How does MCPS determine race/ethnicity?

[Anonymous]

Agree this is all messed up. My kids are half Iranian. On the forms that qualifies as white. But they don’t look white, their dad experienced Horrible discriminations nd abuse when he came here as a teenager during the hostage crisis. And he still gets redirected to the service entrance at his own workplace, on the presumption that he can’t be a professional.

My Arab colleague frequently refers to himself as a person of color. That may be true for pigmentation but when we do our mandatory exporting and/or when we trying actively to recruit diverse candidates, the fact is that’s all Middle Eastern origin people can only be classified as white under existing rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Iran and the middle eastern countries are part of the Asian continent. How do they even classify themselves as white?

And to the pp who asked if Indian people are white. No, we are not. We are brown. The few light skinned Indians you may have seen are just that - a few. Most of us are brown skinned.

I think that the previous poster probably meant that Indians are Caucasian. At least years ago, anthropology classified people into three major races -- Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negroid. Obviously, many people don't fit neatly into these classifications.

[Anonymous]

I think Arab/Middle Eastern is a lot like Hispanic - a salient category in our current society, but not really a “race” per se. Jews also struggle with an identity as “white” while also being a minority that faces hate directed at them by white supremacists and a history of facing discrimination (much reduced in this day and age) from dominant “white” society. It’s all very complicated, but that doesn’t make the data collection unimportant. I wrote a college paper on the issue of whether and how to include multiracial options on the 2000 census. It’s not like it’s a totally new conversation what categories should be made available for people to “officially” identify themselves. And they have certainly changed over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny. My kid is Egyptian and considered white on the census and that form you just posted. But he has dark skin and curly hair. Like Hoda Kotb on TV. Nobody treats him as white.

Funny

Officially shouldn't he be considered African American (just like Indians are white, but they belong to "Asians")?

Are you Egyptian, too? What do you mark yourself?

We’re Turkish but don’t put Asia or Mesopotamia.

I think people should be able to state their parents or grandparents heritage. But what MCPS is getting at is access to federal title 1 dollars or showing various achievement gap data but redefining the data groups. I wish they focus on teach every segment of students not just farms or the poorly performing. We both work so I do t have time to do anything about the fact that my kids are bored and unchallenged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Diversity hiring is intended to match the available pool of candidates, so it’s nit intended to hire AA teachers as role models. It’s supposed to ensure that employers are doing their best to hire across racial boundaries. For example, if 20% of qualified teachers are Hispanic, school systems should strive for 20% of their QUALIFIED teachers to be Hispanic. It does not force schools to hire a particular percentage or to hire less qualified teachers based on race.

At least, that’s the point of EEO initiatives. I don’t know what actually happens in the school system.

MCPS went to Puerto Rico after the hurricane to hire teachers who speak Spanish.

https://rockvillerampage.com/13668/news-briefs/mcps-travels-to-puerto-rico-to-recruit-bilingual-teachers/

Not because they wanted to hire Latinos. The goal was to hire highly qualified Spanish and ESOL teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Diversity hiring is intended to match the available pool of candidates, so it’s nit intended to hire AA teachers as role models. It’s supposed to ensure that employers are doing their best to hire across racial boundaries. For example, if 20% of qualified teachers are Hispanic, school systems should strive for 20% of their QUALIFIED teachers to be Hispanic. It does not force schools to hire a particular percentage or to hire less qualified teachers based on race.

At least, that’s the point of EEO initiatives. I don’t know what actually happens in the school system.

MCPS went to Puerto Rico after the hurricane to hire teachers who speak Spanish.

https://rockvillerampage.com/13668/news-briefs/mcps-travels-to-puerto-rico-to-recruit-bilingual-teachers/

Not because they wanted to hire Latinos. The goal was to hire highly qualified Spanish and ESOL teachers.

Seems like a good goal to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:White, Asian and everybody else

I am puzzled by BOE emphasis to put White and Asian together as one bucket.

BOE is super focused on AA and Hispanic.

What's the race if each BOE members?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White, Asian and everybody else

I am puzzled by BOE emphasis to put White and Asian together as one bucket.

BOE is super focused on AA and Hispanic.

What's the race if each BOE members?

Do you even live in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny. My kid is Egyptian and considered white on the census and that form you just posted. But he has dark skin and curly hair. Like Hoda Kotb on TV. Nobody treats him as white.

Funny

Officially shouldn't he be considered African American (just like Indians are white, but they belong to "Asians")?

What do you mean by this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White, Asian and everybody else

I am puzzled by BOE emphasis to put White and Asian together as one bucket.

BOE is super focused on AA and Hispanic.

What's the race if each BOE members?

Do you even live in Montgomery County?

Yes, I moved here last year. Not sure why that is relevant to my question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Diversity hiring is intended to match the available pool of candidates, so it’s nit intended to hire AA teachers as role models. It’s supposed to ensure that employers are doing their best to hire across racial boundaries. For example, if 20% of qualified teachers are Hispanic, school systems should strive for 20% of their QUALIFIED teachers to be Hispanic. It does not force schools to hire a particular percentage or to hire less qualified teachers based on race.

At least, that’s the point of EEO initiatives. I don’t know what actually happens in the school system.

MCPS went to Puerto Rico after the hurricane to hire teachers who speak Spanish.

https://rockvillerampage.com/13668/news-briefs/mcps-travels-to-puerto-rico-to-recruit-bilingual-teachers/

Not because they wanted to hire Latinos. The goal was to hire highly qualified Spanish and ESOL teachers.

No--they were recruiting teachers for Spanish/bilingual programs, who can teach academic subjects IN Spanish. These programs were expanded this year and will possibly add more in the near future, if there is an available talent pool to staff them. Teaching Spanish as a language and delivering instruction in Spanish is different. There is no shortage of highly qualified ESOL/world languages teachers in MCPS. They are no longer considered critical need areas nor part of MCPS funded partnership programs.

From the very short article itself:

Recruited teachers play a key role in the school system’s two-way language immersion programs, where 50 percent of instruction is delivered in Spanish, and the other 50 percent in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny. My kid is Egyptian and considered white on the census and that form you just posted. But he has dark skin and curly hair. Like Hoda Kotb on TV. Nobody treats him as white.

Funny

Officially shouldn't he be considered African American (just like Indians are white, but they belong to "Asians")?

What do you mean by this?

Indians are Caucasians - which is what the "white" ethnic group is supposed to cover, but officially they belong to the "Asian" ethnic group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White, Asian and everybody else

I am puzzled by BOE emphasis to put White and Asian together as one bucket.

BOE is super focused on AA and Hispanic.

What's the race if each BOE members?

"put White and Asian together as one bucket" is probably not accurate, but I can see what you mean.

The reason is simple - overall white and asians are doing better so proposing changes that help them would not be politically attractive.

When you do politics, you try to depict yourself as helping the weaker - in practice whether you really do that does not matter.

That is why there is that impression that BoE is super focused on AA and Hispanic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White, Asian and everybody else

I am puzzled by BOE emphasis to put White and Asian together as one bucket.

BOE is super focused on AA and Hispanic.

What's the race if each BOE members?

Do you even live in Montgomery County?

Yes, I moved here last year. Not sure why that is relevant to my question.

Then it's high time you familiarized yourself with your elected officials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny. My kid is Egyptian and considered white on the census and that form you just posted. But he has dark skin and curly hair. Like Hoda Kotb on TV. Nobody treats him as white.

Funny

Officially shouldn't he be considered African American (just like Indians are white, but they belong to "Asians")?

What do you mean by this?

Indians are Caucasians - which is what the "white" ethnic group is supposed to cover, but officially they belong to the "Asian" ethnic group.

I am Indian and never ticked a Caucasians box anywhere. Having said that, Asia is too large and it hardly make any sense to club Indians with Koreans even though both groups are in Asia. Or Indians with Japanese.