<p>Yeah, lets give credit to the hippie generation for promoting love and peace. :p</p>
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<p>Well, I think the gist of the article was that the URM children hadn’t experienced the same problems associated with race that their parents had. Consequently, they were flippant about its importance, which understandably was disconcerting to their parents. In any case, there was a gap in world view. I don’t think it was a judgemental article; if I made it sound like it was judgemental, that was not my intention.</p>
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<p>Thank you for that.</p>
<p>This is why IndianParent’s viewpoint is SO offensive to me. His son attends a virtually lily-White school in a tony suburb, and everyone there just loves him and the teachers don’t discriminate based on race! Well guess why that is?</p>
<p>It is a good thing IP moved here only 20 years ago, because now he gets to suck on the fruits of my generation’s labor to get his son where he is. If his son had been here in my parents’ generation, he would have been the subject of cruel epithets and would not be admitted to a school anything like the one he attends.</p>
<p>IP doesn’t appreciate this, rather he thinks “its funny” that anyone (including HYPS) should care about the racial make-up of schools, and throws it back in our faces by calling us “hard-core racists,” for caring. This is because he is ignorant about American history or because he cannot think outside of his rigid perspective of his own experience.</p>
<p>Bay, on the one hand I agree with you, and I have the same emotional reaction.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think the explosion in Asian and Hispanic immigrants, and the burgeoning economic and political success of the BRICs and others, is changing the dynamic of American society, and should change it. They really aren’t part of the racial drama that was central to American history for 300 years. Where I live, that drama still completely infuses almost every aspect of public life, and a lot of private life, too. But there are parts of the country already where that seems practically irrelevant, and much less emotionally important than the discontinuities between Anglo and Asian cultures. People here have a tendency to think in binary terms – black and white. But at my kids’ high school, which is probably indicative of the future, even here, things were split at least four ways, and really there were 20+ separate racial/ethnic identities that were apparent to everyone, with no group coming remotely close to dominating (and no group capable of accomplishing anything other than in coalition with several others). With of course lots of mixed-race kids who effectively chose their identification. In that world, it’s hard for affirmative action as practiced by our generation to make sense. Ultimately, it won’t.</p>
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I don’t believe that’s the reason at all. I think parents are afraid that if they send kids to schools with a large Asian population their kids will be forced to work harder than they think is healthy in order to keep up. Ms. Tiger Mother didn’t help that perception BTW. My kids as I have said attended a school where they were not in the majority - the school was 40% about white, 40% African American and 15% Hispanic, maybe fewer of something since there are some Asians, just not a lot.</p>
<p>My kids have friends of all races, but they notice it. My son noticed in Kindergarten that most of the special ed kids were African American. We had a talk about poverty and how that might lead to more learning issues. My son notices that he gets hassled more when he’s with his African American friends. Noticing race doesn’t make one racist.</p>
<p>One of the concerns expressed to me about the high school was of being shut out of study groups, tutoring sessions, etc.</p>
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<p>My preference doesn’t really matter. My kid likes to be around other kids who have similar interests and are a bit “serious” in what they do. For example, class clowns and rowdy kids are out, as are kids who idolize pop culture. That’s about it.</p>
<p>JHS,
I totally agree that it is changing, and I see that in my everyday life here in CA. I understand that kids who have only known a “melting pot” community may not understand using race as a factor in college admissions. I don’t think that gives them a pass to call the practice “racist,” just because they are ignorant, though.</p>
<p>“It is a good thing IP moved here only 20 years ago, because now he gets to suck on the fruits of my generation’s labor to get his son where he is. If his son had been here in my parents’ generation, he would have been the subject of cruel epithets and would not be admitted to a school anything like the one he attends.”</p>
<p>Bay,</p>
<p>When one moves from one democracy to another, they are not surprised by things money can buy which is essentially what IP is getting from a private school. However, based on recent article by a black kid at UPenn clearly shows, no generation has wiped out cruel epithets even if you want to take credit for it on behalf of your generation, whichever that might be.</p>
<p>People with money have done whatever they wanted in every generation. Indians have gone to Oxford and Cambridge during the British occupation since they could afford it. There was a story (urban legend?) that Nehru brought home some British guy who ridiculed him and made him tea with fire made up of British currency because he was that rich. There were a lot of rich Asians getting educated at Oxford and Cambridge during 1800s and 1900s when people had nt heard of Harvard or Yale. The royals in these countries were going to Eton for prep school.</p>
<p>There were always things people could buy including education in any school of their choosing as long as they had money. The same people had the freedom to leave or hurt someone spewing venom.</p>
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<p>Is that school led or parent led? I would be very surprised if the school is shutting out some kids out of study groups and tutoring sessions based on race. That’s not the kind of school anyone should go to.</p>
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<p>And if you were upper middle class there and are upper middle class here. </p>
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<p>Exactly. I haven’t faced any overt racism in my 20+ years in this country. That’s why I was so shocked to hear that the Elite Us have implicit racial quotas. That in my view is totally unAmerican.</p>
<p>texaspg,
I didn’t mean to imply that cruel epithets don’t still exist. I apologize if that offended anyone. I’m quite certain they do not exist to the extent that they did in my parents generation, however, because I remember all of the common slurs being thrown around then, and often as the butt of jokes.</p>
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<p>I was afraid to say this, as then it would for sure be construed as an aspersion cast by me on non-Asians that they are unwilling to work hard. But I do think there is a lot of truth to this. It goes back to the merit based admissions discussion. Asians - not because they are born geniuses, but because they are made to work hard by their parents - would take most of the seats (like Jews before them) in merit-based admissions. Same thing is likely playing out here in this particular school. The competition is likely insane.</p>
<p>I like my kid’s school. :-)</p>
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<p>Spot on JHS! However, Hunt has informed me that I must pay attention and priority to the 300 years of racial drama, as that is some sort of an immigration tax. Too bad the INS didn’t let me know of that, and I had to learn that after 20+ years in this country from CC, and on Hunt’s authority.</p>
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<p>ROFL! That was a good one coming from you of all people, Bay.</p>
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And I like my kids’ school. They both had lots of free time outside of schoolwork to pursue their own interests. That extra time gave my older son the time to explore computer science far beyond anything most schools offer. I think he turned out okay - graduated from CMU and is now employed by Google.</p>
<p>BTW, I think the US could be improved by a bit more respect for education. We have a strong anti-intellectual bent in our culture that I’d love to see tempered. I just think you can overdo it.</p>
<p>Bay - All I am saying is it is shocking to hear it still happens at elite schools like Penn or any other college environment for that matter. The epithets have taken a cruel turn beyond race. There was a middle school kid that killed himself in Houston last year due to taunting about being gay.</p>
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<p>I have. I don’t think there’s much of an insight there. I had a culture shock and dealt with it. The success is not related to the culture shock at all. It has to do with thousands of years of history in Asia where the academically successful rule the country.</p>
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<p>texaspg,
Yes, I heard it happened to the Jeremy Lin, the Harvard basketball player, as well. I don’t think the gay epithets are anything new. Fortunately, I think that issue is receiving a lot of needed attention now.</p>