The New White Flight
In Silicon Valley, two high schools with outstanding academic reputations are losing white students as Asian students move in. Why?
By most measures, Monta Vista High here and Lynbrook High, in nearby San Jose, are among the nation’s top public high schools. Both boast stellar test scores, an array of advanced-placement classes and a track record of sending graduates from the affluent suburbs of Silicon Valley to prestigious colleges. But locally, they’re also known for something else: white flight. Over the past 10 years, the proportion of white students at Lynbrook has fallen by nearly half, to 25% of the student body. At Monta Vista, white students make up less than one-third of the population, down from 45%—this in a town that’s half white. Some white Cupertino parents are instead sending their children to private schools or moving them to other, whiter public schools. More commonly, young white families in Silicon Valley say they are avoiding Cupertino altogether.
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.
In the 1960s, the term “white flight” emerged to describe the rapid exodus of whites from big cities into the suburbs, a process that often resulted in the economic degradation of the remaining community. Back then, the phenomenon was mostly believed to be sparked by the growth in the population of African-Americans, and to a lesser degree Hispanics, in some major cities. But this modern incarnation is different. Across the country, Asian-Americans have by and large been successful and accepted into middle- and upper-class communities. Silicon Valley has kept Cupertino’s economy stable, and the town is almost indistinguishable from many of the suburbs around it. The shrinking number of white students hasn’t hurt the academic standards of Cupertino’s schools—in fact the opposite is true.
This time the effect is more subtle: Some Asians believe that the resulting lack of diversity creates an atmosphere that is too sheltering for their children, leaving then unprepared for life in a country that is only 4% Asian overall. Moreover, many Asians share some of their white counterpart’s concerns. Both groups finger newer Asian immigrants for the schools’ intense competitiveness.
Some whites fear that by avoiding schools with large Asian populations parents are short-changing their own children, giving them the idea that they can’t compete with Asian kids. “My parents never let me think that because I’m Caucasian, I’m not going to succeed,” says Jessie Hogin, a white Monta Vista graduate.
The white exodus clearly involves race-based presumptions, not all of which are positive. One example: Asian parents are too competitive. That sounds like racism to many of Cupertino’s Asian residents, who resent the fact that their growing numbers and success are causing many white families to boycott the town altogether. “It’s a stereotype of Asian parents,” says Pei-Pei Yow, a Hewlett-Packard Co. manager and Chinese-American community leader who sent two kids to Monta Vista. It’s like other familiar biases, she says: “You can’t say everybody from the South is a redneck.”
Jane Doherty, a retirement-community administrator, chose to send her two boys elsewhere. When her family moved to Cupertino from Indiana over a decade ago, Ms. Doherty says her top priority was moving into a good public-school district. She paid no heed to a real-estate agent who told her of the town’s burgeoning Asian population. She says she began to reconsider after her elder son, Matthew, entered Kennedy, the middle school that feeds Monta Vista. As he played soccer, Ms. Doherty watched a line of cars across the street deposit Asian kids for after-school study. She also attended a Monta Vista parents’ night and came away worrying about the school’s focus on test scores and the big-name colleges its graduates attend. “My sense is that at Monta Vista you’re competing against the child beside you,” she says. Ms. Doherty says she believes the issue stems more from recent immigrants than Asians as a whole. “Obviously, the concentration of Asian students is really high, and it does flavor the school,” she says.....
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Yes, of course Asian parents are too competitive, and too narrow as well in their view of education. However, they’re a hell of a lot better than most big city (incluidng Silicon Valley) American parents who are so overfocused on their own two naff and insignificant careers that they fail to give the children any attention at all, levaing them to be reared by illegal immigrant domestic help, and then act surprised when the kids turn out werewolves.
There is an equivalent of these schools in Fairfax County, VA. the Thomas Jefferson School for Mathematics and Science; the Young Master is going to take the entrance exam, which he expects to pass with quite a lot to spare, and then go to the regular high school, which offers the International Baccalaureate, an altogether superior education. Regrettably his best friend is Asian-American, and although he doesn’t particularly want to go to TJ, the parents are totally closed minded on the subject.
When asked to do an essay on “3 reasons why I want to attend Thomas Jefferson” in a practice test, the Young Master did a masterly study of 3 reasons why he DIDN’T want to go to TJ, causing a major sense of humor failure in the staff. Needless to say, I reminded him that in the real test, he needs to do the essay the right way round, as we don’t want him to be disqualified in case we need the score as bragging rights if he decides to go to MIT.
There are lots of reasons for this sort of response. Recall that America does not have a merit system, but one in which class rank and grades regardless of the quality of students or instructional standards, will figure prominently. To get into Berkeley, they need to be in the top 3% of some high school class, or have some ethnic hardship story to dilate upon with suitably low literacy. There is a reason why the top dozen or so American colleges have a 200 point difference between the races on the SAT, something like a 20 point IQ difference. In these high schools you’re seeing a winnowing down of the elites of asian self selected immigrants from countries where graduate study is the means of entry for most. They could be several SD’s above the norm of their source countries. Even so, no great breakthroughs have come fom these people, and a cultural outbreeding depression effect since their arrival in the top universities is hard to argue against.
Posted by John S Bolton on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 04:18 AM | #
Oh dear God no, we can’t have a school focused on academics at the expense of SPORTS and PEP RALLIES. It just should not BE!
Posted by the friendly grizzly on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 04:20 AM | #
First hand experience of living 1994 to 2001 in Silicon Valley:
White Silicon Valley wives are turned into monsters by a career even more frequently than white women generally. It makes it impractical for white engineers to have children in Silicon Valley.
This phenomenon is probably simply due to the market inflexibility of mating that is particularly severe when there is a shortage of females, combined with the outrageous real estate prices in Silicon Valley.
In addition there is substantial ethnic nepotism among Asians, particularly south Asians, that makes it feasible for them to form stable fertile families more effectively than whites.
This all adds up to a reason to escape Silicon Valley permanently as all the young white engineers I know who went there in the late 90s have done.
Posted by James Bowery on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 09:09 AM | #
In addition there is substantial ethnic nepotism among Asians, particularly south Asians,
I have stated this on numerous occasions. That is the biggest problem with these “model” immigrants and striving for cognitive elitism.
Posted by Kubilai on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 01:03 PM | #
You’re also probably seeing a microcosm of immigrant compression of age ranges, such as can be seen in national data. Immigrants are around 10% of the population in the country, but ~20% of the public schools’ enrollment is of their children. That pattern appears to be replicated here. The immigrants are not younger than the totality, but they are twice as likely to be in the age ranges which have almost all the children in public school. This shows, when looked at on the national scale, the extreme difficulty for immigration not to be parasitical on the net taxpayer. Even locally, with very high property tax payments per house, the citizens, who are much more likely to include elderly in their numbers, will be frequently parasitized by foreign born in this way.
Posted by John S Bolton on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 06:08 PM | #
OK this is probably just going to annoy people here, but I think white flight from Asians (and those Latinos and blacks who *are* successful and law-abiding[1]) is crazy. I think it’s blind racism, pure and simple. Yes I do think that tribe, clan, fiefdom, country, and other concepts related to race have a substantial genetic influence, but that does not mean that racialism is desirable, anymore than the genetic basis of violence, overeating, drug abuse and addiction, and other negative behaviors is desirable or not to be supressed and frowned upon.
[1] This is not to say the majority of blacks or Latinos are criminals, but when even several percent are violent in a neighborhood, this can make living extremely unpleasant, to say the least.
Posted by birch barlow on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 09:31 PM | #
Birch, this one isn’t really white flight. You have two white parents, wealthy because having two incomes, who devote about half an hour a week to their offspring, and discover that little Jason and Amanda are coming in 28th and 29th out of 30 in their Asian-dominated classes. Naturally they blame the school, and move to private schools, rather than blaming their own inadequacies as parents.
The reality is, the Asians are better parents, and take more trouble as parents, which means their own educational eccentricities are forced upon the system. If Jason and Amanda’s parents paid the attention to their kids that they should, their kids would benefit from this and would force the system back towards intellectual blance, but they don’t.
Posted by Martin Hutchinson on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 10:48 PM | #
Naturally they blame the school, and move to private schools, rather than blaming their own inadequacies as parents.
The reality is, the Asians are better parents, and take more trouble as parents, which means their own educational eccentricities are forced upon the system. If Jason and Amanda’s parents paid the attention to their kids that they should, their kids would benefit from this and would force the system back towards intellectual blance, but they don’t. - Martin
Martin, this is a gross, inaccurate generalization as well as slanderous towards whites in general. It is also clear you do not know exactly what happens behind the closed doors of these “good parents”.
Whites value being a normal child and eventual normal adult quite highly. Chinese aren’t weighed down by such “round eye” madness. Study, music, extra math, extra language (one of the Chinese dialects) ad nauseum is the life of the Chinese child with more than the occasional dollop of verbal and physical abuse. As smart as my children are, and as much as we put an emphasis on education, and as much as we spend for extra curriculars such as sports and music, there is ALWAYS a Chinese kid who is doing better. NOT the same Chinese kid every year, just A Chinese kid. My kids stay in the top 5-10% yearly and are normal socially. The Chinese kids on average are stunted socially and this goes into adulthood. They have one goal, period.
No one can nor should compete with this mentality because it is UNhealthy and despite the Chinese acknowledging this, they cannot change their behaviour. It is ingrained.
Posted by Kubilai on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 03:50 AM | #
Martin, I wouldn’t take the Asian style of parenting as the ideal model.
In Japan, for instance, dad is often too busy working (followed by time after work at a bar and then the pachinko parlour) to have much time for the kids.
This is one reason why teachers are expected to be guardians for children to a much greater extent than in the West.
Teachers in Japan are put under a heavy burden because they are expected after hours to take on a paternal responsibility for their students.
I know one Japanese teacher who quit the profession to become a truck driver because of such demands.
Posted by Mark Richardson on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 09:10 AM | #
I wasn’t suggesting the Asian model of parenting was ideal, far from it. I suimply think it knocks spots off the two-career-family high-achiever US model. Of course, traditional US or British upbringing is better than either, and produces better rounded kids. Some of us, including by all means you, kubilai, still adhere to this tradition. But if I have the choice between unrounded swots and illiterate teenage werewolves, I’ll take the swots.
Posted by Martin Hutchinson on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 03:26 PM | #
Hello Birch. Nice to see you back. I just wonder why cognize racial particularism as a disorder. What is your evidence for that?
Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 05:13 PM | #
OK this is probably just going to annoy people here, but I think white flight from Asians (and those Latinos and blacks who *are* successful and law-abiding[1]) is crazy.
What is crazy about it?
I think it’s blind racism, pure and simple.
O-o-o-o-hhh, the R-word. Nooooo!
I’m a racist. Next issue (perhaps one with substance)?
Kinda falls flat when one pins it to his chest, doesn’t it?
Yes I do think that tribe, clan, fiefdom, country, and other concepts related to race have a substantial genetic influence, but that does not mean that racialism is desirable, anymore than the genetic basis of violence, overeating, drug abuse and addiction, and other negative behaviors is desirable or not to be supressed and frowned upon.
Overeating, drug abuse, and addiction are all maladaptive manifestations of fundamentally sound human traits (hunger, pleasure-seeking, etc.,).
You’ve not shown (and, I assert, cannot show) that ethnocentrism belongs in this category.
Violence is not a negative behavior per se, and only a jackass would assume it is and assume that pig would fly here (as if we shared all his underlying mythologies).
Posted by Svigor on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 at 07:08 PM | #
forgive me, forgive me! I couldn’t help but add my 1/20th of a cent to this discussion.
This comment may appear highly offensive - sex - so if you are easily offended please don’t read any further.
The redeeming feature of this comment is it documents the lengths that some Asian parents will go to help giangwu in his educational attainments.
The article appeared in Salon regarding the incredibly life-like, full size sex dolls that are now being sold (not to me I hasten to add)
The quote about taking parental responsibility a tad too seriously:
Another time, an Asian undergraduate student at a university in California dropped his 1-year-old doll off for repairs. Fiero says the young man told him that his parents bought him the doll so that he would stay at home and study rather than go out chasing women. Fiero’s photographs of the damaged doll make me cringe: Her leg was torn off, revealing the steel hardware of her hip joints; an arm hung by an inch of silicone flesh; two fingers were severed; and the cleavage between her buttocks was torn into a ragged crevasse.
“Her v***** was so blown out,” Fiero told me. “I was appalled. I couldn’t believe someone could f*** something like that up so quickly. It blew me away. How could somebody be so callous?
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2005/10/11/real_dolls/index3.html
Well, one example doesn’t prove anything about Asians or Asian parents. You can read into it what you like. I find the exquisite singlemindedness of the parents ambition truly strange, more strange than making love to a mechanical contrivance (albeit one with super satiny polymer for lifelike skin).
Posted by john rackell on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 at 02:32 AM | #
Shame on you, John. Very funny.
Posted by Guessedworker on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 at 01:13 PM | #
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Posted by Martin Hutchinson on Monday, November 21, 2005 at 03:56 AM | #