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the new white flight

topic posted Sat, November 26, 2005 - 1:52 PM by  Gary 		Share/Save/Bookmark
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This Wall Street Journal article's been making the rounds, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it here.

The New White Flight: In Silicon Valley, two high schools with outstanding academic reputations are losing white students as Asian students move in. Why?
online.wsj.com/article_em...NjkzWj.html

Lots of in depth coverage here:

Sepia Mutiny
www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/ar...2564.html

Poplicks
poplicks.com/2005/11/new...-really.html
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Gary
offline Gary
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  • swee...
    sweet.jesus!
    offline 12

    Re: the new white flight

    Thu, December 1, 2005 - 8:33 AM
    I attended one of the schools mentioned in the article (Lynbrook High) just as the flight was happening, and honestly, I don't blame white families for moving away. I noticed emphasis shifting toward more "Asian" courses like math and science, and most of my classmates (myself included) were solely interested in good grades and not the learning process itself.

    Not to say the white students weren't grade-motivated, but they had considerably less pressure from their parents to obtain high scores. Lynbrook and Monta Vista have always been excellent schools. Over the last 15-20 years, Asian students have helped make them nationally recognized. Even then, if I were a parent, I'd consider enrolling my kids at a shcool more focused on learning and development than one that is solely focused on the bottom line.
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    • Le
      Le
      offline 58

      Re: the new white flight

      Sat, December 3, 2005 - 10:01 AM
      Obviously, this is due to differences in the educational institutions in Asia versus America. Visiting relatives in southeast China right now, I'm a bit critical of the system here. Kids have non-stop homework, and high schoolers have classes for nearly 60 hrs a week. Don't forget the fact that schooling is not free, which clearly adds pressure to not fail or waste your time. The main reason I think all this sucks is because it's unfair to the majority of students who don't land rewarding careers when they get out. Unless you're a part of the small, lucky, & rich-enough percentage of high school graduates who can move onto college, you'll end up like most of my cousins who worked their asses off at the top of their classes just to work near-minimum wage jobs today.

      With all that said, I often don't relate to this issue as an Asian problem. I can't connect with the stereotype of us as academic elites who study endlessly. The main reason for this is cuz this wasn't the personality of me or any of my Asian friends growing up. I also know so many Asians who are into graphic design, animation, cinema, etc. In fact, I'm a film graduate. Yet, we're stereotyped as math and science geeks, not the artsy type. I suppose it should be noted that I grew up in middle-class Oakland and attended some ghetto-ass schools, and my experiences are clearly quite different from Asian youths who lived in the burbs and/or had private education.
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      • Firs...
        FirstName
        offline 135

        Re: the new white flight

        Fri, August 18, 2006 - 3:05 PM
        Great points.

        I had no idea this was happening in Bay Area schools since my parents thought it would be a great idea to move to the countryside and have their kids be taught at all-white rural school. Thanks Mom. Thanks Dad.

        Anyways, my CDL was the greatest gift I ever got from the State of California. At age sixteen, my sister and I were in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco every weekend.

        I would have pulled the trigger by now if I was stuck in White Exurbia.

        What my folks never understood, was that the big bad city would actually have been a better environment for their ABC kids to grow up. Better support systems. Public transportation, etc. etc.

        My folks basically were an Asian couple who participated in White Flight. Weird, but true. It was psychologically damaging to my sister and myself.

        She just got engaged to a Ukranian guy. Surprise surprise.

        As for me?

        Being an artistic and athletic guy, I understood early on that I would be last pick on every pick-up sports team not because I was undersized (I was 190 lbs and 5'11" in HS) or slow (i'm the son of a high-school track star), but because I wasn't white.

        Now that I live in Paris and SF, I can comfortably say to all the Chads/Brads/Steves of the world:

        "If you live in SF and hate Asians, why don't you move your lilly ass to Vacaville? Winters? or somewhere else in Jesusland?"

        When I'm angry, i keep it short:

        "Chad, Preston, whateverthefuckyournameis: shut the fuck up. Leave."
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