A Response to Rita Montoya calling Community Members Racist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The entire premise of her op-ed is ridiculous. With the exception of Cold Spring, the entire existing Asian community at Wootton will move right over to the new building. She loses nothing.

She is fighting so hard against adding other students to the school, and giving them the same sort of opportunity she was given at WHS. Adding more diversity is a good thing. But I guess they are the wrong kind of immigrant.

This^^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The entire premise of her op-ed is ridiculous. With the exception of Cold Spring, the entire existing Asian community at Wootton will move right over to the new building. She loses nothing.

She is fighting so hard against adding other students to the school, and giving them the same sort of opportunity she was given at WHS. Adding more diversity is a good thing. But I guess they are the wrong kind of immigrant.

Exactly! And can we please stop platforming Jason. He’s mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just call it out that asians are not considered a minority to the liberal school system and they want to bus in equity

They are not a minority at Wootton because they are literally the majority in that environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The entire premise of her op-ed is ridiculous. With the exception of Cold Spring, the entire existing Asian community at Wootton will move right over to the new building. She loses nothing.

She is fighting so hard against adding other students to the school, and giving them the same sort of opportunity she was given at WHS. Adding more diversity is a good thing. But I guess they are the wrong kind of immigrant.

Exactly! And can we please stop platforming Jason. He’s mediocre.

Mediocre MoCo. Accurate AF.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is a blatant misrepresentation of what occurred and the author of this piece knows it. If you were watching that meeting, Mrs. Montoya spoke at great length about the current magnet system upholding systemic racism and frankly, seemed entirely disinterested in the boundary portion of the vote itself. When it came time for the vote, it was abundantly clear that Montoya was referencing the vote to uphold the current standard which historically has had minimal levels of participation from students who are not Asian or White. Please stop bullshitting and making this into something it is not, Ms. Sukhobok.

Thanks for weighing in Rita, but your hot mic comment stands for itself - that was a really honest moment for you.

I’m not Rita but you’re right that is WAS an honest moment for her, it just wasn’t about what you claim it to have been about. It was saying that your racism is showing when you vote to uphold a system that has historically not served black and brown students.

The DCC and NEC, which they abolished with that vote, serve majority Black and Brown students.

Brown person here: you know we exist in places other than Silver Spring, right? You might want to sit down for this but I live in Potomac…can you believe it?

What does that have to do with the BOE's vote to dissolve the NEC and DCC?

Let’s follow along here: my brown ass children cannot access the NEC and DCC programs from my Churchill cluster home. They dissolved these while they build the new model that all students will be able to access. Why don’t you want your kids or mine to have good programs here? What in the actual world is wrong with you?

GMAFB. The notion that somehow DCC and NEC students have access to more than Churchill students is absurd.

DCC schools don't offer the breadth of coursework that schools like Churchill do. For example, just like Whitman and BCC, Churchill has its very own engineering program. No need for kids to travel to it. Neither Einstein, Northwood, Kennedy or Blair have an engineering program. With the DCC, kids could access the program at Wheaton, which also happens to be geographically close to the other schools. They also got bus transportation from their neighborhoods. Now, DCC kids will have to travel on their own to BCC for engineering, assuming they get selected in the lottery for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has associated with actual racists, some of the most intense racism I have even witnessed was from middle aged to older Asians. They truly HATE black and brown people. Not sure if it stems from historic issues with American GIs in Korea, Japan, SE Asia or if its more of a "doing immigration the wrong way" type deal. It's quite fascinating to observe.

Yup. I am from Canada and asked an Asian friend about this and they admitted it - Asians hate Blacks.

[Anonymous]

As a recent white-Asian immigrant to the US, I want everyone to stop considering race and to focus solely on income disparities. It sucks to be a white or Asian person coming from generational poverty, because that's not a demographic that is recognized anywhere. It also sucks to be a poor Black or Hispanic person. The commonality is POVERTY, not race.

We need to move on from race, and focus on economic inequality.

For magnet vs home models... I think both can be done well, and that the devil is in the execution, not the location.

[Anonymous]

From a sociological perspective, tensions between Asian and Black communities are long standing and deep. In some Asian cultures there is bias against their own community members who have darker skin tones and this gets extended to Black communities as well. Additionally, the idea that there is “only room” for one minority in predominantly White spaces has made some Asian communities seek to claim that spot and siphon out Black folks. Lastly, but importantly, communication styles between Black and Asian communities are frequently very different which can lead to misunderstanding and dislike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
As a recent white-Asian immigrant to the US, I want everyone to stop considering race and to focus solely on income disparities. It sucks to be a white or Asian person coming from generational poverty, because that's not a demographic that is recognized anywhere. It also sucks to be a poor Black or Hispanic person. The commonality is POVERTY, not race.

We need to move on from race, and focus on economic inequality.

For magnet vs home models... I think both can be done well, and that the devil is in the execution, not the location.

Disparities by race are larger than disparities by income. Racism is real and has real impacts. You don't want policymakers to consider that. Fine. But that's your opinion, and many disagree with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a recent white-Asian immigrant to the US, I want everyone to stop considering race and to focus solely on income disparities. It sucks to be a white or Asian person coming from generational poverty, because that's not a demographic that is recognized anywhere. It also sucks to be a poor Black or Hispanic person. The commonality is POVERTY, not race.

We need to move on from race, and focus on economic inequality.

For magnet vs home models... I think both can be done well, and that the devil is in the execution, not the location.

Disparities by race are larger than disparities by income. Racism is real and has real impacts. You don't want policymakers to consider that. Fine. But that's your opinion, and many disagree with that.

PP you replied to. Maybe it's because I'm an immigrant. I don't want future generations to be saddled with the sins of their ancestors, and I think it's not helping our national discourse to continually obssess about race, which is a construct that's not even recognized in many other countries. I'd rather talk, if we absolutely have to, about ethnicities.

Also, I am of mixed East Asian and European descent. My kids are even more mixed than I am. So many children have genetic markers from multiple ethnicities, with consequences on their specific medical risks, and the creations of multicultural identities that don't fit the old norms. Why are we still trying to pigeonhole people into single niches? It's so backwards and regressive, and for the many mixed people of all types, it's downright offensive, because that categorization fails to include them at all. Most of the data collected, upon which you seem to hang your hat, PP, fails to include people from mixed ethnicities. So it's wrong anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a recent white-Asian immigrant to the US, I want everyone to stop considering race and to focus solely on income disparities. It sucks to be a white or Asian person coming from generational poverty, because that's not a demographic that is recognized anywhere. It also sucks to be a poor Black or Hispanic person. The commonality is POVERTY, not race.

We need to move on from race, and focus on economic inequality.

For magnet vs home models... I think both can be done well, and that the devil is in the execution, not the location.

Disparities by race are larger than disparities by income. Racism is real and has real impacts. You don't want policymakers to consider that. Fine. But that's your opinion, and many disagree with that.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a recent white-Asian immigrant to the US, I want everyone to stop considering race and to focus solely on income disparities. It sucks to be a white or Asian person coming from generational poverty, because that's not a demographic that is recognized anywhere. It also sucks to be a poor Black or Hispanic person. The commonality is POVERTY, not race.

We need to move on from race, and focus on economic inequality.

For magnet vs home models... I think both can be done well, and that the devil is in the execution, not the location.

Disparities by race are larger than disparities by income. Racism is real and has real impacts. You don't want policymakers to consider that. Fine. But that's your opinion, and many disagree with that.

PP you replied to. Maybe it's because I'm an immigrant. I don't want future generations to be saddled with the sins of their ancestors, and I think it's not helping our national discourse to continually obssess about race, which is a construct that's not even recognized in many other countries. I'd rather talk, if we absolutely have to, about ethnicities.

Also, I am of mixed East Asian and European descent. My kids are even more mixed than I am. So many children have genetic markers from multiple ethnicities, with consequences on their specific medical risks, and the creations of multicultural identities that don't fit the old norms. Why are we still trying to pigeonhole people into single niches? It's so backwards and regressive, and for the many mixed people of all types, it's downright offensive, because that categorization fails to include them at all. Most of the data collected, upon which you seem to hang your hat, PP, fails to include people from mixed ethnicities. So it's wrong anyway.

My Black immigrant husband thought the same way as you when he arrived here 10 years ago. He now understands the Black experience here and no longer has the same viewpoint as you. It’s not an issue of “wanting to focus on race” - we wish that was it - let’s just not focus on race and racism and racial issues will go away. If only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a recent white-Asian immigrant to the US, I want everyone to stop considering race and to focus solely on income disparities. It sucks to be a white or Asian person coming from generational poverty, because that's not a demographic that is recognized anywhere. It also sucks to be a poor Black or Hispanic person. The commonality is POVERTY, not race.

We need to move on from race, and focus on economic inequality.

For magnet vs home models... I think both can be done well, and that the devil is in the execution, not the location.

Disparities by race are larger than disparities by income. Racism is real and has real impacts. You don't want policymakers to consider that. Fine. But that's your opinion, and many disagree with that.

Do you have any data to support your claim. Or is it just your opinion. MoCo is one of the most liberal counties in the whole country. And yet, you are saying that even here race impacts everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
As a recent white-Asian immigrant to the US, I want everyone to stop considering race and to focus solely on income disparities. It sucks to be a white or Asian person coming from generational poverty, because that's not a demographic that is recognized anywhere. It also sucks to be a poor Black or Hispanic person. The commonality is POVERTY, not race.

We need to move on from race, and focus on economic inequality.

For magnet vs home models... I think both can be done well, and that the devil is in the execution, not the location.

Disparities by race are larger than disparities by income. Racism is real and has real impacts. You don't want policymakers to consider that. Fine. But that's your opinion, and many disagree with that.

PP you replied to. Maybe it's because I'm an immigrant. I don't want future generations to be saddled with the sins of their ancestors, and I think it's not helping our national discourse to continually obssess about race, which is a construct that's not even recognized in many other countries. I'd rather talk, if we absolutely have to, about ethnicities.

Also, I am of mixed East Asian and European descent. My kids are even more mixed than I am. So many children have genetic markers from multiple ethnicities, with consequences on their specific medical risks, and the creations of multicultural identities that don't fit the old norms. Why are we still trying to pigeonhole people into single niches? It's so backwards and regressive, and for the many mixed people of all types, it's downright offensive, because that categorization fails to include them at all. Most of the data collected, upon which you seem to hang your hat, PP, fails to include people from mixed ethnicities. So it's wrong anyway.

I am the PP you are talking about. I am mixed race and have a mixed race child. Just because our data aren't perfect - and I absolutely agree that they aren't despite you bizarrely insisting I "hang my hat" on them - doesn't mean racism isn't real and doesn't have an actual, day to day impact on people. Literally there are studies showing that teachers expect Black boys to misbehave more than White boys and interpret the SAME behaviors in Black boys as misbehavior that they ignore in White boys. IN PRESCHOOL.

[Anonymous]

Sadly the Venn Diagram of Race related and income related issues is pretty close to being just one complete circle here in MoCo. The two affected populations have such an intense overlap that you really cannot tackle one without also tackling the other.