May 31, 2011

The teeming masses

If you've ever been to Chinatown in lower Manhattan, you'll recall the unbelievable population density, which might be the highest in the U.S. Yet, there is a new set of teeming masses arriving in neighborhoods near Chinatown in such numbers that the newcomers' children have filled all the other local schools and are now being assigned to the less densely packed elementary school in Chinatown: namely, affluent white families.

From the Tribeca Trib in downtown Manhattan:
Waitlisted Tribeca Parents Angry over Assignment Chinatown School Assignment 
More than two dozen Tribeca parents were shocked to learn last week that their children likely won’t be going to kindergarten in the neighborhood. Parents of the 28 children on the wait list for P.S. 234 received letters telling them that their kindergartners will instead be offered seats in Chinatown’s P.S. 130, at Baxter and Hester streets, just north of Canal Street. 
“We’re very concerned,” said Marc Siden, whose daughter, Riley, received wating list number 34 in the lottery for admission in September. “We got blindsided by this and we don’t have a lot of time to make a decision. We don’t know enough about this school. It came out of left field.” ... 
“We’re just so disappointed,” she said. “We didn’t pursue private schools or gifted and talented programs because it’s very important to us to go to a school in the neighborhood.”
Some desperate Tribeca parents have even talked of renting apartments east of Broadway to qualify their children for the Spruce Street school.  
According to the website insideschools.com, 89 percent of the students at P.S. 130 are Asian-Americans, 5 percent are of Hispanic heritage, 3 percent are white and 2 percent are African American. Like P.S. 234, it is academically one of the highest ranked schools in the city.

If you ever wonder why NYC and DC elites don't take immigration seriously, you have to realize that from their personal perspective, the big demographic trend is the ever increasing number of white people with J.D./M.B.A. dual degrees who are crowding into their neighborhoods and forcing their kids to go to school in less fast-growing neighborhoods, like Chinatown.

19 comments:

agnostic said...

You could measure local immigration cluelessness by seeing how likely the people are to use the derogatory term "transplant."

Mexican drywallers = no threat to me. So, "immigrants."

Flyover country manager = more competition in my niche. So, "transplants."

Anonymous said...

nice try but no. stuyvesant high school -probably the best public high school in the country - is 69 percent asian and a mere 25 percent white.

if whites are rich enough, they can send their kids to private school and work at being "holistic" to gain affirmative action admissions to elite colleges, if not, the only reason these parents are complaining is becuase their kids are going to be schooled by asian kids

JSM said...

"you ever wonder why NYC and DC elites don't take immigration seriously, you have to realize that from their personal perspective, the big demographic trend is the ever increasing number of white people with J.D./M.B.A. dual degrees who are crowding into their neighborhoods and forcing their kids to go to school in less fast-growing neighborhoods, like Chinatown."

But, but, but, I thought Yan Shen told us that the cog-elites, like these dual JD/MBAs in NY, only care about hanging with other cog-elites, race unimportant.

The Chinatown school is filled to the brim with smart Asians. So what's the problem?

Anonymous said...

The Chinatown school is filled to the brim with smart Asians.

Chinatown schools are filled with FOB immigrants who can't even speak English very well. Not Asian cogelites or their children. They aspire to become Asian cogelites.

Anonymous said...

Who cares about kindergarten?

Anonymous said...

another stealth segragation policy - chinese don't want to go to school with nearby section 8 ricans and blacks, so the city creates a 'diversity' school that requires chinese being taught. Gee wonder who will end up going there.

Anonymous said...

losers. afraid of academic competition? at least your kids could dominate sports and not get mugged.

jb or mz's black hoodie said...

"losers. afraid of academic competition? at least your kids could dominate sports and not get mugged."

Ugh! You're only performing better at science and math which isn't top priority with white JDs and MBAs for their elementary age children. These people are more worried about cultural imperialism. It's also very important who the teachers are. White children will have their language development compromised unless learning from high IQ whites.

Anonymous said...

"White children will have their language development compromised unless learning from high IQ whites."

I thought Asians raised in Western countries evince above-average verbal aptitude compared to their mainstream peers, contrary to the claims of guys like Griffe Du Lion?

Anonymous said...

"losers. afraid of academic competition? at least your kids could dominate sports and not get mugged."

NYC public schools don't have sports, for all intents and purposes. HS sports, yes, but it's not a priority. Elementary schools have gym, not sports. They may play a sport in gym class, but that's about it.

Anonymous said...

Looking at the data from Greatschools.net for PS 234 and PS 130

Students eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch
PS 130 85% PS 234 9%
Limited English Proficient
PS 130 23% PS 234 1%

There is also a difference in teaching staff. PS 130 has 18% noob (0-3 yrs exp) and 47% with Masters' degrees; PS 234 has 28% noob and 26% with masters' degrees. So PS 234 is probably swipplier at the staff level.

http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/ny/other/2880#students

--Anonymous Coward

JSM said...

"Chinatown schools are filled with FOB immigrants who can't even speak English very well. Not Asian cogelites or their children. They aspire to become Asian cogelites."

Precisely. Which is why the disingenuous arguments of pipsqueaks like Yan Shen are so galling.
No, we do NOT need East Asian immigrants. They are NOT "cog-elites." They benefit US not one whit. They simply take up slots in schools that Whites built and suck up White taxpayer money to teach them English, while any White kids unfortunate enough to be stuck with them in those schools thumb-twiddle.

Let China train these cog-elite-wannabes, in CHINA. And IF any of them, in China, invent anything useful, we'll buy the patent rights so they can live the good life -- in China.

Anonymous said...

losers. afraid of academic competition? at least your kids could dominate sports and not get mugged

^^^^^ I agree with your comment above. I rather have my children go to school with Chinese children than a bunch of NAMs.

Yan Shen said...

White Americans fleeing from strong schools academically dominated by Asian Americans. What else is new?

See here for an old article describing the phenomenon in the elite areas of California. It's well worth a read.

http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/teen/teencenter/05nov_whiteflight.htm

jb or mz's black hoodie said...

"So white children will become mental midgets if taught by somebody other than high IQ whites?"

I used high IQ in place of upper class, my mistake. Yes, it could make a difference especially when you are competing with a culture/race with a strength other than verbal. Learning vocabulary words for passive recognition on standardized tests isn't good enough though may be the reason some believe Asians are our equals here. I've only encountered one or two exceptions to this and believe both were mixed race and had been socialized in the mainstream white population.

Why have your upper middle class white child's language development slowed and his potential expressive vocabulary reduced by being taught by teachers who are either using English as a second language or are the children of such people? Even such a person with a Masters in some aspect of education cannot compete with the BA holding daughter of a WASP or Jewish elite when it comes to exposure to language. (Indian immigrants may be an exception at least wrt diction.)

Classmates are another issue. Other children reinforce or even accelerate the language skills of their peers. I'm constantly puzzled that Asians don't want their children to be minorities in mostly white schools because of this reality. I believe at least some of the argument driving integration of blacks into white schools is linguistic in nature and would apply as much to children of foreign nationals.

Lack of respect for native fluency in language and culture will be the Asian wannabees' undoing in this country. You can't simply wave a diploma in our faces and expect us to defer to you in all matters. Huge mistake.

Anonymous said...

No, we do NOT need East Asian immigrants. They are NOT "cog-elites." They benefit US not one whit. They simply take up slots in schools that Whites built and suck up White taxpayer money to teach them English, while any White kids unfortunate enough to be stuck with them in those schools thumb-twiddle.

Let China train these cog-elite-wannabes, in CHINA. And IF any of them, in China, invent anything useful, we'll buy the patent rights so they can live the good life -- in China.


China tends to train their future leaders i.e. CCP rulers and the like, in China. Which for them is a wise policy since a lot of what the Ivy League/top US schools indoctrinate their students with is internationalism and contemporary Western neoliberalism, things the CCP is generally not very favorable towards.

The main problem is ownership. The people who own and run the institutions such as the Ivy League don't seem to care about low class people in Montana and would rather try to spread their influence internationally.

Sam said...

America was a science/technological backwater before Chinese showed up.

The Moon landings were a fluke.

tweedleleedle said...

"America was a science/technological backwater before Chinese showed up."

Isn't it wonderful how they sacrifice the development of their own country to concentrate on improving the lives of ungrateful Americans?

alexis said...

More slavish fetishistic of IQ and Asians. More playing into the myth that there are races who are walking laboratories of innovation and technological superiority who we just can't do without. I wonder if these people have become the libertarian magic negro.
If we're going to have immigration, how about throwing in a few other desirable traits like: patriotism, civic-mindedness, commitment to our republic and its constitution, ethics, conservation, respect for our history, etc.
I sometimes wonder if some of these IQ freaks are any more than android computer jockeys.
I've been running into more and more immigrants who have little respect for this country ("I don't feel like an american" "I feel more international", etc etc) I'm curious, IQ lovers-are these your people?