Diversity of schools - can this work both ways? Am I being unreasonable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:its not “desperately seeking racists and elitists” - its instead examining the gap between highly liberal progressive values and behavior. why, for example, is it that for a lot of people the number of higher income white kids becomes a proxy or measure used to determine school quality?

Because the school system is a mess and most of the UMC families in the system are white. Pesky UMC parents who cluster around DCPS provide critical inputs at home and via PTOs to help create high performing schools in DC. Remember, this is a city without formal GT programs or test in high schools either (now that Walls lacks any sort of admissions exam or standardized test score cut off). Things are different in other cities. Stuyvesant is only around 20% white yet it’s one of the county’s very best public high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1. Asian families tend to be pragmatic about public schools, not chasing some ideal sounding ethnic breakdown.

Because they understand that the role of a school is to give their kids the best education available, rather than to advance some sort of progressive utopia.

Just another reason why Asians do well academically. For them, it's a purely transactional experience.

[Anonymous]

I think it's kind of funny that people are assuming a white kid is going to grow up more enlightened if they're in the minority at school. The most racist white person I know is someone who attended junior high and high school where white kids were in the minority and often got targeted/jumped by the other kids due to their race.

Put differently, there are a lot of POC in this thread painfully recounting the racism they endured as "one of the only" in school. If you think your kid would be spared that because they're white, then you actually *might* be racist, because you apparently believe that there's a profound difference in human nature between white kids and POC kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1. Asian families tend to be pragmatic about public schools, not chasing some ideal sounding ethnic breakdown.

Because they understand that the role of a school is to give their kids the best education available, rather than to advance some sort of progressive utopia.

Just another reason why Asians do well academically. For them, it's a purely transactional experience.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's kind of funny that people are assuming a white kid is going to grow up more enlightened if they're in the minority at school. The most racist white person I know is someone who attended junior high and high school where white kids were in the minority and often got targeted/jumped by the other kids due to their race.

Put differently, there are a lot of POC in this thread painfully recounting the racism they endured as "one of the only" in school. If you think your kid would be spared that because they're white, then you actually *might* be racist, because you apparently believe that there's a profound difference in human nature between white kids and POC kids.

Are Asian Americans POC or are they too brainy/affluent collectively to qualify?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's kind of funny that people are assuming a white kid is going to grow up more enlightened if they're in the minority at school. The most racist white person I know is someone who attended junior high and high school where white kids were in the minority and often got targeted/jumped by the other kids due to their race.

Put differently, there are a lot of POC in this thread painfully recounting the racism they endured as "one of the only" in school. If you think your kid would be spared that because they're white, then you actually *might* be racist, because you apparently believe that there's a profound difference in human nature between white kids and POC kids.

Nonsense. The profound differences we're contending with as a parent community in this Metro area are mainly between well-run schools in neighboring jurisdictions in VA and MD and the chaos of most DCPS programs.

We're also grappling with profound differences between opportunities for high SES and low SES American urban children here in the early 21st century. Race is a secondary concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's kind of funny that people are assuming a white kid is going to grow up more enlightened if they're in the minority at school. The most racist white person I know is someone who attended junior high and high school where white kids were in the minority and often got targeted/jumped by the other kids due to their race.

Put differently, there are a lot of POC in this thread painfully recounting the racism they endured as "one of the only" in school. If you think your kid would be spared that because they're white, then you actually *might* be racist, because you apparently believe that there's a profound difference in human nature between white kids and POC kids.

Nonsense. The profound differences we're contending with as a parent community in this Metro area are mainly between well-run schools in neighboring jurisdictions in VA and MD and the chaos of most DCPS programs.

We're also grappling with profound differences between opportunities for high SES and low SES American urban children here in the early 21st century. Race is a secondary concern.

You didn’t understand PP’s point. Maybe you didn’t read the prior comments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's kind of funny that people are assuming a white kid is going to grow up more enlightened if they're in the minority at school. The most racist white person I know is someone who attended junior high and high school where white kids were in the minority and often got targeted/jumped by the other kids due to their race.

Put differently, there are a lot of POC in this thread painfully recounting the racism they endured as "one of the only" in school. If you think your kid would be spared that because they're white, then you actually *might* be racist, because you apparently believe that there's a profound difference in human nature between white kids and POC kids.

This is true. One white kid in my neighborhood told me that attending DCPS K-12 turned him into a hard core republican.
He just graduated from college and is still a republican even though his family is hard core democrat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's kind of funny that people are assuming a white kid is going to grow up more enlightened if they're in the minority at school. The most racist white person I know is someone who attended junior high and high school where white kids were in the minority and often got targeted/jumped by the other kids due to their race.

Put differently, there are a lot of POC in this thread painfully recounting the racism they endured as "one of the only" in school. If you think your kid would be spared that because they're white, then you actually *might* be racist, because you apparently believe that there's a profound difference in human nature between white kids and POC kids.

This is true. One white kid in my neighborhood told me that attending DCPS K-12 turned him into a hard core republican.
He just graduated from college and is still a republican even though his family is hard core democrat

The notion that going to school with black kids made this kid support the party of domestic terrorism is silly. I expect this traces back to some personal mental problem.

Lots of Black and Latinx kids are in tiny minorities in their schools and they don’t come out as terrorists. I highly doubt that DCPS turned this kid into a terrorist sympathizer (i.e. hard core Republican).

I do think that going through DCPS can make one skeptical of government (like I am) and fiscally conservative (like I am) but that has nothing to do with being a Republican these days.

[Anonymous]

Regarding whether going to school as a white minority in DC public schools leads to anti-racism and tolerance in white students:

Part of the issue here is that MC and affluent black families in DC don't send their kid to mediocre or failing IB schools. Why would they? They know their kids will already be contending with racism their entire lives, so they use the lottery, move, or go to private schools in order to maximize their kids' educational opportunities.

But the upshot is that the black population in DCPS is heavily skewed towards poor and at risk students. This results in two things for white kids in DCPS:

1) They get little interaction with MC or UMC black kids at school, even though there are plenty of MC and UMC black kids in DC and in the DMV, and

2) Their experience as a minority group is is one of a privileged minority group. White kids in DCPS are generally in the highest SES group in school, even if they are MC. A white kid from a family with an HHI of 120k and zero family wealth or support will still be among the wealthiest kids in school in most DCPS schools.

The narrowness of this experience IS concerning for parents of white children who want to raise kids who are tolerant, open-minded, and who understand their own privilege. You do worry about what conclusions your children are drawing about race in this setting.

[Anonymous]

Give us a break. DC parents don't need to send their child to chaotic public schools with unchallenging academics to expose the next generation to the problems faced by low SES POC living in big US cities. There are countless ways to do your bit to alleviate hardship for the poor locally, and to fight racism. This is a no brainer. Your kids can volunteer for non-profits or faith centers in your area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honors, shmonors…I refuse to jump on the band wagon for honors tracking until Banneker becomes more diverse. Until then, this constant claim is a red herring for true intent of further segregation.

A lot of Banneker families don't want it to get more diverse, though. Part of the appeal of Banneker for many black families is that it offers strong academics but is unabashedly focused on attracting black families. I know black families who think of it as akin to an HBCU. It's fine if white or Asian kids go there, but they are proud that it is a predominantly black school. I don't think they share your frustration that its is not diverse enough.

Look, I don't believe in the concept of "reverse racism." If you are not an historically oppressed group, you can't experience racism. White people cannot experience racism in the US. But if we are talking not about racism but self-segregation, it's worth discussing the fact that it goes both ways. A lot of the self-segregation in DC is initiated by black families. Often for good reasons! But this means that white families who go with the status quo and participate in this segregation aren't doing enough to diversify, but also white families that move to black neighborhoods or attend black schools are gentrifying interlopers. So..... this is why a lot of white families dream of a more diverse education option because they feel trapped between two options in which they are the problem and they want a third option in which they can at least feel like part of a solution.

Whatever makes you sleep well at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. DC parents don't need to send their child to chaotic public schools with unchallenging academics to expose the next generation to the problems faced by low SES POC living in big US cities. There are countless ways to do your bit to alleviate hardship for the poor locally, and to fight racism. This is a no brainer. Your kids can volunteer for non-profits or faith centers in your area.

This. We are big supporters of SOME and my 8 year old has participated in their fundraising events since he was in a stroller. He has helped me deliver food boxes to families, taken donations to the center, among other things. When he is old enough and allowed to help out in a soup kitchen preparing and serving food to the needy, he will.

We also don’t really care that he doesn’t go to a school that matches the city’s demographics or are majority black. His school is diverse enough with whites, blacks, latinos, etc…. What we care about is that overwhelming majority kids are at/or above grade level. If fact, even if the school was significantly whiter, that’s fine with us. We have a diverse group of friends whose kids he is friends with.

No parent is going to voluntarily put their kid in a poorly performing, majority black school for “diversity” at the expense of academics and a conducive learning environment if they have options, except for a few outliers social justice type.

[Anonymous]

Good post above, exactly. Just common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there are a lot of threads on middle school eotp where a segment of posters say nothing less than a fully segregated honors track school within a school set-up would be sufficient for them to opt into their neighborhood middle school and its like oh these posters may claim its just academics but really its in some part at bottom about socially segregating larlo from the very poor kids in the neighborhood.

I went to school in a school that was so white I can still name the 3 non-white kids in our graduating class of 400. And it wasn’t any more diverse socio-economically — everyone was UMC, in the 80s meaning of the term and not the DCUM version that actually means “sort of rich.” Almost everyone went on to college, but we all went to state schools. Even with that homogeneous population, we had tracking. The district proposed doing away with tracking at one point when I was in 11th or 12th grade, and the kids in the advanced classes all freaked out because we knew what it was like in earlier grades in non-tracked classes and didn’t want to go back to being bored all day.

Yes, tracking can get complicated because it intersects with issues of race and class. But there are good reasons for tracking that have nothing to do with race or class. The DCUM cohort tends to be made up of people who were once advanced students bored in non-tracked classes. Many of us now have children facing the same issue. There’s more to it than just “socially segregating.”