If you’re a minority or parent to a mixed race child

[Anonymous]

How much does this factor into what neighborhood you live in and what school you choose? I live in an area of NOVA that has a good number of Hispanics, Asians/East Asians and mixed kids, and my child is mixed Asian and white. I keep going back and forth on whether to find a house here or look in NW DC. I looked at Wilson High, Deal, Murch demographics and the numbers are more like 30-50%+ black and Hispanic and only 5% Asian and/or 2-5% mixed race. If you are a minority parent or parent to a mixed (especially Asian/other race mix), how did this factor into your decision making? Growing up in a white area myself, it was important for me to find an area that was racially and socioeconomically diverse, but I go back and forth on whether the specific kind of racial diversity is important. What are your thoughts? I hated being only one of 2 Asian kids in my school, so that is where I am coming from.

We are looking at purchasing a home and settling down and I would love to hear other opinions.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to add that while we have many Hispanic and Asian/mixed kids in the schools in NOVA, there aren’t many black kids in our schools. But if we decide to settle in DC and that would be flipped there would be very few Asian and mixed kids, and I don’t know if my kids would feel alienated as I did.

[Anonymous]

I like diverse schools and the diversity should reflect the diversity %ages of the nation. I don't care to be in a school that is 70% blacks and Hispanics.

I am ok with a school that has 5% Asians and 50% whites, And 20%each Hispanics and Blacks?

Not possible.? I would then want to be in a school that is doing very well academically.

[Anonymous]

Literally none, but I can pass as white when I'm not tan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like diverse schools and the diversity should reflect the diversity %ages of the nation. I don't care to be in a school that is 70% blacks and Hispanics.

I am ok with a school that has 5% Asians and 50% whites, And 20% each Hispanics and Blacks?

Not possible.? I would then want to be in a school that is doing very well academically.

How important is socioeconomic diversity to you in relation to racial? NOVA has maybe 5% black students but a good chunk of free/reduced lunch kids. Looks like Wilson cluster I was looking has maybe 2% free/reduces lunch kids. Would 5% black with kids of different socioeconomics trump 20-25% black with seemingly mostly well to do kids? 5% doesn’t seem diverse to me, but neither does 2% free reduced lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Literally none, but I can pass as white when I'm not tan.

I’m Asian and my son is half. Neither of us look white. I know when I lived in DC 10 years ago I felt left out, but I don’t know if mixed kids would feel that way and perhaps times and demographics are shifting too.

[Anonymous]

I would not want my child as the only or one of a few regardless of what race I was and yes, I would take it into consideration.

[Anonymous]

I'm Asian, my kids are white/Asian.

We purposefully picked a diverse area (but we are in MoCo).

Our clusters is
25% Asian American
17% Black
23% Hispanic
30% White

And several mixed race kids, of all kinds. I think it's great. We used to live in an area that was like 90% white (and wealthy).

[Anonymous]

I grew up in DCPS. The only thing important to me (at the time) was that my daughter go to a good school. She goes to a WOTP school and has been one of maybe 2-3 black kids in the class for the last 5 years. It wasn't an issue until she asked if she could go to a school with more black kids. She says no one has been mean to her, but she feels like she doesn't fit in. It's a tough thing to resolve. I haven't found any solutions yet.

[Anonymous]

When my family first moved to McLean ten years ago, we did it for the excellent schools. Honestly, I was nervous about moving to a very affluent area which I assumed would be mostly white. But I have come to realize that McLean is much more diverse than people realize. As a matter of fact, McLean High school is only 55% white and that number includes people of Middle eastern and North African descent (which the government considers “white” for census purposes). My neighbors come from all over the world (East Asia, South Asia, East and West Africa, Middle East, Europe, etc.). So even though we came for the schools, I have been pleasantly surprised by the diversity!

[Anonymous]

Not in DC area but our choice of schools was most definitely informed by the school’s policy on diversity.

[Anonymous]

We moved from North Arlington to Fairfax County (to a lower rated school) because I did not want my mixed (south asian/white) children being the only non-white kids in their classes (and yes, North Arlington is VERY white). Been there, done that and I hated being one of three non-white kids in my class. I wanted my children to be part of an inclusive, diverse school. Our Fairfax County school is maybe 30% Asian/South Asian, 30% Hispanic, 30% White and 10% African-American/African/Mixed/Other. My kids have friends of all races/colors/religions, they have several other mixed-race friends, and they are very happy.

[Anonymous]

I’m Asian and DH is white. Our child is mixed but looks more white. We are in DC. I love living in the city but we decided to stay also because we wanted our DS to be in a school with much diversity. Yes, his school is very diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m Asian and DH is white. Our child is mixed but looks more white. We are in DC. I love living in the city but we decided to stay also because we wanted our DS to be in a school with much diversity. Yes, his school is very diverse.

Same, I'm 1/2 Asian and we find that DC has a lot of diversity. Also, there are a few elementary schools and at least one high school that have closer to 10% Asian students.

[Anonymous]

Chose a diverse neighborhood in a very diverse zip code.