Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science (MS)²

[Anonymous]

Our (lily white) DS will be checking out HUMS (among many other middle schools) this fall. Where he actually ends up likely will be a negotiation, and I'm really not sure how much of a say he ought to have in the matter at this age. On the question of whether he'd be comfortable as the only white kid in a school, though, I'll defer to him -- that's really a personal matter. (Now, if HUMS turns out to be his only strong option and he's kind of on the fence about it for social reasons, I might give him a light nudge to give it a chance...)

[Anonymous]

10:28, that's the spirit. Just do the damn thing for yourself and check it out. I just wish all would have that attitude and let the diversity initiative start with the first step. The diversity of a school should come naturally and not this illusion of if, it's all black and therefore it is destined for all things bad and evil. Then there's this myth that if it is diverse that is preparing the child for the real world. Which pretty much make it seems that if your black and have a black owned company with only black employees and you're successful, then for some reason you have failed in the eyes of the whites. Really, I mean really, is this what it has come too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I will make sure I tell my husband that. The last time we were at Politics and Prose, the white woman next to us grabbed her purse when she saw my husband. He looks as innocent and suburban as they come. I guess that was our "victimhood" and we imagined it.

There are plenty of neurotic and anxious people out there who will clutch their purses to themselves whenever ANYONE is near, regardless of color.

Exactly, and some people, accustomed to or expecting discrimination, will perceive every purse-clutching as another example of it.

Really??? Cause she didn't do it when anyone else was near. She didn't even do it when I was standing next to her. I know -- my perception. Did it ever occur to you that it's real.

[Anonymous]

We will absolutely apply to HUMS when my white son is looking at middle schools. Since he is very strong in math (and not being challenged in math at his DCPS elementary), it looks like a good option. I think HUMS would be a better fit for our family than BASIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I will make sure I tell my husband that. The last time we were at Politics and Prose, the white woman next to us grabbed her purse when she saw my husband. He looks as innocent and suburban as they come. I guess that was our "victimhood" and we imagined it.

There are plenty of neurotic and anxious people out there who will clutch their purses to themselves whenever ANYONE is near, regardless of color.

Exactly, and some people, accustomed to or expecting discrimination, will perceive every purse-clutching as another example of it.

Really??? Cause she didn't do it when anyone else was near. She didn't even do it when I was standing next to her. I know -- my perception. Did it ever occur to you that it's real.

I aboslutely believe this happened. I was at 7-11 a few days ago with my 4 year old and 8 year old, and an 25ish AA woman came up to me and started saying something about "the Devil being in a white lady's bank account" - she got right up in my face and near my kids and was beign fairly aggressive in tone and body language. I initially asked her to repeat herself and then ignored it. I am pretty sure that the woman was mentally ill or high, but it feels bad for people to treat you badly because of your skin color and is totally unacceptable. I think we should all have a level of awareness of how we treat others and self-examine for racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I will make sure I tell my husband that. The last time we were at Politics and Prose, the white woman next to us grabbed her purse when she saw my husband. He looks as innocent and suburban as they come. I guess that was our "victimhood" and we imagined it.

There are plenty of neurotic and anxious people out there who will clutch their purses to themselves whenever ANYONE is near, regardless of color.

Exactly, and some people, accustomed to or expecting discrimination, will perceive every purse-clutching as another example of it.

Really??? Cause she didn't do it when anyone else was near. She didn't even do it when I was standing next to her. I know -- my perception. Did it ever occur to you that it's real.

I aboslutely believe this happened. I was at 7-11 a few days ago with my 4 year old and 8 year old, and an 25ish AA woman came up to me and started saying something about "the Devil being in a white lady's bank account" - she got right up in my face and near my kids and was beign fairly aggressive in tone and body language. I initially asked her to repeat herself and then ignored it. I am pretty sure that the woman was mentally ill or high, but it feels bad for people to treat you badly because of your skin color and is totally unacceptable. I think we should all have a level of awareness of how we treat others and self-examine for racism.

Yes, just imagine if this woman had been in a position of power and had the ability to deny you a job or an apartment or only offered you a subprime mortgage or made it difficult for you to shop in her store. Then it would be even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I will make sure I tell my husband that. The last time we were at Politics and Prose, the white woman next to us grabbed her purse when she saw my husband. He looks as innocent and suburban as they come. I guess that was our "victimhood" and we imagined it.

There are plenty of neurotic and anxious people out there who will clutch their purses to themselves whenever ANYONE is near, regardless of color.

Exactly, and some people, accustomed to or expecting discrimination, will perceive every purse-clutching as another example of it.

Right... And, we've all seen things like the little AA grannies who pull their purses tight to themselves when there's rowdy young AA males around. Following the logic presented, that would make those AA grannies racist.

[Anonymous]

Oooo, this dialogue has become interesting. Who's next on the "wait til I tell you my plight" story?

[Anonymous]

Yes, it did occur to me that it was real and I also think it may not have been. Impossible to know without asking and even then you may not get the real story.

Yeas ago I recall clutching my purse as I ran across the street and some AA kids coming the other way told me I didn't have to worry - they weren't robbers.

I didn't think they were, I was trying to keep my purse from falling or flapping around as I ran to avoid traffic. I truly did not notice them until they called out to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me some of the posters here are living in the past.

Now here's the real history lesson - prior to the Jim Crow laws, DC was truly segregated, and was 60 to 70 percent white. By the 1970s and 1980s, that reversed to being over 70% AA. But now, a few decades later, it's back to under 50% AA.

In the last several decades, there has been a steady influx of non-AA residents coming in, and some AA have moved to surrounding communities. Ask the typical non-AA where he or she is from and you will find that most of them are not from around here. Most are likely to be from all walks of life, from every part of the US, as well as from Europe, Asia and Latin America. But that's not unique to non-AA - my office is majority AA but on learning where they come from you are more likely to hear something like NYC, Jacksonville, North Carolina, Chicago, Trinidad, Massachusetts or Ghana than you will hear DC.

A lot has changed in these recent decades, yet there is that small segment of people with multi-generational history in the city and a culture of victimhood, who are still stuck in the past, some of whom will gladly paint all non-AA with the brush of whatever historic and institutional racism and segregation of DC, even though most non-AA in DC are strangers both to DC and to each other and do not have that history.

It's invalid, irrelevant and inappropriate.

Gee, I wonder where this came from? Historically and culturally, the worst thing people of color did was give Europeans the benefit of the doubt. Not entirely "invalid, irrelevant or inappropriate."

This^^^

Sure, blame the Europeans for everything. But the fact is, Africans practiced slavery and exploitation on each other way back into history (Africans were selling slaves to Europeans) and it even continues to this day in some parts of Africa with African-on-African exploitation and human trafficking in Somalia, subsaharan Africa and elsewhere. But again, are you going to stay stuck in memes of the past and of elsewhere, or are you going to get with the HERE AND NOW?[/quote]

I challenge you to research the state of the African slave trade and the state of the Transatlantic slave trade. Do a compare and contrast and you will see that few things in history compared to the brutality of slavery in the Americas, physically, mentally, emotionally, and culturally.
And what is your excuse for the state of the First Nation in this country, or the indigenous of Australia, hell, native people worldwide. The past has not been dealt with in so many ways and until it is there will always be hard feelings. Instead of having open and honest conversations about the reality of european history the excuse is always "well, africans did it first..." it is lame and a copout. "HERE AND NOW" would not be what it is if history had not played out the way it did. To pretend that the wounds of our past have no bearing on our present is ridiculous. I imagine you would have us all forgive and forget, only to exploit again in some other way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, I will make sure I tell my husband that. The last time we were at Politics and Prose, the white woman next to us grabbed her purse when she saw my husband. He looks as innocent and suburban as they come. I guess that was our "victimhood" and we imagined it.

There are plenty of neurotic and anxious people out there who will clutch their purses to themselves whenever ANYONE is near, regardless of color.

Exactly, and some people, accustomed to or expecting discrimination, will perceive every purse-clutching as another example of it.

Right... And, we've all seen things like the little AA grannies who pull their purses tight to themselves when there's rowdy young AA males around. Following the logic presented, that would make those AA grannies racist.

I would not call her racist, but I do believe this and think that it is sad that the perception of our boys goes beyond white people to all people. It's the images that we all see. I know that it is a reality b/c I have 2 black sons. I too have to stop myself from the perception. I am very aware of the stereotype that I myself sometimes fall into.

[Anonymous]

We all suffer from racism whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me some of the posters here are living in the past.

Now here's the real history lesson - prior to the Jim Crow laws, DC was truly segregated, and was 60 to 70 percent white. By the 1970s and 1980s, that reversed to being over 70% AA. But now, a few decades later, it's back to under 50% AA.

In the last several decades, there has been a steady influx of non-AA residents coming in, and some AA have moved to surrounding communities. Ask the typical non-AA where he or she is from and you will find that most of them are not from around here. Most are likely to be from all walks of life, from every part of the US, as well as from Europe, Asia and Latin America. But that's not unique to non-AA - my office is majority AA but on learning where they come from you are more likely to hear something like NYC, Jacksonville, North Carolina, Chicago, Trinidad, Massachusetts or Ghana than you will hear DC.

A lot has changed in these recent decades, yet there is that small segment of people with multi-generational history in the city and a culture of victimhood, who are still stuck in the past, some of whom will gladly paint all non-AA with the brush of whatever historic and institutional racism and segregation of DC, even though most non-AA in DC are strangers both to DC and to each other and do not have that history.

It's invalid, irrelevant and inappropriate.

Gee, I wonder where this came from? Historically and culturally, the worst thing people of color did was give Europeans the benefit of the doubt. Not entirely "invalid, irrelevant or inappropriate."

This^^^

Sure, blame the Europeans for everything. But the fact is, Africans practiced slavery and exploitation on each other way back into history (Africans were selling slaves to Europeans) and it even continues to this day in some parts of Africa with African-on-African exploitation and human trafficking in Somalia, subsaharan Africa and elsewhere. But again, are you going to stay stuck in memes of the past and of elsewhere, or are you going to get with the HERE AND NOW?[/quote]

I challenge you to research the state of the African slave trade and the state of the Transatlantic slave trade. Do a compare and contrast and you will see that few things in history compared to the brutality of slavery in the Americas, physically, mentally, emotionally, and culturally.
And what is your excuse for the state of the First Nation in this country, or the indigenous of Australia, hell, native people worldwide. The past has not been dealt with in so many ways and until it is there will always be hard feelings. Instead of having open and honest conversations about the reality of european history the excuse is always "well, africans did it first..." it is lame and a copout. "HERE AND NOW" would not be what it is if history had not played out the way it did. To pretend that the wounds of our past have no bearing on our present is ridiculous. I imagine you would have us all forgive and forget, only to exploit again in some other way.

Seems there is a lot of presumption about who inflicted what wounds, who exploited whom, or if there even is anything to be forgiven, excused, et cetera where it comes to a great many. The "typical" white person in America in the 1700s and 1800s did not own slaves and could not afford them, it was more typically the wealthy landed gentry and particularly those with plantations or other large enterprises that owned slaves. Add to that the many white immigrants from Europe who came to America well after the abolition of slavery in America, whose families likewise did not own slaves. Likewise, there were many cases where whites in America were likewise exploited, sold into servitude, subjected to harsh conditions and mistreatment, i.e. indentured servants, not to mention European whites whose families went through a thousand years of years of abject poverty, exploitation and serfdom going back into ancient times. It's not correct or appropriate to run wild with assumptions and so broadly paint all white people with the collective blame and guilt of being the exploiters and the bringers of all the world's ills and evils.

[Anonymous]

^^ Have you ever heard of white privilege? That's a more contemporary scenario. Have you ever heard of colorism? That affects even people of color who have internalized white supremacy. This, along with class, is at work today.

Did you read the thread that asked how many (or what percentage) would it take ...? The percentage was "middle class." That is a proxy for what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ Have you ever heard of white privilege? That's a more contemporary scenario. Have you ever heard of colorism? That affects even people of color who have internalized white supremacy. This, along with class, is at work today.

Did you read the thread that asked how many (or what percentage) would it take ...? The percentage was "middle class." That is a proxy for what?

Perceptions are not always the same as realities. And for perspective, the typical person of color who has came as an immigrant to America in the last several decades typically does not share those perceptions and notions as he is not mired in the history and does not carry that baggage.