What’s it like being white in a mostly Hispanic school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white kid spent 3 years in a 65% Hispanic elementary school.
He started wishing he had dark hair.
Invited to only 2 birthday parties in all these years.
Bad admin at school happy to discipline a white kid, which I didn’t realize for the longest time.
Street smart kids setting up naive middle class kids to be punished by riling them up. Stolen food at lunch.
Finally switched school for 3rd grade and it was night and day.

I work in an ES with 85% Hispanic population. The handful of white kids don’t get in trouble, not because they’re white but because they just don’t cause trouble. They’re happy and not bullied. They have friends. Just because your kid was bullied at his school doesn’t mean all schools with a minority of white kids is automatically dangerous.

[Anonymous]

My white kids are in a predominantly minority HS and they are very happy there. They have friends who are all races from all over the world. They are all just…friends. It’s a beautiful thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white kid spent 3 years in a 65% Hispanic elementary school.
He started wishing he had dark hair.
Invited to only 2 birthday parties in all these years.
Bad admin at school happy to discipline a white kid, which I didn’t realize for the longest time.
Street smart kids setting up naive middle class kids to be punished by riling them up. Stolen food at lunch.
Finally switched school for 3rd grade and it was night and day.

Are you having large parties and inviting them? Not everyone has parties too. We only had a few and they invited most of the grade. In es most go to small parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My white kid spent 3 years in a 65% Hispanic elementary school.
He started wishing he had dark hair.
Invited to only 2 birthday parties in all these years.
Bad admin at school happy to discipline a white kid, which I didn’t realize for the longest time.
Street smart kids setting up naive middle class kids to be punished by riling them up. Stolen food at lunch.
Finally switched school for 3rd grade and it was night and day.

I work in an ES with 85% Hispanic population. The handful of white kids don’t get in trouble, not because they’re white but because they just don’t cause trouble. They’re happy and not bullied. They have friends. Just because your kid was bullied at his school doesn’t mean all schools with a minority of white kids is automatically dangerous.

He wasn’t bullied. He got in trouble with admin for infractions that weren’t even on anyone’s radar at a more middle class school. Their discipline was just punitive, especially towards kids like him, it felt like. Maybe it was that specific school.
But there are other bad things too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My white kid spent 3 years in a 65% Hispanic elementary school.
He started wishing he had dark hair.
Invited to only 2 birthday parties in all these years.
Bad admin at school happy to discipline a white kid, which I didn’t realize for the longest time.
Street smart kids setting up naive middle class kids to be punished by riling them up. Stolen food at lunch.
Finally switched school for 3rd grade and it was night and day.

Are you having large parties and inviting them? Not everyone has parties too. We only had a few and they invited most of the grade. In es most go to small parties.

It was a while back, DS is now happily at a truly diverse HS.
The amount of parties at this elementary vs his preschool and the better elementary he transferred to was very very low

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most Hispanics are white.

Not the ones at high farms schools tho

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white kids are in a predominantly minority HS and they are very happy there. They have friends who are all races from all over the world. They are all just…friends. It’s a beautiful thing.

Same with my kids, currently in MS and ES. My oldest will start HS next year and all of their schools are majority minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most Hispanics are white.

Not the ones at high farms schools tho

Also not most Latinos in general https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/redistricting-supplementary-tables/redistricting-supplementary-table-04.pdf

[Anonymous]

Spot on. Yes.
It’s not ethnicity, it’s socioeconomics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is heading to SSIMS and probably Northwood after that.

What is it like being white in a mostly Hispanic school? Are there any cultural differences to be aware of?

I am Latina and grew up in almost entirely Latino public schools. I'll be honest, I perceived the few white kids as economically privileged (they usually were) and sometimes there were cultural things they didn't understand but they often caught on to those quickly and were quick to joke about them. No other significant differences and most of the time we never thought about it.

Like? What kind of cultural things?

I don’t even remember. Minor things imo.

But some things I know I experienced as a child that might seem odd to white families include not celebrating Halloween, no sleepovers, no summer camps, no money or time for extracurriculars, more emphasis on family time (like family doing most things together). Also maybe a different sense of humor, it’s hard to describe, no tiptoeing around things and less passive aggression, more direct language for better or worse. How much of this impacted my white classmates, idk. I think this stuff also varies among Latinos so these are huge generalizations.

It varies enormously among Latinos and a lot of what you described is because of social class rather than ethnicity. I’m part Afro-Cuban. My wealthy high school classmates who were Latinas celebrated Halloween, had sleepovers, went to summer camps, and had plenty of money and time for extracurriculars ranging from the performing arts to sports to academic competitions. Except for celebrating Halloween, I did not and this was because my family was poor.

There’s also a religious element: Catholics generally celebrate Halloween, evangelical Christians generally do not.

[Anonymous]

We live in Gaithersburg and have attended two majority Hispanic elementary schools and we're actually moving to Silver Spring for middle school which appears to be similarly diverse.

My child has red hair and is taller than everyone else, so it's really easy to find him in crowds at school events. Also, all of his friends are brown.

[Anonymous]

OP, where did your kid go to elementary school? Most of the elementary schools in that part of silver spring are majority hispanic. I would guess you already have some idea of what it's like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this was the whitest thing you could have done.

I have secondhand embarrassment for you.

So it’s “white” to…..try to be prepared for something you don’t have experience with? I’m embarrassed for YOU.
- NP, not white

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My white kid spent 3 years in a 65% Hispanic elementary school.
He started wishing he had dark hair.
Invited to only 2 birthday parties in all these years.
Bad admin at school happy to discipline a white kid, which I didn’t realize for the longest time.
Street smart kids setting up naive middle class kids to be punished by riling them up. Stolen food at lunch.
Finally switched school for 3rd grade and it was night and day.

Are you having large parties and inviting them? Not everyone has parties too. We only had a few and they invited most of the grade. In es most go to small parties.

It was a while back, DS is now happily at a truly diverse HS.
The amount of parties at this elementary vs his preschool and the better elementary he transferred to was very very low

Did you have parties and invite these kids? Its unfair to complain if you didn't have large parties and invite them all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My white kid spent 3 years in a 65% Hispanic elementary school.
He started wishing he had dark hair.
Invited to only 2 birthday parties in all these years.
Bad admin at school happy to discipline a white kid, which I didn’t realize for the longest time.
Street smart kids setting up naive middle class kids to be punished by riling them up. Stolen food at lunch.
Finally switched school for 3rd grade and it was night and day.

I work in an ES with 85% Hispanic population. The handful of white kids don’t get in trouble, not because they’re white but because they just don’t cause trouble. They’re happy and not bullied. They have friends. Just because your kid was bullied at his school doesn’t mean all schools with a minority of white kids is automatically dangerous.

He wasn’t bullied. He got in trouble with admin for infractions that weren’t even on anyone’s radar at a more middle class school. Their discipline was just punitive, especially towards kids like him, it felt like. Maybe it was that specific school.
But there are other bad things too.

That's racist admin. We had that too where my child was targeted in ES.

[Anonymous]

I eat more tortillas than I otherwise would. And I know the names of mariachi songs. That's about it.