Clearly that poster has "other issues" that has nothing to do with a school system they know nothing about

[Anonymous]

This whole thread needs to be deleted. It is completely ridiculous. The only thing I gathered from this thread is that all AA are extremely hostile toward biracial people. Clearly, we are living in a society where the most intolerant people are AA. My, how the tides have shifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread needs to be deleted. It is completely ridiculous. The only thing I gathered from this thread is that all AA are extremely hostile toward biracial people. Clearly, we are living in a society where the most intolerant people are AA. My, how the tides have shifted.

Please don't base your perspective on the few who are posting here. Really, I know you probably aren't but DCUM is a really, really weird place that brings out some extreme elements of our society. Most people would not touch a thread like this because it is simply not part of the their world. There are a lot of people who exists out there (white and blacks) that laugh at this. But DCUM is this special place of anonymity that brings out the cray cray in a lot of people. You can't judge anyone or any group of people based on this mess.

[Anonymous]

Another poster saying to avoid OF unless you're okay with the black label. Otherwise you may be alienated. The racial culture is just too ingrained over there. You can't change them and unless you want to experiment with your kid's self-esteem, you'd be better off to avoid them. Try for a charter or WofP JKLMM. Not saying they're perfect, but definitely not as openly intolerant as PG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread needs to be deleted. It is completely ridiculous. The only thing I gathered from this thread is that all AA are extremely hostile toward biracial people. Clearly, we are living in a society where the most intolerant people are AA. My, how the tides have shifted.

Really name me one negative thing posted by an AA directed towards Biracial?.....The only people attacked in this thread were AA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread needs to be deleted. It is completely ridiculous. The only thing I gathered from this thread is that all AA are extremely hostile toward biracial people. Clearly, we are living in a society where the most intolerant people are AA. My, how the tides have shifted.

Then you clearly did not read the whole thread. More than a few biracial people said that they did not experience bias from AAs growing up. You're chosing to focus on the crazy -- maybe because it fits your own preconceived notions (AAs are the "most" intolerant!) and that's a YOU problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread needs to be deleted. It is completely ridiculous. The only thing I gathered from this thread is that all AA are extremely hostile toward biracial people. Clearly, we are living in a society where the most intolerant people are AA. My, how the tides have shifted.

Really name me one negative thing posted by an AA directed towards Biracial?.....The only people attacked in this thread were AA.

Lol. This person didn't read the whole thread either! Yes, some negative things were said both ways (e.g. some AA person said biracials were arrogant) but that was not a unanimous view. It's not all or nothing. Ppl has experiences all over the map. Just respect that instead of claiming one side is always in the wrong.

[Anonymous]

^ Ppl HAD

[Anonymous]

Yet again, this illustrates why we need choice for biracials. They'll catch flack either way, but at least they can feel dignity when they go to bed at night by making their own choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread needs to be deleted. It is completely ridiculous. The only thing I gathered from this thread is that all AA are extremely hostile toward biracial people. Clearly, we are living in a society where the most intolerant people are AA. My, how the tides have shifted.

Then you clearly did not read the whole thread. More than a few biracial people said that they did not experience bias from AAs growing up. You're chosing to focus on the crazy -- maybe because it fits your own preconceived notions (AAs are the "most" intolerant!) and that's a YOU problem.

But it does exist, both my step children experienced it (not in DC but in another metropolitan area) growing up. I would rather put my kids in a community where there is less of a likelihood that someone else's beliefs try to force them to define themselves. It was a disgusting experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread needs to be deleted. It is completely ridiculous. The only thing I gathered from this thread is that all AA are extremely hostile toward biracial people. Clearly, we are living in a society where the most intolerant people are AA. My, how the tides have shifted.

Then you clearly did not read the whole thread. More than a few biracial people said that they did not experience bias from AAs growing up. You're chosing to focus on the crazy -- maybe because it fits your own preconceived notions (AAs are the "most" intolerant!) and that's a YOU problem.

But it does exist, both my step children experienced it (not in DC but in another metropolitan area) growing up. I would rather put my kids in a community where there is less of a likelihood that someone else's beliefs try to force them to define themselves. It was a disgusting experience.

Fair enough and a legitimate choice for you and your family. But it's not universal and we make the discussion unnecessarily polarizing when we assume our life experiences are. All the best to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WOW! I just checked the demographics on Shepherd Elementary School on its profile page at DCPS website. It's 79% Black, 9% Hispanic, 8% multiple race, 4% White, and 0% Asian. This doesn't seem diverse to me. Also, only 32% of the students live in bounds. So, it makes me wonder why the majority of the residents who live in the Shepherd Park area don't send their children to Shepherd. Where do the other residents in that area send their children?

Oyster is truly a diverse school. I just checked out their profile and their school's page as well. I love the diversity that is represented there. Are there any other elementary schools in DCPS that have an international environment like Oyster?

The official Shepherd demographics don't reflect trends in the lower grades. My kid's class is roughly 20% white, 12% biracial, and the remainder black/African American, and all families are in-boundary. If this trend continues, it'll be increasingly difficult to get in OOB at the PK level.

Shepherd Park is a predominantly black middle/upper-middle class neighborhood, although there is a sizable observant Jewish population as well. Most families have sent their kids to religious schools, charters, or secular privates in past years, although many new families moving in are choosing Shepherd Elementary.

As for an international presence, Shepherd had their annual International Festival a few weeks ago. There were presentations from Russia, Germany, Panama, West African countries, West Indian countries, Puerto Rico, Tanzania, Japan, Ethiopia--and that's just from what I recall. My kid's class has students who speak several different languages at home. So there is definitely an international presence there.

Finally, in case it matters, one of us is biracial and the other is black but not African American (raised in Europe)--our experience thus far is that Shepherd's a warm, wonderful and welcoming little school to families of all backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It would be child abuse for me to raise my white looking blue-eyed blonde daughter as black. I only have this suggested to me by old school AAs who dislike white people. They actually change their tune once they see the kid. She's platinum blonde and very blue-eyed. Once they see her picture, they give a strange side-eye look amazed and then say, yeah, I understand why you wouldn't.

Regarding self-selecting for myself- I look very biracial- I only get flack from AAs when I tell them I am not black, but biracial. They invariably tell me that I'm black because at some point in my life I will be called the N word. That is the dumbest bull I've ever heard. But, it's a pervasive talking point because I hear it all of the time.
Oddly enough I have never been called the N word except when AAs are warning me it's coming. They are the problem!

There is so much truth in your post. As a biracial person who grew up in DC, my experiences with AAs in DCPS were horrific. I agree that they cause more havoc and Hell for biracial children. If I was the OP, I would avoid DCPS unless it was the JKLMM schools. Placing a biracial child especially one who doesn't identify as being AA in a predominately AA school in DC can be Hell on earth.

+1

Misery loves company. It's not that I can't understand why some AA kids are so eager to recruit the biracial kids to their "team" as it were whilst taking the (probably rarely presented in their lives) opportunity to make themselves feel superior by putting the biracial kids down as less-than, but it's just not fun being on the receiving end of that. Kids (and some adults!) are fond of the blow-your-candle-out-to-make-mine-brighter mode of interaction. It sucks.

My friend (Carolyn Battle Cochrane) did a documentary years ago called, "Biracial Not Black Damn It." It is talks about some of the things biracial children endure from all races. However, it really digs deeper into the problems that biracial and multiracial people endure from the AA community. Actually every year in Los Angeles I attend a Mixed Roots Literary Film Festival http://www.mxroots.org in which those of us from the multiracial community discuss our experiences through film, books, workshops. People often times assume it is the white side of the family or white people who mistreat biracial children. Society ignores racist AAs and how they mistreat biracial people. For DC to claim it's a progressive city is laughable. The fact that we even have to have a discussion on which school that a biracial child should attend in DC proves that DC has a long way to go. Some AAs in DC still have southern mentalities and are quite provincial. So, it's no secret that some harbor resentment towards biracial people.

Thank you for your post. I will definitely look into the film festival. Yes, I totally agree. AAs are very comfortable being hostile to biracial people. I grew up in a black neighborhood and was constantly made fun of for looking/sounding white, etc... I was also given the cold shoulder when it I informed black people that I identified as biracial and I was also not okay with cavalier anti-white conversation, "you know how white people are etc..." This is why I'm so grateful for DC's diverse charter and why I recommend that parents of biracial kids do not raise them in a predominately black area.

The Mixed Roots Festival in LA is awesome! It's like one big family reunion. They even have activities for families with younger children. You will love it. Actually, its for all mixed race people not just black and white. Mixed race individuals have formed their own blogs, groups, workshops, festivals, films, communities, and other resources which relate to our experiences.

I will also recommend the following resources:

We have a Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference every year in Chicago. http://www.criticalmixedracestudies.org
Mixed Roots Stories http://www.mixedrootsstories.org
One Drop of Love http://www.onedropoflove.org
Also, you may like the Loving Day Festival in NYC. We have it every June. http://www.lovingday.org