Article on TJ student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad that she’s a Muslim immigrant from an Arab country (Sudan) yet she is expected to be the “spokesperson” for black tj students. Her life experiences have likely been very different than those of US-born African-Americans yet she is treated as the unwanted black kid in class. Sad on many levels.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about.
And the comment from the Asian girl about her (a Sudanese) belonging to a 'Black' (meaning, AA) community? Sometimes, I think certain groups should spend less time studying calculus and more time looking at the world around them. Ugh.

Yes. Very ignorant of the Asian-American girl to think that Didi represents all "Black AAs". I am sure Didi found it offensive. Ask AA community and they will tell you that these recent immigrants who are Black have no understanding of the issues within the AA community but they are held up as models for what AA Blacks should aspire to be.

Schools and colleges also want these "model Blacks" rather than an AA kid who comes from a broken home and from the projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read this - another article she wrote https://www.tjtoday.org/29057/new-on-tjtoday/my-not-so-black-and-white-look-at-diversity-at-jefferson/

The problem starts at AAP - she was the only black child selected to AAP in her entire grade. If children don't have access to resources and tools in elementary and middle school, how are they expected to overcome all that and succeed in high school? Changing things at TJ without first reforming AAP will be like trying to balance a skyscraper on a wooden pole.

It’s so distressing to see this wave of opposition to change at TJ from cut-throat TJ parents and students repackaged as false empathy. You can embrace the long overdue revisions to TJ admissions or watch your private little academy for prepped Asian and white kids get swept away entirely.

Did you even read the article where she talks about how AAP is the real problem? Or are you so bound by your racism that you’re unable to see beyond your contempt for Asian children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Muslim from Sudan may add diversity. But descendants of American slaves should have priority. Having black skin alone doesn't make you diverse.

True, but the racists who tormented her in class didn’t care that she wasn’t a descendant of slaves.

She was being tormented by racists in her class? I don't think so. All the teen angst and the stressors of being in a hard program can not be viewed with the lens of being "Black".

For me it is interesting that she is seen as "Black" by everybody else but people who have black skin (including herself). She wants to make certain that she is not classified with "Black" but the truth is that she will be checking that box in her college application and will get all the benefits of that classification.

So one way to bridge the achievement gap is to get more immigrants from African, Asian, Caribbean countries so that they can help fill the
"Black" quota? Is that the plan? Because I am not hearing one word from anyone how the basic, foundational education of URM students will be improved from K-8, so that they can actually have a level playing field.

Yes, there is a lack of Black talent for TJ HS, because no one cares to nurture the talent of URM kids from K-8 in regular schools. That is the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about.
And the comment from the Asian girl about her (a Sudanese) belonging to a 'Black' (meaning, AA) community? Sometimes, I think certain groups should spend less time studying calculus and more time looking at the world around them. Ugh.

Yes. Very ignorant of the Asian-American girl to think that Didi represents all "Black AAs". I am sure Didi found it offensive. Ask AA community and they will tell you that these recent immigrants who are Black have no understanding of the issues within the AA community but they are held up as models for what AA Blackss....

Similarly, would you agree that sweeping generalizations of what a monolithic “Asian American” stereotype should be is equally ignorant. Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, South East Asians, South Asians are very different and yet they are lumped together by the School
Board and colleges etc. see what we’re dealing with here? Focusing on race due to guilt, perhaps shameful past transgressions and misplaced social heroism is perpetuating questions that have no tidy answers.

[Anonymous]

What I don't get is that a lot of the students at TJ are as dark as, or darker than, Didi is. Most of the Asians at TJ are Indian, so when you walk through the halls, there's a sea of dark-skinned people, so it just makes me wonder about the whole skin lightening thing. Also, she's really popular at the school, so obviously everyone isn't the racist jerks of her bad experience. I don't doubt that she had a racist experience with someone (or a few), but that happens in every high school in America, and that doesn't make every single person at the school racist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... yet she is treated as the unwanted black kid in class. Sad on many levels.

For perspective, the person in the article is one of six elected class representatives in a cohort of 450.

If she was elected the other Asian students didn’t discriminate her, right.

She was elected ? That changes things quite a bit

Yes, and she's also quite popular. Just because ONE Asian said Didi wasn't welcome in her home doesn't make ALL Asians that way. I resent how her singular experience is being twisted to demonize Asians. I am Asian American, and my parents have NEVER EVER influenced me to think one way or another about black people.

[Anonymous]

Whenever you hear an interview with Didi, you'll always hear her proudly say that she got in on her own merits and deserves to be there as much as anyone else, which I wholeheartedly agree. The URMs who get in via lottery won't be able to feel proud about their own merits. On the contrary, they will bear the permanent stigma of being the reason an entire world-class school had to lower their standards. The saddest thing about it is there probably won't be many more URMs at the end of the day because a lottery is a horrible way of targeting them, and we'll also still have the issue of insufficient URM applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against the lottery, but Didi's story at TJ is important to read for all sides.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/10/19/thomas-jefferson-high-school-diversity/

How Asian American friends warned her not to come to their houses after school, because their parents distrust Black people.

That doesn't surprise me at all about Asians.

PP, you sound white. I'm sure how you are loving how the media and powers-that-be have turned this into a black-asian race war while you watch in the stands eating popcorn and laughing, relieved that people aren't noticing how whites are the only ones who will benefit from a lottery, and how there are still 80,000 URMs in fcps who continue to receive a subpar education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain to me what’s racist about asking about tribal clothes on the international day? Aren’t/weren’t there a lot of different tribes in Sudan? Isn’t her father on the Washington Post picture wearing some tribal clothes?

It’s also a true statement that being a black girl as a college applicant is a big benefit for her. Of course, she’ll be accepted not only because she is black, but if she has a 1500 SAT and 4.1 GPA, she’ll most likely trump an Asian boy with a 1600 SAT and 4.5 GPA. Colleges do discriminate based on race, and her race is not a victim in this case.

She and her brother will get into the colleges of their choice.

African immigrants and UMC blacks will reap the benefits of the BLM movement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about.
And the comment from the Asian girl about her (a Sudanese) belonging to a 'Black' (meaning, AA) community? Sometimes, I think certain groups should spend less time studying calculus and more time looking at the world around them. Ugh.

Yes. Very ignorant of the Asian-American girl to think that Didi represents all "Black AAs". I am sure Didi found it offensive. Ask AA community and they will tell you that these recent immigrants who are Black have no understanding of the issues within the AA community but they are held up as models for what AA Blackss....

Similarly, would you agree that sweeping generalizations of what a monolithic “Asian American” stereotype should be is equally ignorant. Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, South East Asians, South Asians are very different and yet they are lumped together by the School
Board and colleges etc. see what we’re dealing with here? Focusing on race due to guilt, perhaps shameful past transgressions and misplaced social heroism is perpetuating questions that have no tidy answers.


So sick of the Asians centering every single thing that relates to TJ on them.

This is not your story. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against the lottery, but Didi's story at TJ is important to read for all sides.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/10/19/thomas-jefferson-high-school-diversity/

How Asian American friends warned her not to come to their houses after school, because their parents distrust Black people.

That doesn't surprise me at all about Asians.

PP, you sound white. I'm sure how you are loving how the media and powers-that-be have turned this into a black-asian race war while you watch in the stands eating popcorn and laughing, relieved that people aren't noticing how whites are the only ones who will benefit from a lottery, and how there are still 80,000 URMs in fcps who continue to receive a subpar education.

This. The optics around the TJ change have completely eclipsed the fact that nothing at all is being done about elementary and middle school education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against the lottery, but Didi's story at TJ is important to read for all sides.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/10/19/thomas-jefferson-high-school-diversity/

How Asian American friends warned her not to come to their houses after school, because their parents distrust Black people.

That doesn't surprise me at all about Asians.

PP, you sound white. I'm sure how you are loving how the media and powers-that-be have turned this into a black-asian race war while you watch in the stands eating popcorn and laughing, relieved that people aren't noticing how whites are the only ones who will benefit from a lottery, and how there are still 80,000 URMs in fcps who continue to receive a subpar education.

This. The optics around the TJ change have completely eclipsed the fact that nothing at all is being done about elementary and middle school education.

This is false.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whenever you hear an interview with Didi, you'll always hear her proudly say that she got in on her own merits and deserves to be there as much as anyone else, which I wholeheartedly agree. The URMs who get in via lottery won't be able to feel proud about their own merits. On the contrary, they will bear the permanent stigma of being the reason an entire world-class school had to lower their standards. The saddest thing about it is there probably won't be many more URMs at the end of the day because a lottery is a horrible way of targeting them, and we'll also still have the issue of insufficient URM applicants.

Won't there also be white and asians that get in by the lottery?

[Anonymous]

Thanks OP for sharing the article. I applaud Didi and wish her the best. But one doesn’t need to be a doctor to see there are more things that contribute to her experience at tj.

There are cultural isolation felt by all immigrants, insecurity felt by immigrants without roots or branches in this country, sensitivity in her personality, peer pressure from other high performing kids, extraordinarily high expectations on her from herself and her family, just to name a few. Of course none of these is worth addressing more than the color of her skin under the current political climate. She knows how to ride the wave and rip the benefit of the movement. The fact her article was published on the WP proves she knows what will stick.

She can tell her story however she wants, but I would like the article better if she didn’t give out the names of the other kids in her story. Isn’t that “stepping on each other to get ahead”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... yet she is treated as the unwanted black kid in class. Sad on many levels.

For perspective, the person in the article is one of six elected class representatives in a cohort of 450.

If she was elected the other Asian students didn’t discriminate her, right.

She was elected ? That changes things quite a bit

Yes, and she's also quite popular. Just because ONE Asian said Didi wasn't welcome in her home doesn't make ALL Asians that way. I resent how her singular experience is being twisted to demonize Asians. I am Asian American, and my parents have NEVER EVER influenced me to think one way or another about black people.

Thanks for the latest reminder that everything about TJ has to be seen through the eyes of Asians all the time. Because we obviously didn't know that already.