ranchstyle

When my parents moved to McAllen, the only other white kid in my elementary school had been adopted at birth. I didn't speak Spanish, while somewhere above 90% of the other kids had only learned English as a second language. So actually, I do know about trips to random grocery stores where the clerks serve all of their ethnicity before they serve you, I do know about racial epithets, and I even know about being spat on. I never once took a playground beating, though, and the closest it came was later on in middle school and high school where the threats were actually from other white kids.

I've had a girlfriend later in life that was black but had a white grandmother, and when she attended elementary school in Houston's 3rd Ward, she got beat up all the time for being a yellowbones...and she's probably only a little younger than you.

We both turned out alright, although I'll be the first to brag that we aren't normal. While I can certainly understand a parent's visceral impulse to make life as easy as possible for their children, the most valuable lessons typically come with difficulty. Character is born out of conflict.

I don't follow... Can you be more specific?

Certainly TheNiche,

I am Irish, Italian, Jewish and African American so we can relate my husband is Italian, Pawmunkey Indian, Bajan, and African so we to have had our fair share I am what is considered a red bone if you will and he is the same complezion as Denzel Washington! I understand and agree that Character can be born out of conflict but we would never choose to put our children through that as we know they will go through that regardless later on in life. Well all the racist things for us in our lives have become worse now as opposed to when we grew up. We have had our cars spray painted on, our porch left with dead animals in shoe , hate notes left on our desks at work, we hear niggah lover, go back to Africa, my husband hears things like "boy" and whitey lover. It is just never ending we never heard anything like this until I would honestly say 2005 and it just gets worse it seems i've had elderly Caucasian women push their shopping carts almost right through me as if I wasn't there and little children as small as 2 say blacky to my husband and their mothers and fathers just hush them along while making sure to give me the eye or whatever you want to call it. And yes we have been passed over for jobs both he and I and have gone to the EEOC about it and filed complaints with proof. That felt good but did not change or help the situation. We deal with it in our own way without being hateful or spiteful and believe me we know in this country no matter what our racial makeup is with one ounce of African American in us we are Black in americas eyes. We may look like an interracial couple when you see us but like I said we have a mixed background. Even though we choose to celebrate our mixed heritage proudly!

I'm curious: which school districts would you expect race-based violence or murder to occur in?

Another factor to consider is that when there is too perfect a split, cliques form along ethnic lines and people often have a difficult time getting outside their culture. There probably is an optimal level of diversity, but 20/20/20/20/20 isn't it, IMO. probably closer to 60/10/10/10/10.

I'm kind of a history buff, so this interests me. Care to provide specific examples?

Well TheNiche,

I'm an 70's and 80's baby and I learned all to well in NY how to get along with every race I grew up with chinese, koreans, phillipines, italians, jamaicans, puerto ricans, haitians, dominicans, japanese, caucasians, equadorians, brazilians, panamanians, bajans, venezualans, africans, west indians, irish, jewish, and much much more and none of us hated or disrespected each other in every borough throughout NY it just did not happen! I wish I could give my children the same wonderful fun filled marvelous easy going carefree childhood I had where everyone got along and played and just enjoyed life, but that time is over and now we must choose between hatred/racism/discrimination of all kinds in every way imagineable and it is different for each race we all go through different experiences. For instance a simple trip to any random grocery store for me will be a different experience you. Just as going to a job interview will be. That is how life is. My whole life I have been hearing that history repeats itself well TheNiche that seems to be true because what happened during my great grandmothers childhood seems to be happening today.

I don't really get the whole big deal about needing diversity and feeling like its essential for happiness. Why do you feel uncomfortable being around people that are similar to you?

Hello CEugh,

I guess you won't if you don't already. As I posted earlier it is the atmosphere I grew up in diverse well mixed and we want that for our children as well. We don't like segregated neighborhoods by no means. It is not about FEELING anything it is about what's best for us. I have lived with people similar to me my whole life and will continue to do so for the remainder. It is about what's best for our children right now this world is a much worse place than when we were children that is painfully obvious decisions need to be carefully made now! Thanks for asking!

I agree. Neighborhoods are populated by similarities in income more than anything, and there is no such perfect balance amongst the various ethnic groups. Looking for some skin-based utopia is fantasy. Why focus on how people appear on the outside? If your children are afraid to feel uncomfortable, I'd say the best thing is to find the best place to live based on factors other than race and then let them deal with the reality. Their fears will probably turn out to be based on almost nothing.

Hello Danax,

I am used to a diversed mixed race upscale neighborhood and prefer that for my children. I know it may not be perfectly mixed that way in Houston. I wanted people to direct me to those closest to it. What we do not want as their parents is putting them in a KNOWINGLY racist/hate school district where they will be discriminated against just because of their race. Those neighborhoods are easy to find and that's why I asked the question the way I did and as I expected it was sugar coated however Katiedidit gave me the most honest of all the responses even using information from the internet. See some of us can not just move where we like without having to think about our children first I would think ALL of us would know that by now but I guess there are still people among us who think the world is a fantasy and that anyone can just move wherever without a care well those people end up hurt or dead and as parents we will not chance that.

I agree that Sugarland probably fits your needs.

Oh, and take all those "horror stories" you hear about HISD schools on message boards with a grain of salt. A lot of those opinions are coming from people who live in Houston's suburbs. To them, the wind hanging direction is suspicious much less an urban setting. There are some very good schools in HISD and SBISD. I think I could safely say that Lamar High School is better than any suburban school.

On a list that came out a few years ago Lamar, Memorial and Stratford High Schools ranked in the Top 150-200 schools in the country. The suburban schools were suprisingly not ranked anywhere near that. Only one I really remember the ranking of was The Woodlands High School, and it was rank 730th +/-

Ok, I just came back from Greatschools.com. You got my curiousity going so I plugged in schools that I thought would have a good grouping of all cultures. I found you can get white and hispanic pretty even with either a good number of black or asian (but not both together) Is this typical of Houston? Do those two cultures distance themselves from one another?

The schools in 77077 might interest you. Barbara Bush Elem (this comes close to your 20/20/20/20 ideal as well as a desirable school) and Westside High School. You may want to look at those. The area is affordable and easy to get around. And HISD is know to help the motivated kids get into magnet programs/vangaurd and High Schools.

Another area to scope out would be north of I-10. While there maybe a great ratio of Hispanic to other minorities, its a pretty good mix. That would be SBISD, which has an excellent reputation in Houston.

Thank you Katiedidit! I will check out those schools/areas I appreciate the info.

My high school in Northwest Houston-county, Klein Forest, was pretty diverse in many aspects when I went there (1994-98). By the time I graduated it was about 30% white, 25% hispanic, 25% black, and 20% asian. A mix of southern-Texas roots to first generation immigrants. Our boundaries were odd, kids that lived by KF went to Ike and vice-versa. We had people from Champions to the projects to farms going there. Not sure how it is now.

Thank you JJvilla I will check out that school and are as well. I appreciate it.

I was going to say that Sugarland and Pearland are likely candidates for you however I don't believe they meet your 20/20/20/20/20 criteria.

As for schools, may i ask the age of your children?

Hello Musicman,

My son is 14 and my daughter is 6.

I suggest you immerse yourself in data from the TEA. That'll address issues about diversity and student performance. As for teachers that care, that's harder to gauge, but I'd say that HISD probably tops the list from the perspective of staffing (look at the percentage of staff with graduate degrees) but that demographics overwhelm most of their schools to the point that the suburban districts top the list for effectiveness.

Children without motivation usually have some underlying reason for lacking it. I was one of those kids, enduring what I perceived to be a jail-like institution that focused the greater part of its resources on maintaining order and discipline than anything else. The result among anybody with real potential was a mixed sense of boredom and insult. If you think that your kids might be facing a similar situation, then you need to find a district that has really good programs targeting the top tier of students. If your kids aren't in that range, then its a little more difficult; not because there are a shortage of programs targeting that group, but because it is harder to gauge which is best among a large selection.

Commute time is a function of your destination; I can't really help you with that one. There are plenty of neighborhoods without any serious crime. Sounds like school district is really the big issue for you.

Hello TheNiche,

My children do not have problems I am just emphasizing a need for teachers who care and not so much on programs offered because many school districts have programs that are never offered to parents when in need. Can you tell me of any areas in particular that you know of that are the most diverse? We work from home I guess I should have specified that. I just do not like traffic jams at any given time or day. Well I have heard horror stories on many forums about school districts in Houston so I want to make sure we go with the best one. I appreciate your response.

while houston is diverse, your ideal of 20/20/20/20/20 is going to be difficult if not impossible to find.

Hello Musicman,

Are there any areas that you know of that are the most diverse?

Can you all give me your opinions of areas/suburbs/subdivisions in Houston are culturally diverse that have a good mixture of Koreans, African Americans, Asians, Indians, Caucasians, Hispanics and other races. I have heard goo things about sugarland, humble, aldine, cypress, woodlands, the heights, spring, and noone gives specific reasons (good caring neighbors, clean neigborhood streets, decent jobs, shorter commute time, teachers that care, lower crime rates, no noisy passers thru etc...) I do not want to move to an area that is 70% or more of any one race. Please guide me in the direction of as many neighborhoods that have a good mixture like 20/20/20/20/20 out of 100%. I have a family and we do not want to move somewhere that may not want any specific race there and cause my family to feel uncomfortable with our neighbors and/or classmates. I want a school district that is known for helping their students excel even if the children have NO MOTIVATION at all. I hope this is not to much to ask but all the boards online seem to beat around the bush and noone really speaks their mind. Please be honest I really appreciate it.

Thank you