If you're in Takoma Park schools...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/08/167471106/2-pi-rhymes-and-radii?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20130113

An example, perhaps, of the integrated classrooms that we're to believe are commonplace at Blair and in Takoma schools? No this is fairly typical of the "diversity" folks in Takoma are peddling.

So what if the parade route is diverse. That says nothing about the classrooms, where I still maintain you'll find a classroom of 90 percent white kids right next to one that's nearly 100 percent black and hispanic. (See above.)

Sure, the overall diversity numbers look great. Just drill down at the classroom level, though. Take a stroll along Maple, Willow -- or most any block that doesn't border the Maple Avenue apartments or head toward Langley Park.

With the exception of a small handful of interracial couples, as white as the driven snow. And with very, very few exceptions, these neighborhoods are 100 percent black and brown.

Yes indeed, back where I come from, we call that segregation.

Actually, as of the 2000 census, these were the stats for Takoma Park - compare that to 85% white Bethesda:

As of the census[19] of 2000, there were 17,299 people, 6,893 households, and 3,949 families residing in the city. The population density was 8,152.4 inhabitants per square mile (3,147.7 /km2). There were 7,187 housing units at an average density of 3,387.0 per square mile (1,307.7 /km2). The racial makeup of the city was 48.79% White, 33.97% African American, 0.44% Native American, 4.36% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 7.44% from other races, and 4.97% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.42% of the population.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused by your point...yes, minorities are more likely to be low-income and live in the less expensive apartments in TP, rather than neighborhoods of single family homes. This is a pretty big intractable national problem- what do you propose that the TP community does to promote greater residential integration?

Also MCPS is actually moving toward heterogenous grouping in both elementary and middle schools, so there really is integration at the classroom level. If you don't see that at TPMS, that is because there is a magnet program that attracts white and Asian kids, most of whom don't actually live in TP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/08/167471106/2-pi-rhymes-and-radii?ft=3&f=111787346&sc=nl&cc=es-20130113

An example, perhaps, of the integrated classrooms that we're to believe are commonplace at Blair and in Takoma schools? No this is fairly typical of the "diversity" folks in Takoma are peddling.

So what if the parade route is diverse. That says nothing about the classrooms, where I still maintain you'll find a classroom of 90 percent white kids right next to one that's nearly 100 percent black and hispanic. (See above.)

Sure, the overall diversity numbers look great. Just drill down at the classroom level, though. Take a stroll along Maple, Willow -- or most any block that doesn't border the Maple Avenue apartments or head toward Langley Park.

With the exception of a small handful of interracial couples, as white as the driven snow. And with very, very few exceptions, these neighborhoods are 100 percent black and brown.

Yes indeed, back where I come from, we call that segregation.

This is a clip from Blair HS - which encompasses Silver Spring plus TP. It's not a class at TPMS, as you seem to realize yourself, given your cagey way of phrasing this as a question not a fact.

And yes, why yes, I have walked through downtown TP, and I have seen diversity there. Funny you should advise us to go anywhere but Maple or Langley Park though, because it's obvious these areas would undermine your silly point.

But never say we're unfriendly here in MoCo! We've created a place just for posters like you: www.dcurbanmom.com/forum/posts/list/249493.page . In fact, if you look at the very first post, are you by any chance #4 on the list?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused by your point...yes, minorities are more likely to be low-income and live in the less expensive apartments in TP, rather than neighborhoods of single family homes. This is a pretty big intractable national problem- what do you propose that the TP community does to promote greater residential integration?

Also MCPS is actually moving toward heterogenous grouping in both elementary and middle schools, so there really is integration at the classroom level. If you don't see that at TPMS, that is because there is a magnet program that attracts white and Asian kids, most of whom don't actually live in TP.

It's worth pointing out that Takoma Park in the 1970s made a deliberate decision to tear down a bunch of big Victorians along Maple Avenue specifically to build more affordable apartments.

What do you make of that, poster who claims segregation?

[Anonymous]

As I'm sitting in a locally owned Takoma Park coffee shop during the lunch hour rush I remembered this thread.

In a busy cafe, with about 30 people sitting and eating, I count 5 pairs of inter racial diners, 3 African Americans dining alone, about a 50 50 split between whites and black that have taken food to go and the cafe is staffed by 2 white woman, one black man and one latino man.

So much for segregation.

I love my community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As I'm sitting in a locally owned Takoma Park coffee shop during the lunch hour rush I remembered this thread.

In a busy cafe, with about 30 people sitting and eating, I count 5 pairs of inter racial diners, 3 African Americans dining alone, about a 50 50 split between whites and black that have taken food to go and the cafe is staffed by 2 white woman, one black man and one latino man.

So much for segregation.

I love my community.

I know, right? I don't think that bitter poster knows the town at all. Truly bizarre.

[Anonymous]

Here is the latest video from Mr. Scott's *very* diverse precalc class at Blair including views from around the school -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zAgNMDbB-w

[Anonymous]

I just checked out '11-'12 enrollment data for Takoma Park ES. It is 38% white, 33% black, and 18% hispanic. FARMS rate of 37%. I think the good citizens of Takoma Park do indeed have racial and economic diversity in their schools. My guess is that Takoma Park MS is even more diverse because the stem magnet is going to attract the tiger mom families.

[Anonymous]

Weird thread. I find Takoma Park to be pretty diverse and to be inhabited by people who are prepared to have honest conversations about socio-economic issues. Maybe the OP just resents the fact that people there do engage in some measure of self-examination, or make her feel uncomfortable about her own choices.

God forbid the OP ever venture over to Arlington, where people often pretend to celebrate diversity, but celebrate new developments that displace the remaining black and Hispanic residents far, far more. Now that's a place that pays total lip service to the concept of diversity. She'd have a total meltdown, but at least for a valid reason.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if OP is our friend the Tea Bag Troll ("TBT"), a frequent guest on other school forums and the College forum. One marker is that special combination of ignorance and bluster.

[Anonymous]

Who are you? And who gives you easy access to walk around schools and peer into classrooms?

I work in a diverse Mo Co HS not too far from Blair, and that is NOT the norm.

I used to work at the old Blair, FWIW, and segregated classrooms are not the norm. Our honors, AP and IB classes are VERY diverse - and whites are typically in the minority. The few we have, however, are not lumped together and tracked.

You know not of what you speak . . . whether it's Blair or some other diverse high school

Anonymous wrote:More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

[Anonymous]

i know this is an old post, but all the defensive people are clearly not seeing the issue or the point.

there is a lot of diversity at MGBHS almost even between hispanic, AA, White, and Asian students

the test scores and performances are the STAGGERING problem, and proof that over the years from 3rd grade to high school there is a strong indication that AA and Hispanic students are not supported the way they are needed by the schools

white students 9/10
Asian students 10/10
Hispanic students 3/10
AA Students 4/10

There is clearly an opportunity gap and if you dont realize that citing your one black friend and the three black families at your "diverse" coffee shop is part of the problem. Saying your community doesnt segregate because there is one interracial couple IS part of the problem, the truth is there wont be white flight because the community is too expensive to live in. In a city that 30 years ago was 71% AA and the greatest concentration of AA wealth in the country to a sub 45% AA american population and AA wealth moving further south its time to acknowledge what it is. Youre part of the problem, youre part of the systemic displacement of AA that has been taking place since the early 90s. Takoma Park has historically been a white community, its okay to admit that to ourselves, its important to understand the problem and not be defensive of it. you live in a VERY racist society, in a VERY segregated city, with a VERY upset minority community, wake up to the reality of the world around you this wasnt our city we took it from a group of people and we havent treated them very fairly in the process.

[Anonymous]

i know this is an old post, but all the defensive people are clearly not seeing the issue or the point.

there is a lot of diversity at MGBHS almost even between hispanic, AA, White, and Asian students

the test scores and performances are the STAGGERING problem, and proof that over the years from 3rd grade to high school there is a strong indication that AA and Hispanic students are not supported the way they are needed by the schools

white students 9/10
Asian students 10/10
Hispanic students 3/10
AA Students 4/10

There is clearly an opportunity gap and if you dont realize that citing your one black friend and the three black families at your "diverse" coffee shop is part of the problem. Saying your community doesnt segregate because there is one interracial couple IS part of the problem, the truth is there wont be white flight because the community is too expensive to live in. In a city that 30 years ago was 71% AA and the greatest concentration of AA wealth in the country to a sub 45% AA american population and AA wealth moving further south its time to acknowledge what it is. Youre part of the problem, youre part of the systemic displacement of AA that has been taking place since the early 90s. Takoma Park has historically been a white community, its okay to admit that to ourselves, its important to understand the problem and not be defensive of it. you live in a VERY racist society, in a VERY segregated city, with a VERY upset minority community, wake up to the reality of the world around you this wasnt our city we took it from a group of people and we havent treated them very fairly in the process.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More tiresome Takoma Park hype -- and self congratulation -- about how their kids "are thriving in this diverse environment."

Truth is, what little racial interaction there is -- and there's not all that much -- for the most part is all done and dusted by middle school.

Take a walk around Takoma Park Middle School or Blair High School on a typical day, and peer into the classrooms. You'll find one classroom of kids who are predominantly (as in almost 100 percent save one or two) kids of color, and another next door that's nearly all white. And yes, I'm a member of the community, and know whereof I speak.

Just walk along the streets in downtown Takoma, Old Town Takoma -- for that matter, anywhere except the outer fringes of Takoma, and you'll see block after block where no people of color reside. The pattern is duplicated in the schools, where kids of color and kids who are white are educated separately for the most part.

Whether it's sports teams, recreation league activities, housing patterns within Takoma Park, social interaction within the school or after school, it's hard to imagine a more segregated set-up.
Yet, parents in Takoma Park continue to talk as if they're part of some sort of Rainbow Nation. The fact is their kids are educated in classrooms that are very nearly as homogeneous as those in Potomac or Bethesda.

Not that I begrudge them that. I suspect that had there been true diversity -- with people of color living as their next door neighbors and not in Langley Park or the apartment complexes of Maple Avenue -- many would never have been tempted to buy homes in Takoma Park.

My guess is that its the same with the schools: Create true integration of the classroom and see how long it takes for white flight to commence.
I tire of the readiness of folks in Takoma Park to try to have it both ways, giving lip service to the virtues of diversity, even while most -- with the exception of people they hire to watch their kids and clean their homes -- seem to have precious little interaction with people who don't look just like them.

So folks who have chosen to send their kids to private schools or to public ones in McLean -- don't let the TP folks guilt-trip you. They've made very much the same choices about whom their kids will be educated alongside. They've just disguised it in such a way as to be able to hang on to their "diversity" bragging rights.

I don't want to agree with this. I've lived in diverse places where it wasn't true.

But it is in Takoma Park. I didn't realize that until we started living here, sending kids to TPMS.

The kids segregate. And I get that. I grew up in a neighborhood that was much the same. But I started out raising my children in a different place, that wasn't like this, a place where recent immigrants and kids with family summer houses in Maine mixed easily.

I blame the smugness factor. I once thought Takoma Park was too much like Park Slope, but seeing the rest of DC made that seem appealing.

It's not. I've tried to make friends outside of my class, or station, or what have you. It's just "not done" here.

You still couldn't pay me to live in McLean, or Potomoc. I'd rather our family be shunned by crunchy granola types and Somali immigrants than nouveau riche mcmansion people, but TP. is not quite a paradise. It's just the best of a bunch of craptastic options.

[Anonymous]

Very happy (older child was k-12 here, younger is still in MS). Yes, there’s economic disparity, but it would be worse if we moved into a W school’s catchment. Our kids have very diverse friends when it comes to race, ethnicity, and religion. Biracial DC often in minority in class, but not the “only” POC, which was my experience in HS.