Sunday, November 20, 2005
the "new white flight"

The Wallstreet Journal recently featured an interesting article about the so-called "new white flight". Historically, the term "white flight" was used to describe the migration of white people in the '50s, '60s, and '70s to the suburbs in reaction to increasing numbers of Blacks and other minorities... but now the "new white flight" (happening in the city of Cupertino, CA) is reaction to something else: academic competition with Asian American students.

Whites aren't quitting the schools because the schools are failing academically. Quite the contrary: Many white parents say they're leaving because the schools are too academically driven and too narrowly invested in subjects such as math and science at the expense of liberal arts and extracurriculars like sports and other personal interests.

The two schools, put another way that parents rarely articulate so bluntly, are too Asian.

Cathy Gatley, co-president of Monta Vista High School's parent-teacher association, recently dissuaded a family with a young child from moving to Cupertino because there are so few young white kids left in the public schools. "This may not sound good," she confides, "but their child may be the only Caucasian kid in the class." All of Ms. Gatley's four children have attended or are currently attending Monta Vista. One son, Andrew, 17 years old, took the high-school exit exam last summer and left the school to avoid the academic pressure. He is currently working in a pet-supply store. Ms. Gatley, who is white, says she probably wouldn't have moved to Cupertino if she had anticipated how much it would change.


Funny how kids of color are always expected to "deal with" being minorities in an American culture dominated by white people, but when it comes to role-reversal, even in a non-hostile environment, some white people can't hang.

The article also touches on several other issues - stereotypes of Asian kids as overachieving students; the lack of well-rounded educational curriculums in a increasingly test-happy society; and the blaming of immigrants for pressuring their kids to focus exclusively on academics. The article is being discussing in a thread both on the Fighting 44s site and IIStix.

Thanks to AngryAsianMan for the link.


.:.

Racist Comics Fuel Nationalism in Japan

For those interested in Japanese culture and politics with Korea and China, the NY Times recently ran this article, which discusses the spread and popularity of nationalistic comics which depict the Chinese people as depraved cannibals, and Korea owing a debt to all Japanese for being built into modern country. And you thought American had a monopoly on crazy right-wingers.

There's a discussion about this right here.


.:.


to my best friend



Happy Birthday! Congrats, man... you're 27.

  |


Comments:
It's weird reading about people's comments and what not about the high school (Monta Vista) I graduated from =P.
I tend to agree with many of the points made in the article...even if most of them are generalizations...and it wasn't very descriptive =( ... doesn't really portray what Monta Vista is really like (or was ... since I graduated). It was interesting watching the community change over time as I went through junior high and high school.
 
Post a Comment

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33

the facts.
name. Gar AKA "that Chinese guy" "Sleepy.McSleeping"
ethnicity/nationality. Chinese/American, 4th gen.
location. Sea-Town, WA, USA Kawanishi, JAPAN
occupation. less-cynical poor grad student
age. younger than you think, older than you know

 



 

[contact]
UnseenGC @ AIM
(myname) @ gmail.com

 

 

[ARCHIVES]
main listing

[memories]
i - ii - iii - iv - v

  This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours? Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com Creative Commons License