My friend's daughter has been placed in an all-black class, What should they do?

[memphis]

The only busing to speak of would be within Shelby County Schools, a majority white, and nearly all suburban system. There simply aren't any ghetto kids involved. You have suburban white kids and suburban blacks, with some rural kids of both races in more remote areas. The only issue is race. There is no socio-economic factor. All you're saying is OMG, black kids. You still haven't identified which school you are talking about, so I can't comment about the particulars of the situation, but I suspect there is a problem with the administration of the one school if race based bullying is permitted. In addition to White Station, I'd send a kid to Central, Cordova, Ridgeway, maybe Overton. Yes, most inner-city Memphis schools are ghetto but I can't think of a single Shelby County School that is.   

[War on Want]

Best. Thread. Ever.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Hmmm... I can't really say much to this argument because my elementary school was like 97% white, 2% were adopted minorities, and 1% was native American... my middle school was 95% white... the 5% that were native American were basically one family with like 7 kids.  It was a small school.

My high school was like 85% white.  I don't think there was a single hispanic person at my high school.  There were more adopted Asians than there were blacks, and the other 12% or so were Native American, many of which were voluntarily bused down from Red Lake Indian Reservation because they could do better here than the school on the rez.

[ilikeverin]

OMG MY SCHOOL WAS FULL OF WHITE PEOPLE

BUT I AM AZN (ON THE INSIDE)

HOW DID I EVER SURVIVE

[War on Want]

Racist?
No, this is racist.  And liberals don't want to deal with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white

Ummmm if you haven't noticed we have the same racism in white communities just much more subtle. Like kids who were baggy pants, basketball shorts, are considered gangsta and are made fun of often.

[J. J.]

Well, there is an empty house next door to me; the median price is under $50 K and has increased in value, even in this housing market [/sarcasm]

[??????????]

Just because a class is made up of only one demographic doesn't automatically make it bad. 

Possibly. In the case of my daughter, our neighborhood school is over 80% Mexican. The children all speak spanish for the most part and being my daughter is a white english speaker she was basically starting to be left out of activities the other children were doing and mostly because she doesn't speak spanish. Overall, I'm definitely glad we moved her to a more balanced charter school. The demographics are closer to our family and it's not 100% white either. She has opened up socially more and has almost twice as many friends now that we've moved her. I don't the decision my wife and I made at all. And on top of that, she gets some religious education in her public school as well.

In this situation, I'd simply tell them to lie about their address and she'll get to go to another school. It's pretty common actually.

[memphis]

[In this situation, I'd simply tell them to lie about their address and she'll get to go to another school. It's pretty common actually.

^^^^^
All you need for Memphis City Schools is a utility bill with the address that you're using and a letter from the actual resident saying that he's renting a room to your friend.

[War on Want]

Just because a class is made up of only one demographic doesn't automatically make it bad. 

Possibly. In the case of my daughter, our neighborhood school is over 80% Mexican. The children all speak spanish for the most part and being my daughter is a white english speaker she was basically starting to be left out of activities the other children were doing and mostly because she doesn't speak spanish. Overall, I'm definitely glad we moved her to a more balanced charter school. The demographics are closer to our family and it's not 100% white either. She has opened up socially more and has almost twice as many friends now that we've moved her. I don't the decision my wife and I made at all. And on top of that, she gets some religious education in her public school as well.

In this situation, I'd simply tell them to lie about their address and she'll get to go to another school. It's pretty common actually.

Well I actually agree that is a problem when you have 80% of kids at your school district speaking spanish to each other. Also what kinda charter school puts in religious education? I find that disturbing. I dislike any public school giving kids theology unless it is educational.

[??????????]

Also what kinda charter school puts in religious education? I find that disturbing. I dislike any public school giving kids theology unless it is educational.

The good ones maybe?

[War on Want]

Also what kinda charter school puts in religious education? I find that disturbing. I dislike any public school giving kids theology unless it is educational.

The good ones maybe?

Well it is different if it is educational, but if it is like little kid things like "Okay kids Jesus loves you" then I would get pissed off. No federal funding should go to schools that activley promote Christianity much less any religion.

[J. J.]

Seriously, I might ask about the demographics.  She might learn to be boogie, but I would suspect that's what her parents want. 

[Stranger in a strange land]

Racist?
No, this is racist.  And liberals don't want to deal with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white

In his 2004 convention speech, Barack Obama acknowledged that this is a problem which must be addressed, which is a lot more than the likes of Al or Jesse would ever do to address this problem.

And yes, Hip-hop culture is a HUGE problem in the black community. Redneck culture is a huge problem in the white community, and Cholo culture is a huge problem in the Latino community. I see these as being the same problem actually, just manifested differently across racial lines: cultures which glorify guns and violence, look down upon learning, and despise and denigrate outsiders.

But the solution I would advocate for your friend's problem is this: don't go to an open admission public school in Memphis. Send their daughter to a charter school, or to school in a nearby suburban school district. However, if their daughter is okay with being in an otherwise all-black class, and if the quality of the education is the same as it would be otherwise, then I wouldn't worry about it.

[??????????]

In his 2004 convention speech, Barack Obama acknowledged that this is a problem which must be addressed, which is a lot more than the likes of Al or Jesse would ever do to address this problem.

Is this the same "post racial" candidate who brings up race on a nearly weekly basis?

[Stranger in a strange land]

In his 2004 convention speech, Barack Obama acknowledged that this is a problem which must be addressed, which is a lot more than the likes of Al or Jesse would ever do to address this problem.

Is this the same "post racial" candidate who brings up race on a nearly weekly basis?

better than denying the problem and acting like it doesn't exist

[??????????]

In his 2004 convention speech, Barack Obama acknowledged that this is a problem which must be addressed, which is a lot more than the likes of Al or Jesse would ever do to address this problem.

Is this the same "post racial" candidate who brings up race on a nearly weekly basis?

better than denying the problem and acting like it doesn't exist

Obama is a phony, fraud and liar. I'd have zero respect for him as president.

[Associate Justice PiT]

In his 2004 convention speech, Barack Obama acknowledged that this is a problem which must be addressed, which is a lot more than the likes of Al or Jesse would ever do to address this problem.

Is this the same "post racial" candidate who brings up race on a nearly weekly basis?

better than denying the problem and acting like it doesn't exist

Obama is a phony, fraud and liar. I'd have zero respect for him as president.

     Almost all presidents are phonies, frauds, & liars. The thing that bugs me is that Obama pretends he isn't. at a product of the Daley machine being a change from politics as usual. Sorry for my brief tirade.

[specific_name]

I voted for the "move" option. I'm surprised, there weren't more calls of rascist! in all caps.

[??????????]

I voted for the "move" option. I'm surprised, there weren't more calls of rascist! in all caps.

It would be hypocritical for Obama supporters to place the race card.

[Ban my account ffs!]

It's one thing to say

"I don't want to send my child to that school because I don't want her mixing with that human filth"

It's another to say "I don't want to send my child to that school because the other students will pick on her because of her skin color."

[CultureKing]

Is she actually the only white kid at that school or is she simply in the minority? (It can't be 100% black right?, there must be some amount of kids of other races.)

Personally I think it is dependent on the quality of the education, if that is ok then you might as well stay, it not then I would move to another area for public education. I dont think I know enough to make a good judgement, though simply moving because there are many more blacks than whites in the school doesn't make alot of sense.

[Sbane]

I voted for the "move" option. I'm surprised, there weren't more calls of rascist! in all caps.

Never does he mention how the school is performing or whether the kid is getting harrassed by the other students. Nope, it is all about the race of the other students. I don't see why anyone should move just because all the students are black. I didn't complain when I had to be in an all-white classroom.

[Eraserhead]

Also what kinda charter school puts in religious education? I find that disturbing. I dislike any public school giving kids theology unless it is educational.

The good ones maybe?

Scary stuff.

[Verily]

When I was a little kid, I went to the local public schools, which at the time and today are almost entirely black and Hispanic. (Today they are much more Hispanic than when I was there; at the time they were probably 80% black and 15% Hispanic.) I did leave for a private school, although that was because, by fourth grade, I was taking half of my classes with the fifth graders, and busing between the elementary and middle schools during the day was ridiculous (although the principal proposed it to get my brother and I to stay). While I wasn't exactly a happy kid at the time, I got into fights mostly because I was smart, which is pretty typical of elementary school. Had I been a girl (and all of the other kids who really worked hard were, save my brother), it would have been basically a no-stress situation. I know people who continued at the public schools thereafter, and they all enjoyed themselves without being "ghetto" (including friends who were white or Asian).

There certainly is a "ghetto culture", but it is not by an means all-pervasive even among blacks, and I have never noticed it to be more misogynist than "normal culture", probably less so than the private school I ended up attending. There is basically nothing but racism informing the decision to remove their daughter from the school; they are not even willing to make an attempt to see whether she would be happy. Of course, the terrible black people who will mistreat her have probably already been described to her by her parents, so she's unlikely to be happy simply because she knows she's expected to be unhappy. And that is the real tragedy of this story: the continuation of that expectation.

It doesn't sound like this place is comparable to Englewood

Englewood had race riots in the early 1980s and a desegregation court case in the early 1990s while I was in the public schools. I know what I'm dealing with. Don't talk down to me about this. I have more experience with race and racial tensions than 95% of the people on this board who live in the South.

He's talking about a suburban black population that is almost certainly wealthier and less "ghetto" than the black population of Englewood and in an era fifteen years later. And he's doing it right after Shelby County demonstrated that it is not "reverse racist" in the TN-09 primary. Sometimes I agree with htmldon and sometimes he just comes out as racist scum.

[??????????]

Don is anything but racist Verily.