Ugly Truth About NYC High Schools That White Parents Don’t Want to Admit

This is a continuation of my fight against de Blasio’s bill to scrap SHSAT. You can read my previous post about this if you have not read it.

The SHSAT schools are an easy target for politicians because not only that they have a very small percentage of black and Hispanic students but that they do not have many white students either. Asians alone dominate these schools, so it does appear quite unfair. The politicians are, therefore, able to garner support from white, black, and Hispanic voters by supporting de Blasio’s bill. The only community they need to sacrifice is Asians. But let’s think about why there aren’t many white students in the specialized high schools.

One thing we can all agree on is this: It’s not because some powerful Asians at the top are manipulating admissions criteria to favor Asians. Here is my view based on anecdotal evidence: It’s because white parents do not want to send their kids to schools that focus so much on exams. Many white parents have told me this, and I understand it. But this is simply a difference in values. That is, white people are choosing not to go to SHSAT schools. It’s not because they are being prevented by Asians. This is how we end up with so many Asians at SHSAT schools.

And, to spell out the ugly truth that nobody wants to admit: White parents do not want to send their kids to black/Hispanic dominant schools either. The perfect school for them is a white-dominant school with enough blacks and Hispanics to brag about. Why? Because, as long as they can maintain the majority, they would have control over its culture and values. But let’s look at the racial makeup of all public school students:

• White: 15%
• Asian: 16%
• Black: 26%
• Hispanic: 41%

White students represent the smallest minority. So, their ideal school should be virtually impossible because if they try to maintain the majority by objective standards, they would be outdone by Asians. Their only option, therefore, is to abuse whatever power they have, political or otherwise, to promote subjective admission standards. If the selection criteria are subjective, white people will naturally gain more control because they still dominate the upper strata of our society. This is precisely what is happening to elite colleges as well. They are just using “diversity” as a way to maintain their control.

Can I prove it? No. It’s not possible to gather data on this and prove it, but this is precisely why subjectivity is such a convenient tool for white people. Subjectivity allows them to covertly maintain their power and perpetuate institutional racism. So, if you are black or Hispanic, please keep that in mind. White people who are trying to get you more seats at elite schools can do so only because they have the power to. But by accepting their offer, you will be reinforcing their power when nobody should have such power in the first place. I agree completely that exams cannot evaluate a whole person fairly, but subjective criteria are worse. Exams are actually the lesser of two evils.

White parents in NYC are complaining about the lack of “good” schools partly because they do not want to send their kids to any minority-dominant schools, so they are using their power/privilege to manipulate the admissions criteria to create white-dominant schools. Without this manipulation, it should be impossible to have white-dominant schools like Beacon and ICE where Asians account for a smaller percentage than city-wide. There is no justifiable reason any school can be white-dominant in this manner given the city’s racial makeup today. In NYC public schools, white people are the smallest minority, yet they are capable of manipulating the school system in this manner. Asians cannot do this even if we wanted to. We have no such political power. All that we can do is to study hard and hope that they keep the objective criteria to fight against the white political power.

What white people are realizing now is that being a minority sucks. Yes, it does. When you are a minority group, your values are pushed aside by the values of the dominant group. Asians, blacks, and Hispanics are familiar with this problem and they have learned to adapt to this reality. But, most white people are not ready to lose the majority status. They extol the virtues of “diversity” but they are not willing to be the minority themselves. That’s why they are not sending their kids to schools where Asian, black, or Hispanics are dominating. They want to do away with objective admissions criteria so that they can make more room for themselves at the elite high schools to reinstate their values there.

Don’t be fooled by their stated goal of getting more blacks and Latinos into the elite schools. The white politicians are under pressure because white parents are complaining about the lack of schools where they have control over their own values. But guess what? Those days are over. White people need to adapt to the new reality that no one racial group can exercise such power. That is how a truly “diverse” nation should be.

I know some white parents who have adapted to the dominant Asian values at schools like Stuyvesant. These are the people who truly understand what “diversity” means. After all, corporate America is still white dominant, so what is the big deal if they experienced what it’s like to be a minority for four years?