this article came out in the New York
Times that was making waves on Twitter
only seven black students got into
Stuyvesant New York's most selective
high school out of eight hundred and
ninety five spots so this of course
started to really alarm people even
Alexandra Casa Cortez got in on the
action she tweeted out sixty eight
percent of all New York City public
school students are black or Latino to
only have seven black students accepted
into Stuyvesant a public high school
tells us that this is a system failure
education in in equity is a major factor
in the racial wealth gap this is what
injustice looks like but is it let's
just dive into these stats a little bit
more so seven out of eight hundred
ninety five that does sound like a
really alarming number and the number
has been shrinking last year it was
thirteen and no I'm sorry last year it
was ten in the year before it was
thirteen that were admitted but here's
the thing seventy four percent of the
students at Stuyvesant are
asian-american and in fact out of all of
the elite public schools because New
York works on a two-tiered system what
they've got as a public school system
with six hundred public schools and then
they've got four high school you can
test in to these elite high schools the
same way you would test into college so
you take an exam and it's kind of an
all-or-nothing exam like a CTS or SATs
and whoever does really well can test
into one of these handful of really
elite schools to invest in being the
most elite out of these schools and out
of these sixty percent of the student
body out of these elite schools are
asian-americans so what is really going
on here and by the way it even says in
this article that many of those students
the majority of them are low-income
Asian Americans so this is not about
wealthy Asians out testing blacks and
Latinos who are poor who don't have the
resources these Asian American kids have
the same resources they had the same
crap schools the same crap teachers the
same the same broken system and yet a
huge chunk a disproportionate chunk were
able to test into these high schools now
Bill DeBlasio the mayor of New York City
he's had some plans he's
well maybe we can even it out by taking
the top students from all of the middle
schools rather than just the top
students who test maybe we should just
you know say the top five students from
each of the middle schools gets to go
into this into these elite schools but
the problem with that is the studies
show that that would actually eliminate
half of the current Asian American
students they would not be able to go to
these elite schools this is a real
problem now I myself as an Asian
American I can tell you that there's not
enough advocacy from the Asian American
groups there's not there you rarely see
Asian American advocates right you don't
see very many very much activism going
on inside of the asian american group
there's a couple of reasons for this if
we're gonna be just quite frank
first of all asian americans largely
when they vote if they vote which is not
often the percentage is low they're not
very political when they do it's often
republican so democrats don't care about
republicans about republican asian
american kids and that's just part of
the truth of it is that it's easy to
kind of say you know what you guys are
aligned with white conservative america
and so we're gonna advocate for the
people that are with us and you're not
that is one of the real issues that's
going on secondly there is a group of
asian-american students who are suing
harvard they've been at this for a while
they feel like they're being
discriminated against because harvard
started to say that they were gonna take
a more holistic approach to admission
which is looking at the whole of the
student rather than just their test
scores and academics and that by and
large was discriminating to asian
american students who were then unable
to get into the schools based on their
test scores and their academics and some
of the admissions you know it was
showing that they were saying that these
asian students had lacking in
personality and so they were suing
people then said oh you know well you
know who's really behind that lawsuit
it's a bunch of white conservatives that
are using these Asians as props that's
insulting it's insulting to assume or to
even insinuate that Asian Americans are
somehow ponds or props or stupid and
therefore easily manipulated by white
conservative America that's insulting
these kids they worked their asses off
this comes down to the rule of 10,000
hours that's all that this is now do we
have inequality in our school systems
yes we do we have a system that is not
fair it's not equitable the rich kids
get better resources and the poor kids
get crap schools are funded based on
property taxes that is unfair it
shouldn't be that way but this
particular situation is comparing apples
to apples these are kids that came from
the same socio-economic groups that have
the same crap resources and one group
just happen to do better why is that
well it's because in Asian American
culture there is a huge emphasis on
education there is a huge massive
emphasis on education particularly in
the math and sciences and there's a real
big emphasis for students when they go
to college to study math and science and
get jobs and engineering computer
sciences or medical field why well
because these Asian American families
looked around and realized that the only
way to succeed in this capitalistic
culture is to have money so what do they
pressure their kids to do they pressure
their kids to go into fields that are
going to make money now white families I
can talk about whites and Asians I can't
really talk about black and Latino
families but I can tell you from my
experience being a mixed-race person who
has a unique vantage point inside of the
lives of Asian Americans and inside the
lives of white Americans I can tell you
that white American families often say
to their kids do what makes you happy
honey and as long as you do your best
I'm proud of you that is not the Asian
American kid experience that's not what
they're told
oftentimes Asian American kids are told
why can't you be more like that neighbor
kid who got an a why can't you be more
like that kid your cousin who's going
off to medical school why can't you be
more like so-and-so there's a lot of
shame and a lot of comparison in Asian
American families so these kids work
their asses off it's the rule of 10,000
hours some kids they put more effort
into sports they put more effort into
music they put more effort into dance or
whatever it is but Asian American kids
largely put their effort into academics
and they study extra it's not just what
they're learning in class they're going
home after school and there's
their asses off and on weekends instead
of going and playing with their friends
they're studying their asses off and
because of it they excel it comes out in
the test scores so it's really unfair to
then look at these kids like Alexandra
Casa Cortez did which I'm disappointed
in or others on social media other
leaders and and they point at this and
they say well look all of you kids are
getting in the system must be broken
that is insulting to say to these kids
who've worked their asses off and it's
especially insulting when these kids are
dealing with often times shame and
comparisons at home and they're
pressured to work really really hard and
I you know I don't want to paint it like
it's an abusive relationship or anything
like that it you know it's it's cultural
but still it's it's insulting to these
kids to tell them that their efforts are
really just a product of an of an
inequitable system that's that's
racially biased that is insulting to
these kids they don't deserve that they
work their asses off this is what a
merit-based system looks like when
you're comparing apples to apples this
is merit-based again if you want to
compare this these kids have the same
disadvantage compared to wealthy Asian
kids compared to wealthy white kids or
wealthy black kids they are at the same
disadvantage but when you're comparing
them together they were able to compete
they put in their time and they excelled
now if you want to look at what I
believe is the root of the real
inequality that's happened it's not in
the education of these particular kids
when you're looking at the system that
they're all equally in that does need a
change but that is not what the issue is
what the real issue is is the home life
and when kids are in a stable home
environment they they excel when they
have somebody at home telling them that
they need to be studying they excel now
what would cause the breakdown of the
family life well that is where our
system has failed certain groups of
people when you look at
african-americans in our society what
has happened to them their families have
been systematically destroyed we know
that if you can keep a family together
you can you can Excel we see this with
immigrant cultures immigrant communities
that come into America if you can
the family together the family will
thrive together and excel because they
pull resources they often live together
in one roof they you know Grandma and
Grandpa will raise the kids while mom
and dad go off and work you know my
family scrubbed feet doing nails other
families maybe they work at gas stations
or 7-elevens or whatever it might be or
dry cleaning services and they're crap
jobs but they're going in there working
all day every day Monday through Friday
seven days a week they don't get a break
Grandma and Grandpa stay at home and
help raise the kids and the kids have
experienced a stable home life black
families that was not the case when
black families were enslaved they were
torn apart they were sold that's the
phrase sold down the river and then when
you fast forward into like the 1980s
mass incarceration that was a way of
tearing families apart so when you tear
families apart you can break up
communities and keep them poor it's a
strategy that is used to keep people
poor we see this also with Hispanics
what's happening to them well
deportation what do you do if you deport
dad then mommy kids can stay but they
all of a sudden go from maybe being poor
to be extremely poor you know if you can
break families up you can keep people
poor breaking families up has been the
single most that has been the single
thing in my mind that has really been
detrimental to various communities it's
the breaking up of the family and the
way to fix that is to implement systems
to correct that somehow to say okay
we're going to give you resources
because your family isn't together we're
going to try to give you some resources
so that we can make up for that so for
example childcare high quality childcare
that you don't have to pay for and that
is going to be for before work and after
you know before school and after school
and preschool in infant nursery care
we're gonna give you that we're gonna
make sure also that your kids have free
college education so that you can push
them and say look here's the way out
this is the way out of poverty which is
what immigrant Americans know they will
scrub feet so that their kids don't have
to
they will scrub feet so that their kids
can work on math and science and go off
to college and become engineers and then
make a half a million dollars and no
longer be impoverished that is why Asian
Americans have been out earning whites
these days and it's because of that
mentality it was like we're gonna scrub
feet or we're working at the gas station
and we're gonna do this all day every
day seven days a week so that you can
have a better chance and they they
instill this in their kids they don't
say to their kids do what makes you
happy be well-rounded they say no no no
I'm sacrificing so that you have a
better shot and you better do it because
this is the only way out they know that
from the looking at this capitalistic
system but they were able also to do it
because the family unit was largely able
to stay intact
one thing about Asian Americans is that
we largely came over together as
families so rather than one trickling in
or another trickling in it was largely
groups coming in together and being able
to remain together like I said Hispanics
have had a different experience because
we're often deporting half of them back
right we say okay well mom can stay with
a couple of the kids but one kid and the
dad have got to go you know because they
don't qualify or whatever that is a way
to impoverish people to keep people poor
that is I think the single most damning
thing about our system is the tearing of
families apart in a variety of ways and
we've got to have systems in place to
correct that and when we see those
systems and when that is beginning to be
corrected we're going to see people
climbing out of poverty because they're
going to see light at the end of the
tunnel look mom might never be able to
do anything other than a crappy job she
might be cleaning houses for until the
day you know until she's too old to do
it but it might not help her climb out
of poverty but it helps the next
generation climb out of poverty because
the next generation can focus when mom
knows look I'm gonna be cleaning houses
all day every day so I can make rent and
if she has a living wage then it's a
little it's a lot easier for her to do
she doesn't have to work two jobs 80
hours a week she can work one job 40
hours a week and so that she can at
least be home and telling her kids hey
you need to study you need to study you
need to get it together and when she's
got high quality childcare and when she
knows that she can
send her kid off to college and she's
not going to go broke then these are the
systems that need to be implemented in
order to raise people up out of poverty
rather than pointing at the school
system and saying in this particular
case and saying look this is a broken
system this is the problem we need to
fix this we need to make sure that
there's equality in the results that's
not going to make a fair and equitable
Society what we need to do is focus and
this is why I champion progressive
policies because I believe that these
progressive policies are going to be the
key to getting people out of poverty I
really believe that having universal
education and universal health care and
universal nursery care and preschool
care that these are the and living wages
that these are the things that are going
to really break the cycle and get people
out of their poverty and get people
seeing a light at the end of the tunnel
and knowing that there that maybe they
themselves will not have the best life
that they won't be rich that they won't
be living in in a middle-class home but
their kids can have that shot and that's
what we got to work for that's the
system that we need to fix