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

[Anonymous]

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

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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.

CORRECTION: Liberal Catholic children celebrate 10/31 but religious and C. Catholics celebrate 11/1 saints Day. Big difference.
Like? What kind of cultural things?

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]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most Hispanics are white.

Not the ones at high farms schools tho

They are at my high FARMS school.

[Anonymous]

It sucks being in a Hispanic neighborhood. I mean they're fine people; it's all the whites in the Montgomery County W schools who won't get caught dead saying anything about Hispanics but feel it's fine to discriminate against White people that live in Hispanic neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

My white children went to SSIMS and then Einstein. Their friends were predominantly non-white, and it was the best thing for them. They can easily make friends with anyone and are highly adjusted in the real world.

OP, your child won’t make an issue of it u less you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white children went to SSIMS and then Einstein. Their friends were predominantly non-white, and it was the best thing for them. They can easily make friends with anyone and are highly adjusted in the real world.

OP, your child won’t make an issue of it u less you do.

Yah because all those white kids in mostly white schools aren't adjusted to the real world. Eyeroll. I think people forget everyone is more or less adjusted for the real world with the variable being where in the economic spectrum one adjusts to. Problem with poor areas is it can normalize a less than desirable outcome and glamorize bit players in a low rent production of life.

[Anonymous]

There can be different norms esp in elementary school but as long as you are aware for them you can adjust. I do wish I had known more about this when my daughter was that age. She had friendships that didn’t last in the same way as friendships with children of her same racial backgrounds and I think it was in part because I didn’t understand some of the different play date norms and work with them as much. For example, we did a lot of sleepovers and not everyone is comfortable with letting their third grader (especially girls) sleep over at another family’s house if they don’t know them well. Other families or cultures may be stricter about that or about going over to each other’s houses in a way I wasn’t aware of, so I assumed the child didn’t want to be friends, but their parents might just not have been comfortable with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There can be different norms esp in elementary school but as long as you are aware for them you can adjust. I do wish I had known more about this when my daughter was that age. She had friendships that didn’t last in the same way as friendships with children of her same racial backgrounds and I think it was in part because I didn’t understand some of the different play date norms and work with them as much. For example, we did a lot of sleepovers and not everyone is comfortable with letting their third grader (especially girls) sleep over at another family’s house if they don’t know them well. Other families or cultures may be stricter about that or about going over to each other’s houses in a way I wasn’t aware of, so I assumed the child didn’t want to be friends, but their parents might just not have been comfortable with it.

Some of this has nothing to do with race. We didn’t do sleepovers. Partly activities partly we didn’t know the parents asking or for those we did know, limited supervision.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Why is it unfair?! Also why all?! He had way more playdates and smaller and larger parties at the new school. I doubt that he suddenly became more popular as he transferred. It’s just the culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Admin was Hispanic for the most part too.
I think it was more of the overall culture of the school too. Kinda like rocket ship academy where they are tough on kids because they presume there’s not much structure at home? White middle class school are just more laid back in general imho

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white children went to SSIMS and then Einstein. Their friends were predominantly non-white, and it was the best thing for them. They can easily make friends with anyone and are highly adjusted in the real world.

OP, your child won’t make an issue of it u less you do.

Current parent of a Northwood/SSIM student. This rings true for my kid too. The one thing I like about Northwood is that it does not seem to be clique-y.