Sidwell Paid a family $50K and agree to change grades??????????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neither does any other "opinion" on this entire thread. What might be an indication is that they lost twice in court.

Oh yes, because our legal system is infallible!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are PPs saying that she only applied to reach schools? She should have gotten into Spelman. Secondly, the mistakes in calculating her math grades are a big effing deal.

Nigerian-Americans are still URMs. Sidwell knows this. A look at Harvard’s C/O 2023 confirms this. I think this case is a net positive for current and future students, as the school will probably do a better job of accurately reporting grades now. It makes me wonder if there are FA families who have had similar experiences with little, if any, recourse.

I dont think she applied to Spelman on time. So that changes the analysis a good bit. And the point was she may have been viewed as Nigerian rather than Nigerian-American (i.e., as a non-citizen, a category that does not receive the URM boost).

She’s a US citizen. What do we call US born kids with Irish parents? American. She was URM, not an international candidate. First and second generation kids of African parents appear are a norm at HYP and you can best believe that the schools are counting them as AA.

I don't think they're counted as AA necessarily. But they're counted as black, and black kids are underrepresented minorities at these schools irrespective of their background.

For example, I'm black with West Indian roots, 1st-gen American. My kid is black, with one African parent. Still counts as an underrepresented minority--and despite being well-educated, our kid has already had discriminatory comments made to her at her private about the color of her skin. We know other similarly well-educated 1st-gen black families who've had similar incidents at their privates, even changing schools because of it in some cases.

AA and Black are the same category in this case. I say this as an AA/Black with at least a dozen generations in this country. There’s a separate thread about how many of the Black students in the incoming class of Harvard are first or second generation Americans. I served on a scholarship panel for the Greater Washington Urban League last year and noticed a similar trend as well.

PP here and agree with your observations. Generally speaking, first-gen black people in America haven’t experienced the same set of obstacles as black Americans that have been here for several generations. It even starts before birth—for example, I read in an article that Africans are at lower risk for low birthweight and preterm birth than AAs. There are definitely some commonalities and shared experiences between the groups, but also some differences.

PP again, with one other thought—I grew up entirely around AAs; my parents were the only immigrants around. I later attended an HBCU for undergrad. If you see me on the street—and many other 1st-gen kids like me--I’m indistinguishable from AAs whose ancestors arrived here under different circumstances. I have no accent, unlike my parents, and my name is not clearly “foreign.” First-gen black Americans can still be subject to implicit (and explicit) bias just based on appearance. So I would not rule out that this girl may have experienced some sort of subtle discrimination that perhaps would not have happened had her family been white.

Is Sidwell racist? Does Sidwell have a history of keeping qualified AA students back from the higher math tracks? Before we start shouting racism we need to ask these kinds of questions.

Plenty of white kids are held back from top tracks at schools all across the country. That's clearly not racism. Plenty of pushy, ambitious white parents have been a pain in the neck to school administration across the country. That's not racism, is it? Plenty of teachers have written mediocre college recs for white students they didn't like because, well, that's what recs are for. You're expected to be honest in the college recs.

I see no evidence whatsoever that what may have happened at Sidwell was motivated by racism or any anti-Nigerian, anti-immigration attitudes. I see every evidence that a clash of personalities and a pushy, aggressive family ruined relationships and possibly made it difficult to fairly evaluate the girls' academic progress, but the end result is much more the family's own fault than the school's.

Your opinions are not necessarily the facts. And they do not prove or disprove racism.

I get it. You want it to be all about racism, despite that logic says it clearly wasn't. Proof: many AA students have graduated from Sidwell and gone on to great colleges. But let's ignore all that too and all the circumstantial evidence that the family's case has no merit and the court rulings ordering the family to pay legal costs to Sidwell..... let's ignore all that. Because you want to believe everything is about racism and that every single thing a AA did or did not do is somehow due to racism. I get it. You really don't care about Sidwell or the family in question. You just want to have something to be angry about so you're looking for racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you translate this for the non-legal people? Did the Supreme Court rule against Sidwell?

Didn't rule against them, but in the complaint it says that Sidwell agreed to pay the family $50,000 and change grades as part of an earlier settlement. I didn't realize grades were for sale or could be part of a settlement. Seems extremely dishonest and unfair to other hardworking children without litigious parents.

Routine at most privates.

Not really. Sidwell did shell out $50K as a nuisance payment to settle (which companies do all the time with employment lawsuits), and corrected an apparent mistake in grading, but it's dishonest of you to suggest that any kind of causal relationship existed between those two things.

Companies also do all the time (paying penalties) without admitting wrongdoing but also not contesting their innocence. Why shouldn't SFS case be of this kind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are PPs saying that she only applied to reach schools? She should have gotten into Spelman. Secondly, the mistakes in calculating her math grades are a big effing deal.

Nigerian-Americans are still URMs. Sidwell knows this. A look at Harvard’s C/O 2023 confirms this. I think this case is a net positive for current and future students, as the school will probably do a better job of accurately reporting grades now. It makes me wonder if there are FA families who have had similar experiences with little, if any, recourse.

I dont think she applied to Spelman on time. So that changes the analysis a good bit. And the point was she may have been viewed as Nigerian rather than Nigerian-American (i.e., as a non-citizen, a category that does not receive the URM boost).

She’s a US citizen. What do we call US born kids with Irish parents? American. She was URM, not an international candidate. First and second generation kids of African parents appear are a norm at HYP and you can best believe that the schools are counting them as AA.

I don't think they're counted as AA necessarily. But they're counted as black, and black kids are underrepresented minorities at these schools irrespective of their background.

For example, I'm black with West Indian roots, 1st-gen American. My kid is black, with one African parent. Still counts as an underrepresented minority--and despite being well-educated, our kid has already had discriminatory comments made to her at her private about the color of her skin. We know other similarly well-educated 1st-gen black families who've had similar incidents at their privates, even changing schools because of it in some cases.

AA and Black are the same category in this case. I say this as an AA/Black with at least a dozen generations in this country. There’s a separate thread about how many of the Black students in the incoming class of Harvard are first or second generation Americans. I served on a scholarship panel for the Greater Washington Urban League last year and noticed a similar trend as well.

PP here and agree with your observations. Generally speaking, first-gen black people in America haven’t experienced the same set of obstacles as black Americans that have been here for several generations. It even starts before birth—for example, I read in an article that Africans are at lower risk for low birthweight and preterm birth than AAs. There are definitely some commonalities and shared experiences between the groups, but also some differences.

PP again, with one other thought—I grew up entirely around AAs; my parents were the only immigrants around. I later attended an HBCU for undergrad. If you see me on the street—and many other 1st-gen kids like me--I’m indistinguishable from AAs whose ancestors arrived here under different circumstances. I have no accent, unlike my parents, and my name is not clearly “foreign.” First-gen black Americans can still be subject to implicit (and explicit) bias just based on appearance. So I would not rule out that this girl may have experienced some sort of subtle discrimination that perhaps would not have happened had her family been white.

Is Sidwell racist? Does Sidwell have a history of keeping qualified AA students back from the higher math tracks? Before we start shouting racism we need to ask these kinds of questions.

Plenty of white kids are held back from top tracks at schools all across the country. That's clearly not racism. Plenty of pushy, ambitious white parents have been a pain in the neck to school administration across the country. That's not racism, is it? Plenty of teachers have written mediocre college recs for white students they didn't like because, well, that's what recs are for. You're expected to be honest in the college recs.

I see no evidence whatsoever that what may have happened at Sidwell was motivated by racism or any anti-Nigerian, anti-immigration attitudes. I see every evidence that a clash of personalities and a pushy, aggressive family ruined relationships and possibly made it difficult to fairly evaluate the girls' academic progress, but the end result is much more the family's own fault than the school's.

Your opinions are not necessarily the facts. And they do not prove or disprove racism.

I get it. You want it to be all about racism, despite that logic says it clearly wasn't. Proof: many AA students have graduated from Sidwell and gone on to great colleges. But let's ignore all that too and all the circumstantial evidence that the family's case has no merit and the court rulings ordering the family to pay legal costs to Sidwell..... let's ignore all that. Because you want to believe everything is about racism and that every single thing a AA did or did not do is somehow due to racism. I get it. You really don't care about Sidwell or the family in question. You just want to have something to be angry about so you're looking for racism.

Are you this arrogant and patronizing in real life? Or do you just save it for anonymous conversations?

You have no idea what I believe. But you’ve jumped to a lot of conclusions based on the very limited knowledge you have both about this case, and about what I’ve posted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are PPs saying that she only applied to reach schools? She should have gotten into Spelman. Secondly, the mistakes in calculating her math grades are a big effing deal.

Nigerian-Americans are still URMs. Sidwell knows this. A look at Harvard’s C/O 2023 confirms this. I think this case is a net positive for current and future students, as the school will probably do a better job of accurately reporting grades now. It makes me wonder if there are FA families who have had similar experiences with little, if any, recourse.

I dont think she applied to Spelman on time. So that changes the analysis a good bit. And the point was she may have been viewed as Nigerian rather than Nigerian-American (i.e., as a non-citizen, a category that does not receive the URM boost).

She’s a US citizen. What do we call US born kids with Irish parents? American. She was URM, not an international candidate. First and second generation kids of African parents appear are a norm at HYP and you can best believe that the schools are counting them as AA.

I don't think they're counted as AA necessarily. But they're counted as black, and black kids are underrepresented minorities at these schools irrespective of their background.

For example, I'm black with West Indian roots, 1st-gen American. My kid is black, with one African parent. Still counts as an underrepresented minority--and despite being well-educated, our kid has already had discriminatory comments made to her at her private about the color of her skin. We know other similarly well-educated 1st-gen black families who've had similar incidents at their privates, even changing schools because of it in some cases.

AA and Black are the same category in this case. I say this as an AA/Black with at least a dozen generations in this country. There’s a separate thread about how many of the Black students in the incoming class of Harvard are first or second generation Americans. I served on a scholarship panel for the Greater Washington Urban League last year and noticed a similar trend as well.

PP here and agree with your observations. Generally speaking, first-gen black people in America haven’t experienced the same set of obstacles as black Americans that have been here for several generations. It even starts before birth—for example, I read in an article that Africans are at lower risk for low birthweight and preterm birth than AAs. There are definitely some commonalities and shared experiences between the groups, but also some differences.

PP again, with one other thought—I grew up entirely around AAs; my parents were the only immigrants around. I later attended an HBCU for undergrad. If you see me on the street—and many other 1st-gen kids like me--I’m indistinguishable from AAs whose ancestors arrived here under different circumstances. I have no accent, unlike my parents, and my name is not clearly “foreign.” First-gen black Americans can still be subject to implicit (and explicit) bias just based on appearance. So I would not rule out that this girl may have experienced some sort of subtle discrimination that perhaps would not have happened had her family been white.

Is Sidwell racist? Does Sidwell have a history of keeping qualified AA students back from the higher math tracks? Before we start shouting racism we need to ask these kinds of questions.

Plenty of white kids are held back from top tracks at schools all across the country. That's clearly not racism. Plenty of pushy, ambitious white parents have been a pain in the neck to school administration across the country. That's not racism, is it? Plenty of teachers have written mediocre college recs for white students they didn't like because, well, that's what recs are for. You're expected to be honest in the college recs.

I see no evidence whatsoever that what may have happened at Sidwell was motivated by racism or any anti-Nigerian, anti-immigration attitudes. I see every evidence that a clash of personalities and a pushy, aggressive family ruined relationships and possibly made it difficult to fairly evaluate the girls' academic progress, but the end result is much more the family's own fault than the school's.

Your opinions are not necessarily the facts. And they do not prove or disprove racism.

I get it. You want it to be all about racism, despite that logic says it clearly wasn't. Proof: many AA students have graduated from Sidwell and gone on to great colleges. But let's ignore all that too and all the circumstantial evidence that the family's case has no merit and the court rulings ordering the family to pay legal costs to Sidwell..... let's ignore all that. Because you want to believe everything is about racism and that every single thing a AA did or did not do is somehow due to racism. I get it. You really don't care about Sidwell or the family in question. You just want to have something to be angry about so you're looking for racism.

Um, this fact is not proof that racism doesn't exist at Sidwell, or any other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are PPs saying that she only applied to reach schools? She should have gotten into Spelman. Secondly, the mistakes in calculating her math grades are a big effing deal.

Nigerian-Americans are still URMs. Sidwell knows this. A look at Harvard’s C/O 2023 confirms this. I think this case is a net positive for current and future students, as the school will probably do a better job of accurately reporting grades now. It makes me wonder if there are FA families who have had similar experiences with little, if any, recourse.

I dont think she applied to Spelman on time. So that changes the analysis a good bit. And the point was she may have been viewed as Nigerian rather than Nigerian-American (i.e., as a non-citizen, a category that does not receive the URM boost).

She’s a US citizen. What do we call US born kids with Irish parents? American. She was URM, not an international candidate. First and second generation kids of African parents appear are a norm at HYP and you can best believe that the schools are counting them as AA.

I don't think they're counted as AA necessarily. But they're counted as black, and black kids are underrepresented minorities at these schools irrespective of their background.

For example, I'm black with West Indian roots, 1st-gen American. My kid is black, with one African parent. Still counts as an underrepresented minority--and despite being well-educated, our kid has already had discriminatory comments made to her at her private about the color of her skin. We know other similarly well-educated 1st-gen black families who've had similar incidents at their privates, even changing schools because of it in some cases.

AA and Black are the same category in this case. I say this as an AA/Black with at least a dozen generations in this country. There’s a separate thread about how many of the Black students in the incoming class of Harvard are first or second generation Americans. I served on a scholarship panel for the Greater Washington Urban League last year and noticed a similar trend as well.

PP here and agree with your observations. Generally speaking, first-gen black people in America haven’t experienced the same set of obstacles as black Americans that have been here for several generations. It even starts before birth—for example, I read in an article that Africans are at lower risk for low birthweight and preterm birth than AAs. There are definitely some commonalities and shared experiences between the groups, but also some differences.

PP again, with one other thought—I grew up entirely around AAs; my parents were the only immigrants around. I later attended an HBCU for undergrad. If you see me on the street—and many other 1st-gen kids like me--I’m indistinguishable from AAs whose ancestors arrived here under different circumstances. I have no accent, unlike my parents, and my name is not clearly “foreign.” First-gen black Americans can still be subject to implicit (and explicit) bias just based on appearance. So I would not rule out that this girl may have experienced some sort of subtle discrimination that perhaps would not have happened had her family been white.

Is Sidwell racist? Does Sidwell have a history of keeping qualified AA students back from the higher math tracks? Before we start shouting racism we need to ask these kinds of questions.

Plenty of white kids are held back from top tracks at schools all across the country. That's clearly not racism. Plenty of pushy, ambitious white parents have been a pain in the neck to school administration across the country. That's not racism, is it? Plenty of teachers have written mediocre college recs for white students they didn't like because, well, that's what recs are for. You're expected to be honest in the college recs.

I see no evidence whatsoever that what may have happened at Sidwell was motivated by racism or any anti-Nigerian, anti-immigration attitudes. I see every evidence that a clash of personalities and a pushy, aggressive family ruined relationships and possibly made it difficult to fairly evaluate the girls' academic progress, but the end result is much more the family's own fault than the school's.

Your opinions are not necessarily the facts. And they do not prove or disprove racism.

I get it. You want it to be all about racism, despite that logic says it clearly wasn't. Proof: many AA students have graduated from Sidwell and gone on to great colleges. But let's ignore all that too and all the circumstantial evidence that the family's case has no merit and the court rulings ordering the family to pay legal costs to Sidwell..... let's ignore all that. Because you want to believe everything is about racism and that every single thing a AA did or did not do is somehow due to racism. I get it. You really don't care about Sidwell or the family in question. You just want to have something to be angry about so you're looking for racism.

Um, this fact is not proof that racism doesn't exist at Sidwell, or any other schools.

There is no way racism doesn’t occur at Sidwell just like it occurs everyday throughout America. I am not talking KKK or white supremacist racism. I am talking about the racism that occurs due to prejudice and bias that white people often aren’t conscious of or speak about in code.

I have no idea what transpired in this case but anyone who thinks racism doesn’t go on at their private (or public) school needs to educate themselves on what racism really is. You can be racist and not have conscious hatred in your heart or mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you translate this for the non-legal people? Did the Supreme Court rule against Sidwell?

Didn't rule against them, but in the complaint it says that Sidwell agreed to pay the family $50,000 and change grades as part of an earlier settlement. I didn't realize grades were for sale or could be part of a settlement. Seems extremely dishonest and unfair to other hardworking children without litigious parents.

Routine at most privates.

Not really. Sidwell did shell out $50K as a nuisance payment to settle (which companies do all the time with employment lawsuits), and corrected an apparent mistake in grading, but it's dishonest of you to suggest that any kind of causal relationship existed between those two things.

Companies also do all the time (paying penalties) without admitting wrongdoing but also not contesting their innocence. Why shouldn't SFS case be of this kind?

Absolutely. Also, the parents were required to pay the school's attorney's fees, which is the most telling factor. That tells me the court thought the action was frivolous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are PPs saying that she only applied to reach schools? She should have gotten into Spelman. Secondly, the mistakes in calculating her math grades are a big effing deal.

Nigerian-Americans are still URMs. Sidwell knows this. A look at Harvard’s C/O 2023 confirms this. I think this case is a net positive for current and future students, as the school will probably do a better job of accurately reporting grades now. It makes me wonder if there are FA families who have had similar experiences with little, if any, recourse.

I dont think she applied to Spelman on time. So that changes the analysis a good bit. And the point was she may have been viewed as Nigerian rather than Nigerian-American (i.e., as a non-citizen, a category that does not receive the URM boost).

She’s a US citizen. What do we call US born kids with Irish parents? American. She was URM, not an international candidate. First and second generation kids of African parents appear are a norm at HYP and you can best believe that the schools are counting them as AA.

I don't think they're counted as AA necessarily. But they're counted as black, and black kids are underrepresented minorities at these schools irrespective of their background.

For example, I'm black with West Indian roots, 1st-gen American. My kid is black, with one African parent. Still counts as an underrepresented minority--and despite being well-educated, our kid has already had discriminatory comments made to her at her private about the color of her skin. We know other similarly well-educated 1st-gen black families who've had similar incidents at their privates, even changing schools because of it in some cases.

AA and Black are the same category in this case. I say this as an AA/Black with at least a dozen generations in this country. There’s a separate thread about how many of the Black students in the incoming class of Harvard are first or second generation Americans. I served on a scholarship panel for the Greater Washington Urban League last year and noticed a similar trend as well.

PP here and agree with your observations. Generally speaking, first-gen black people in America haven’t experienced the same set of obstacles as black Americans that have been here for several generations. It even starts before birth—for example, I read in an article that Africans are at lower risk for low birthweight and preterm birth than AAs. There are definitely some commonalities and shared experiences between the groups, but also some differences.

PP again, with one other thought—I grew up entirely around AAs; my parents were the only immigrants around. I later attended an HBCU for undergrad. If you see me on the street—and many other 1st-gen kids like me--I’m indistinguishable from AAs whose ancestors arrived here under different circumstances. I have no accent, unlike my parents, and my name is not clearly “foreign.” First-gen black Americans can still be subject to implicit (and explicit) bias just based on appearance. So I would not rule out that this girl may have experienced some sort of subtle discrimination that perhaps would not have happened had her family been white.

Is Sidwell racist? Does Sidwell have a history of keeping qualified AA students back from the higher math tracks? Before we start shouting racism we need to ask these kinds of questions.

Plenty of white kids are held back from top tracks at schools all across the country. That's clearly not racism. Plenty of pushy, ambitious white parents have been a pain in the neck to school administration across the country. That's not racism, is it? Plenty of teachers have written mediocre college recs for white students they didn't like because, well, that's what recs are for. You're expected to be honest in the college recs.

I see no evidence whatsoever that what may have happened at Sidwell was motivated by racism or any anti-Nigerian, anti-immigration attitudes. I see every evidence that a clash of personalities and a pushy, aggressive family ruined relationships and possibly made it difficult to fairly evaluate the girls' academic progress, but the end result is much more the family's own fault than the school's.

Your opinions are not necessarily the facts. And they do not prove or disprove racism.

I get it. You want it to be all about racism, despite that logic says it clearly wasn't. Proof: many AA students have graduated from Sidwell and gone on to great colleges. But let's ignore all that too and all the circumstantial evidence that the family's case has no merit and the court rulings ordering the family to pay legal costs to Sidwell..... let's ignore all that. Because you want to believe everything is about racism and that every single thing a AA did or did not do is somehow due to racism. I get it. You really don't care about Sidwell or the family in question. You just want to have something to be angry about so you're looking for racism.

That's the country we have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you translate this for the non-legal people? Did the Supreme Court rule against Sidwell?

Didn't rule against them, but in the complaint it says that Sidwell agreed to pay the family $50,000 and change grades as part of an earlier settlement. I didn't realize grades were for sale or could be part of a settlement. Seems extremely dishonest and unfair to other hardworking children without litigious parents.

Routine at most privates.

Not really. Sidwell did shell out $50K as a nuisance payment to settle (which companies do all the time with employment lawsuits), and corrected an apparent mistake in grading, but it's dishonest of you to suggest that any kind of causal relationship existed between those two things.

Companies also do all the time (paying penalties) without admitting wrongdoing but also not contesting their innocence. Why shouldn't SFS case be of this kind?

Absolutely. Also, the parents were required to pay the school's attorney's fees, which is the most telling factor. That tells me the court thought the action was frivolous.

Two different proceedings. You can construct an argument based on these results that SFS discriminated against her (the mediation) but did not violate the settlement agreement (the court case). The results in one do not translate to the other.

[Anonymous]

OMG, let this thread end. Sick and tired of this topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are PPs saying that she only applied to reach schools? She should have gotten into Spelman. Secondly, the mistakes in calculating her math grades are a big effing deal.

Nigerian-Americans are still URMs. Sidwell knows this. A look at Harvard’s C/O 2023 confirms this. I think this case is a net positive for current and future students, as the school will probably do a better job of accurately reporting grades now. It makes me wonder if there are FA families who have had similar experiences with little, if any, recourse.

I dont think she applied to Spelman on time. So that changes the analysis a good bit. And the point was she may have been viewed as Nigerian rather than Nigerian-American (i.e., as a non-citizen, a category that does not receive the URM boost).

She’s a US citizen. What do we call US born kids with Irish parents? American. She was URM, not an international candidate. First and second generation kids of African parents appear are a norm at HYP and you can best believe that the schools are counting them as AA.

I don't think they're counted as AA necessarily. But they're counted as black, and black kids are underrepresented minorities at these schools irrespective of their background.

For example, I'm black with West Indian roots, 1st-gen American. My kid is black, with one African parent. Still counts as an underrepresented minority--and despite being well-educated, our kid has already had discriminatory comments made to her at her private about the color of her skin. We know other similarly well-educated 1st-gen black families who've had similar incidents at their privates, even changing schools because of it in some cases.

AA and Black are the same category in this case. I say this as an AA/Black with at least a dozen generations in this country. There’s a separate thread about how many of the Black students in the incoming class of Harvard are first or second generation Americans. I served on a scholarship panel for the Greater Washington Urban League last year and noticed a similar trend as well.

PP here and agree with your observations. Generally speaking, first-gen black people in America haven’t experienced the same set of obstacles as black Americans that have been here for several generations. It even starts before birth—for example, I read in an article that Africans are at lower risk for low birthweight and preterm birth than AAs. There are definitely some commonalities and shared experiences between the groups, but also some differences.

PP again, with one other thought—I grew up entirely around AAs; my parents were the only immigrants around. I later attended an HBCU for undergrad. If you see me on the street—and many other 1st-gen kids like me--I’m indistinguishable from AAs whose ancestors arrived here under different circumstances. I have no accent, unlike my parents, and my name is not clearly “foreign.” First-gen black Americans can still be subject to implicit (and explicit) bias just based on appearance. So I would not rule out that this girl may have experienced some sort of subtle discrimination that perhaps would not have happened had her family been white.

Is Sidwell racist? Does Sidwell have a history of keeping qualified AA students back from the higher math tracks? Before we start shouting racism we need to ask these kinds of questions.

Plenty of white kids are held back from top tracks at schools all across the country. That's clearly not racism. Plenty of pushy, ambitious white parents have been a pain in the neck to school administration across the country. That's not racism, is it? Plenty of teachers have written mediocre college recs for white students they didn't like because, well, that's what recs are for. You're expected to be honest in the college recs.

I see no evidence whatsoever that what may have happened at Sidwell was motivated by racism or any anti-Nigerian, anti-immigration attitudes. I see every evidence that a clash of personalities and a pushy, aggressive family ruined relationships and possibly made it difficult to fairly evaluate the girls' academic progress, but the end result is much more the family's own fault than the school's.

Your opinions are not necessarily the facts. And they do not prove or disprove racism.

I get it. You want it to be all about racism, despite that logic says it clearly wasn't. Proof: many AA students have graduated from Sidwell and gone on to great colleges. But let's ignore all that too and all the circumstantial evidence that the family's case has no merit and the court rulings ordering the family to pay legal costs to Sidwell..... let's ignore all that. Because you want to believe everything is about racism and that every single thing a AA did or did not do is somehow due to racism. I get it. You really don't care about Sidwell or the family in question. You just want to have something to be angry about so you're looking for racism.

Um, this fact is not proof that racism doesn't exist at Sidwell, or any other schools.

There is no way racism doesn’t occur at Sidwell just like it occurs everyday throughout America. I am not talking KKK or white supremacist racism. I am talking about the racism that occurs due to prejudice and bias that white people often aren’t conscious of or speak about in code.

I have no idea what transpired in this case but anyone who thinks racism doesn’t go on at their private (or public) school needs to educate themselves on what racism really is. You can be racist and not have conscious hatred in your heart or mind.

What you say is pure speculation. Not based on factual evidence or proof, but a willingness to believe that something must be happening because you want it to be happening. We have no evidence there is meaningful racism at Sidwell any more than we have meaningful sexism or bigotry or political discrimination or the whole host of factors people discriminate against each other. The charges that this particular family's situation is due to racism is pretty weak in the absence of any evidence that the school's reaction to the girls and their parents was racially motivated rather than other factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are PPs saying that she only applied to reach schools? She should have gotten into Spelman. Secondly, the mistakes in calculating her math grades are a big effing deal.

Nigerian-Americans are still URMs. Sidwell knows this. A look at Harvard’s C/O 2023 confirms this. I think this case is a net positive for current and future students, as the school will probably do a better job of accurately reporting grades now. It makes me wonder if there are FA families who have had similar experiences with little, if any, recourse.

I dont think she applied to Spelman on time. So that changes the analysis a good bit. And the point was she may have been viewed as Nigerian rather than Nigerian-American (i.e., as a non-citizen, a category that does not receive the URM boost).

She’s a US citizen. What do we call US born kids with Irish parents? American. She was URM, not an international candidate. First and second generation kids of African parents appear are a norm at HYP and you can best believe that the schools are counting them as AA.

I don't think they're counted as AA necessarily. But they're counted as black, and black kids are underrepresented minorities at these schools irrespective of their background.

For example, I'm black with West Indian roots, 1st-gen American. My kid is black, with one African parent. Still counts as an underrepresented minority--and despite being well-educated, our kid has already had discriminatory comments made to her at her private about the color of her skin. We know other similarly well-educated 1st-gen black families who've had similar incidents at their privates, even changing schools because of it in some cases.

AA and Black are the same category in this case. I say this as an AA/Black with at least a dozen generations in this country. There’s a separate thread about how many of the Black students in the incoming class of Harvard are first or second generation Americans. I served on a scholarship panel for the Greater Washington Urban League last year and noticed a similar trend as well.

PP here and agree with your observations. Generally speaking, first-gen black people in America haven’t experienced the same set of obstacles as black Americans that have been here for several generations. It even starts before birth—for example, I read in an article that Africans are at lower risk for low birthweight and preterm birth than AAs. There are definitely some commonalities and shared experiences between the groups, but also some differences.

PP again, with one other thought—I grew up entirely around AAs; my parents were the only immigrants around. I later attended an HBCU for undergrad. If you see me on the street—and many other 1st-gen kids like me--I’m indistinguishable from AAs whose ancestors arrived here under different circumstances. I have no accent, unlike my parents, and my name is not clearly “foreign.” First-gen black Americans can still be subject to implicit (and explicit) bias just based on appearance. So I would not rule out that this girl may have experienced some sort of subtle discrimination that perhaps would not have happened had her family been white.

Is Sidwell racist? Does Sidwell have a history of keeping qualified AA students back from the higher math tracks? Before we start shouting racism we need to ask these kinds of questions.

Plenty of white kids are held back from top tracks at schools all across the country. That's clearly not racism. Plenty of pushy, ambitious white parents have been a pain in the neck to school administration across the country. That's not racism, is it? Plenty of teachers have written mediocre college recs for white students they didn't like because, well, that's what recs are for. You're expected to be honest in the college recs.

I see no evidence whatsoever that what may have happened at Sidwell was motivated by racism or any anti-Nigerian, anti-immigration attitudes. I see every evidence that a clash of personalities and a pushy, aggressive family ruined relationships and possibly made it difficult to fairly evaluate the girls' academic progress, but the end result is much more the family's own fault than the school's.

Your opinions are not necessarily the facts. And they do not prove or disprove racism.

I get it. You want it to be all about racism, despite that logic says it clearly wasn't. Proof: many AA students have graduated from Sidwell and gone on to great colleges. But let's ignore all that too and all the circumstantial evidence that the family's case has no merit and the court rulings ordering the family to pay legal costs to Sidwell..... let's ignore all that. Because you want to believe everything is about racism and that every single thing a AA did or did not do is somehow due to racism. I get it. You really don't care about Sidwell or the family in question. You just want to have something to be angry about so you're looking for racism.

Are you this arrogant and patronizing in real life? Or do you just save it for anonymous conversations?

You have no idea what I believe. But you’ve jumped to a lot of conclusions based on the very limited knowledge you have both about this case, and about what I’ve posted.

What we do know is that the family comes off as just plain scammers who blame others for their fairly petty disappointments. I mean, having to settle for Penn instead of Yale. Seems like compelling federal civil rights case to me!

[Anonymous]

bump

devilish grin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:bump

devilish grin

Evil

[Anonymous]

What we do know is that the family comes off as just plain scammers who blame others for their fairly petty disappointments. I mean, having to settle for Penn instead of Yale. Seems like compelling federal civil rights case to me!

I suspect you're relying too heavily on stupid stereotypes (Nigerian prince scam, etc.) instead of any knowledge of the facts in this case. We're all in the dark about the case, except for the few facts that are public. It's certainly possible the family's suit is flimsy, but it's also possible the Sidwell was a bad actor.