Does anyone go to a school where you are definitely the minority?

Question

I am white, and my highschool is in Georgia very near Atlanta. The school I go to is about 75% black, 15% Hispanic, and 10% white. If you go to schools like this, does it effect you in any way, or could you care less.

Answer 1

I was the only American in a Mexican high school. I did not mind being different except for one time. The teacher apparently did not like Americans. He felt that it was my personal fault that TX is part of the US and that Mexico is poor and told me so in front of everyone. You could hear a pin drop and all eyes were on me. That was awful. Other than that it was great. We were all just kids trying to learn and get a diploma.

Answer 2

Most of our local schools have over 45 % Hispanic, 20-30 % black, 2-5% other, and the rest are white. My very mixed heritage white-looking daughter is dating this black fellow and one teacher did say something about she could do better; but I think it was because she's a straight A student and he isn't. Or maybe it was because she's pretty and nice. Or maybe the teacher wasn't all there that day. Or all of the above.
I notice more and more mixed colored couples, but when they sit down and talk they all sound the same and worry about the same stuff. Just teens talking about their concerns ... I haven't notice much of an effect or is it affect ... I always get the 2 mixed up.
The students that have friends and belong to groups seem to either segregate or belong to mixed groups. Guess those are the only 2 options?
Seems like a challenging atmosphere full of promise to me.

Answer 3

its suprising that a white person is actually a minority somewhere....well hello obviously ur not alone in the situation
where i go to school i am a minority but although i notice it and at times i dont feel the same as if i were home, it doesnt affect my work
im here for a reason.
just be above color and keep goin

Answer 4

Well my daughter went to a school just like that in K-3 grade.She would come home crying no one liked her because she was different.That is why we decide to home school.

Answer 5

I grew up in NYC white. My first school was all Chinese and sometimes they wouldn’t let the white kids participate. We have a program here called Prep for Prep that offers free daily prep classes to ‘minority’ students for our magnet schools, and I was one of 5 kids in the school who couldn’t go, so we were put in a room by ourselves and the other kids said it was because we weren’t smart enough (went to the top magnet school in my city by the way.) Another time when we graduated the top students were white, black and latino and they went down the line grades wise until they got a Chinese girl to put on the podium. I kid you not. When we had to move an Asian woman told my mother, ‘Why don’t you go where you’re wanted?” And I loved being called ‘foreigner’ in my own country.

It affected me in my new all black neighborhood because I got punched and spat on or insulted with racial slurs every day going to school and coming home, also ‘jumped’ and cut up with box cutters- sometimes by grown men. And often that took the form of attempted sexual assault too - to which I’d like to add is not caused by desire but hate. As an adult I still get called ‘whitey’ all the time and on a very dangerous level often get marked as ‘easy prey’ by criminals. After my 13 yr old brother, his Puerto Rican friend, and his Asian friend were beaten by a group of black boys with bats that shouted racial slurs at them all they were denied police assistance (who said to forget it) and then cursed by black adults who arrived on the scene, also using racial slurs. (to all races involved) The black cops did nothing (later a white group drove him around to look for the perps and took a report), and our local congressman said there was, "no such thing as a hate crime against white people" - Ed Towns 1991. (I still remember that you bastard) The high school I went to was simply very divided, but majority jewish (so I’m not sure what you’d consider that) but most non jewish kids were not recommended by the college counselors, not allowed or informed of school activities, and left out of such things as writing contests, school trips etc.

I have to say I think class was a much bigger issue in my high school, where I was once again in the minority. I’m not sure if you meant religious, ethnic or economic, but I have been discriminated against for being white, asian, latino, jewish, polish, german, wealthy, poor, American, homeless, catholic, non catholic, non jewish, oh this list goes on and on. One thing you discover is that all peoples are capable of hate and that 'what' you are is very much in the minds of ‘who’ is looking at you. I have been physically assaulted for not belonging to a group, and later by a different group because they thought I did!

As a child I think you notice the school activities you are left out of, and it’s particularly deleterious because you expect adults to be 'fair.' I think it lowers your trust and respect for adults in general, and your belief in school, community, justice etc. Socially, it can be hard to not look like the other kids, because everyone wants to fit it, and because when you are young you view the older kids around you as sort of ideal - so you internalize another group’s idea of beauty. Also I remember how none of the stores had clothing that looked good on me, no makeup in my color etc. And you don’t look like the people around you, so less dates and social opportunities. Some ethnic groups mature at different rates, so that causes all sorts of problems. I’m sure minorities of any group, anywhere, are more prone to assault, verbal or physical from their peers. My childhood memories are all sort of obscured by a tar of rage and hate to be honest. It affects me as an adult to be discriminate against at work; it affected me as a kid to be discriminated against in school and at work. Class wise it affected me as a kid to go to work and school. It affected me as an American because to get work I often pretended to not speak English (at least not well) in order to get hired.

It pops up. It’s in someone refusing to serve you, or when you walk down the street and a random person you didn’t even notice punches you in the back or something. It shows when you go into a job interview and someone who was nice on the phone, their whole face changes when they see you in person.

It shows up, I think specifically, for white people (you say you are) in how your friends feel it’s perfectly ok to talk about killing you etc, and then they say, ‘oh, we don’t mean you.’ Or they say you’re an ‘honorary member’ of their race. Thanks but no thanks. It pops up as a kid to have to read about how you’re a bad guy and ‘minorities’ are put down when you’re the one with the cut up arms and bruised ribs.

It hurts any minority anywhere. I think everyone has the same experiences with the names reversed, but for some reason the only group not protected from this now is white Americans. And a lot of people see that as some giant payback for some perceived injustice. I’m sorry but I know my family and all of their history and I don’t owe a freaking person a thing in this world racially. I’m also a bit of a mix so I don’t know what people are talking about half the time when they look at me and think they know my whole genetic sequencing. Or why it should matter. What I fear most is when I’m assaulted for something I’m not - because I don’t see it coming. One time a Latino girl was shouting at the (racial slur) Chinese girl and it took me about 15 minutes to realize she was talking to me. Of course it affects you, it isolates, but I found it motivated me with a sort of insane rage to excel and to be different in 'good' ways. And I have to say as an adult I’m one hell of a tough person with several 100 fights under my belt. But that doesn’t help you when you go in for a job or apply to a school does it? Nor do I want to be physically assaulted, it’s really no fun.

I guess overall it gave me a greater empathy for people in general, sometimes I get discriminated For in a good way, people may be more polite to me, or assume I have money (in a good way) because of my appearance etc. And that’s really not right either, and everyone should be aware of when their background works for them, and say to themselves – this isn’t right either. I try to be positive by not allowing discriminatory speech in my presence (and it costs me a lot of friends), by fostering people to interact outside of their community (I work with kids), and by being a positive ambassador of my race. But it can be very lonely, and some days I have to say, it just gets old.

I hope anyone of any background reading this can see that experiences are the same. I tried to focus more on childhood there are other forms of discrimination when you are older, but this is what I remember. Check out the famous speech, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” – Shakespeare MoV. As many have pointed out, the institutionalized discrimination is worse – and that can be teachers giving you lower grades because your father was a convict, or a town all one religion that tries to make you leave for not supporting their views. I hope to combat ignorance about this – a lot of violent assaults come form being identified as some enemy, or having ignorant people assume some fake history and seek revenge. In terms of minorities though I think the worst problem in this country is Class. And while everyone is talking about race or religion let me point out that either you have an SUV and can drive to safety, or you die in the hurricane. I think if we changed laws to just give money and programs to poor people – well, if you’re oppressed you don’t have money, and if you have money you’re not oppressed. Also gender matters more when you work – just look at federal laws and wages. I think the greatest hurt a minority can suffer is genocide, so we should all start there to try and solve this problem. Stop genocides around the world. Final word, if you are a kid of any race, gender, religion, whatever reading this: it changes as you get older, not better or worse, but different, and you’re just going to have to toughen up; paradoxically, keep some part of your mind and heart hidden so that when you don’t need to be hard you can relax and have good times, that’s the best compensation.