Saturday, November 19, 2005

the new minority, wears red?

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on its front page entitled "The New White Flight" discussing not the exodus of affluent whites from growing minority neighborshoods, but an exodus of white students from two Cuppertino, CA high schools where Asian student have become the majority. The parents of the white students argue that Asian parents push their children to succeed in academics so much that it raises the academic bar unusually high, making it more difficult for white students to excell.

While I do agree with suggestions for accessing the negative implications of parental academic pressure at the expense of extracurricular activities and enjoyment of life, I do not think Asians should be seen as one homogenous flood. We are not a monolithic machine with all the same abilities, goals, or desires. Though the cultural pressure may seem homogenous, we are all individuals! And sadly even when affluent whites become a minority, they still have money and opportunity to stack things in their favor. I will try to link or paste this article here if I can find it somewhere online; then you can tell me what you think.
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Oh, today was also Berkeley's Big Game with Stanford. I guess I knew about it, but didn't think too much of it. Just a football game, right? So thoughtless me, I put on a red shirt--no not red, more like maroon. Stanford's school color. What should I hear as I trek to the library past all the frat houses but, "Take off that red shirt! Take off that red shirt!" I made it library just fine, but I really need to not make that same mistake next year.

Oh, and we won. Go Bears!

1 comment:

Jon said...

yes, but pretty soon they won't have anywhere else to run to! remember, 2040 whites will be the statistical minority! but unfortunately the balance of power does not change so easily...without a spark anyway. thats where we come in :)
-jon