Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I have to say when people say they don’t want to disrespect the sanctity of the HBCU atmosphere at Banneker, it’s quite insulting. Especially given the gentrification that already happens in this city in so many other parts of the city.

The only response I want to hear and would respect is that you don’t want your child to be an only. It’s a practical and respectable response. However, I would counter that response by asking why can’t some families rally together like that did with Hardy to make it so they’re not an only. I imagine if today Banneker published demographics showing 8% white, the number of applicants would go up 1000% in just one year.

do you think it’s racist for white kids not to apply to HBCUs?

Not PP, but I don't think it's the same. You're looking for a high school within a few miles of your house, but that doesn't describe most people who go to residential colleges, so you just have a much wider set of options at the college level. If your HS list is "Wilson, SWW, BASIS, or Latin, or else private school/we move," then you're willing to pay a really big price to avoid your kid being one of the only white kids in a way that you're not if you're doing a national (or even regional) college search and avoiding HBCUs.

Yes, it’s the same. There are many very good HBCUs (Howard just to name one) and nobody calls white kids racist for not applying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I have to say when people say they don’t want to disrespect the sanctity of the HBCU atmosphere at Banneker, it’s quite insulting. Especially given the gentrification that already happens in this city in so many other parts of the city.

The only response I want to hear and would respect is that you don’t want your child to be an only. It’s a practical and respectable response. However, I would counter that response by asking why can’t some families rally together like that did with Hardy to make it so they’re not an only. I imagine if today Banneker published demographics showing 8% white, the number of applicants would go up 1000% in just one year.

do you think it’s racist for white kids not to apply to HBCUs?

Not PP, but I don't think it's the same. You're looking for a high school within a few miles of your house, but that doesn't describe most people who go to residential colleges, so you just have a much wider set of options at the college level. If your HS list is "Wilson, SWW, BASIS, or Latin, or else private school/we move," then you're willing to pay a really big price to avoid your kid being one of the only white kids in a way that you're not if you're doing a national (or even regional) college search and avoiding HBCUs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this was really about race, you'd see daycares being segregated too. (Why would all these supposedly racist people wait until elementary or high school to start being racist?)

But has anyone ever heard of a black daycare? Or a predominantly white daycare?

No, no one has ever heard of that.

That's because this isn't about race. This is about public schools in DC being awful and people not wanting to send their kids to awful schools.

Oh, but that discussion is about nannies v. daycare.

i have kids and honestly ive never met anyone who has a nanny. people with nannies seem rare.

That's because we aren't rich. The people who I know with nannies are like my ob/gyn, my boss, etc. Or maybe think not individual nannies, but nanny-shares. Or maybe think au pairs.

But the dialogue there seems to be that the BEST thing is to have a nanny or au pair, then the next is to have a nanny share, then daycares. These discussions are likely also racially coded, in the sense that race and class go hand-in-hand, particularly in DC.

I think you're missing the point. The larger point here is that daycares are extremely diverse (at least all the ones I've ever come into contact with), and that shouldnt be the case if everyone is supposedly as racist as people on this thread to seem assume.

DP. One can opt to send their 8 month old to a diverse daycare or even have a black nanny. I am a “what’s wrong with Banneker poster” and I have to say, I still don’t think people opting out of Banneker are outright racist. Again, they wouldn’t live in DC, Petworth, Columbia Heights if that were the case. They wouldn’t send their kid to even Wilson. The issue is, there is definitely something racially motivating driving some white families to not look at Banneker. I see it happen all the time. White people are fine with a safe number of people that don’t look like them, but when it gets closer to 75-80%, the comfort level changes. There have been many studies in here that show white families, all things equal, will choose to self-segregate or even have racial components e a driving factor for them. Let’s admit, many of the racial issues of our entire country are due to “some” white men dealing with the fact that they are losing their power in numbers and are realizing they are no longer going to be a majority in this country.

I am not asking families to opt into a failing Eastern as some people keep taking about. I’m simply asking for a reason people don’t look at a top 100 school that’s centrally located with metro accessibility.

Because Banneker isn't 75-80% non-white, it's 98% non-white. It would take a very self-confident student who is super comfortable not only with being the "only" but also with dealing with their own biases and having those conversations to attend Banneker as a 2%-er. I want you to consider your own white kids and if you would expect them to attend Banneker - not only they need to be that amazingly racially sensitive and honestly a standout human, but also willing to take on the workload and style of Banneker!

The other alternative is to band together a small group of white kids to attend Banneker - that would be an interesting social experiment but sounds a lot like let's gentrify Banneker.

I admit I would LOVE my kid to be that one kid who feels totally awesome at Banneker. Thanks for giving me a goal. But living in DC, that's not likely. This ish is hard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I have to say when people say they don’t want to disrespect the sanctity of the HBCU atmosphere at Banneker, it’s quite insulting. Especially given the gentrification that already happens in this city in so many other parts of the city.

The only response I want to hear and would respect is that you don’t want your child to be an only. It’s a practical and respectable response. However, I would counter that response by asking why can’t some families rally together like that did with Hardy to make it so they’re not an only. I imagine if today Banneker published demographics showing 8% white, the number of applicants would go up 1000% in just one year.

do you think it’s racist for white kids not to apply to HBCUs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the article being bad.


The one question I have for everyone is if wealthy white parents don’t segregate then why is there such a low number of white kids at Banneker? In all my years of living in DC and reading DCUMs, this is the one school that supports the argument.

Glad you brought this up. No doubt some students/families don’t apply to Banneker for various reasons rooted in systemic racism, overt racism, etc. but I do wonder (my kid is many, many years away from high school) if we applied would we be negatively impacting the school. I mean, this is a pretty great school that now serves mostly Black and brown students and if all of us white families started going there, we’d kind of destroy that culture, right? I’d hate to be the white family cashing in on the good thing Black and brown families built. But I’d be curious what others thought. Maybe I’m over analyzing.

It's racist to send your white kids to Banneker. It's also racist to not send your white kids to Banneker. It's even more racist if you don't have any kids to send to Banneker.

Just stop it. We all know why white parents aren't sending their kids to Banneker, and it isn't to "protect" the school. It's because the school is virtually all black and and white parents don't want that for their kids. Yes, it's racism.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the article being bad.


The one question I have for everyone is if wealthy white parents don’t segregate then why is there such a low number of white kids at Banneker? In all my years of living in DC and reading DCUMs, this is the one school that supports the argument.

Glad you brought this up. No doubt some students/families don’t apply to Banneker for various reasons rooted in systemic racism, overt racism, etc. but I do wonder (my kid is many, many years away from high school) if we applied would we be negatively impacting the school. I mean, this is a pretty great school that now serves mostly Black and brown students and if all of us white families started going there, we’d kind of destroy that culture, right? I’d hate to be the white family cashing in on the good thing Black and brown families built. But I’d be curious what others thought. Maybe I’m over analyzing.

It's racist to send your white kids to Banneker. It's also racist to not send your white kids to Banneker. It's even more racist if you don't have any kids to send to Banneker.

Just stop it. We all know why white parents aren't sending their kids to Banneker, and it isn't to "protect" the school. It's because the school is virtually all black and and white parents don't want that for their kids. Yes, it's racism.

Anonymous wrote:PS - I have to say when people say they don’t want to disrespect the sanctity of the HBCU atmosphere at Banneker, it’s quite insulting. Especially given the gentrification that already happens in this city in so many other parts of the city.

The only response I want to hear and would respect is that you don’t want your child to be an only. It’s a practical and respectable response. However, I would counter that response by asking why can’t some families rally together like that did with Hardy to make it so they’re not an only. I imagine if today Banneker published demographics showing 8% white, the number of applicants would go up 1000% in just one year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the article being bad.


The one question I have for everyone is if wealthy white parents don’t segregate then why is there such a low number of white kids at Banneker? In all my years of living in DC and reading DCUMs, this is the one school that supports the argument.

Glad you brought this up. No doubt some students/families don’t apply to Banneker for various reasons rooted in systemic racism, overt racism, etc. but I do wonder (my kid is many, many years away from high school) if we applied would we be negatively impacting the school. I mean, this is a pretty great school that now serves mostly Black and brown students and if all of us white families started going there, we’d kind of destroy that culture, right? I’d hate to be the white family cashing in on the good thing Black and brown families built. But I’d be curious what others thought. Maybe I’m over analyzing.

It's racist to send your white kids to Banneker. It's also racist to not send your white kids to Banneker. It's even more racist if you don't have any kids to send to Banneker.

Just stop it. We all know why white parents aren't sending their kids to Banneker, and it isn't to "protect" the school. It's because the school is virtually all black and and white parents don't want that for their kids. Yes, it's racism.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the article being bad.


The one question I have for everyone is if wealthy white parents don’t segregate then why is there such a low number of white kids at Banneker? In all my years of living in DC and reading DCUMs, this is the one school that supports the argument.

Glad you brought this up. No doubt some students/families don’t apply to Banneker for various reasons rooted in systemic racism, overt racism, etc. but I do wonder (my kid is many, many years away from high school) if we applied would we be negatively impacting the school. I mean, this is a pretty great school that now serves mostly Black and brown students and if all of us white families started going there, we’d kind of destroy that culture, right? I’d hate to be the white family cashing in on the good thing Black and brown families built. But I’d be curious what others thought. Maybe I’m over analyzing.

It's racist to send your white kids to Banneker. It's also racist to not send your white kids to Banneker. It's even more racist if you don't have any kids to send to Banneker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this was really about race, you'd see daycares being segregated too. (Why would all these supposedly racist people wait until elementary or high school to start being racist?)

But has anyone ever heard of a black daycare? Or a predominantly white daycare?

No, no one has ever heard of that.

That's because this isn't about race. This is about public schools in DC being awful and people not wanting to send their kids to awful schools.

Oh, but that discussion is about nannies v. daycare.

i have kids and honestly ive never met anyone who has a nanny. people with nannies seem rare.

That's because we aren't rich. The people who I know with nannies are like my ob/gyn, my boss, etc. Or maybe think not individual nannies, but nanny-shares. Or maybe think au pairs.

But the dialogue there seems to be that the BEST thing is to have a nanny or au pair, then the next is to have a nanny share, then daycares. These discussions are likely also racially coded, in the sense that race and class go hand-in-hand, particularly in DC.

I think you're missing the point. The larger point here is that daycares are extremely diverse (at least all the ones I've ever come into contact with), and that shouldnt be the case if everyone is supposedly as racist as people on this thread to seem assume.

DP. One can opt to send their 8 month old to a diverse daycare or even have a black nanny. I am a “what’s wrong with Banneker poster” and I have to say, I still don’t think people opting out of Banneker are outright racist. Again, they wouldn’t live in DC, Petworth, Columbia Heights if that were the case. They wouldn’t send their kid to even Wilson. The issue is, there is definitely something racially motivating driving some white families to not look at Banneker. I see it happen all the time. White people are fine with a safe number of people that don’t look like them, but when it gets closer to 75-80%, the comfort level changes. There have been many studies in here that show white families, all things equal, will choose to self-segregate or even have racial components e a driving factor for them. Let’s admit, many of the racial issues of our entire country are due to “some” white men dealing with the fact that they are losing their power in numbers and are realizing they are no longer going to be a majority in this country.

I am not asking families to opt into a failing Eastern as some people keep taking about. I’m simply asking for a reason people don’t look at a top 100 school that’s centrally located with metro accessibility.