Palo Alto niceness is skin deep.

Yes, let's all go back into the closet and hide our true colors. I think the unveiling of racism in Palo Alto is very illuminating, amid our lip service of liberalism and "celebration" of diversity.

Parent, I've heard this saying and I think it speaks volumes. Sue moves into the neighborhood and asks her new neighbor Jill if people in her new neighborhood are nice. Jill asks her, "oh, were they nice in your last neighborhood"? Sue responds, "oh yes, they were very nice." Jill responds, "well I think you'll find that they are nice in this neighborhood too." In other words, you reap what you sow. Parent, you must be doing something right....

good call, whoever removes posts

There are so many bad feelings floating around (atleast on this forum) - thanks to the MI debate. Folks - grow up, it was a debate .. nothing to be taken personally. The people from the opposite camps gave their all during the debate, each party stood for its own cause .. and in a debate, one is going to win and the other is going to loose .. thats just the way it works. This does not mean that the people from the opposite parties are arch rivals ! Give me a break.

We moved into this area recently .. we were in the mid-west. Folks - you don't realize what a great society PA is. There is so much diversity, there is so much tolerance, there is abundant of acceptance. Not being a caucasian .. well, I felt it from time to time elsewhere. But for us .. Palo Alto .. turned out to be melting pot.

No one raises a brow at my accent, no one is curious about my chidren's mixed-heritage. People, no matter what race, religion they are .. treat others as "people" and not the personFromEurope, personFromAsia .. unfortunately in today's day and age, its hard to come by. We/our kids have been going to their friends' houses without thinking twice about 'are we different/are they different' .. it does not matter. All we care about is those people being nice people and responsible people - and you know what - most of the people in this town ARE NICE and RESPONSIBLE !

"Differences" are just accepted here. My daughter's pre-school had an awareness week - where they talked about how as people we have different eyes, hair .. but we are "people" . Now if 3yr olds can get it - why is it so difficult for the adults to get it ?

Go Palo Alto ! A truely nice place to live ...

There are so many bad feelings floating around (atleast on this forum) - thanks to the MI debate. Folks - grow up, it was a debate .. nothing to be taken personally. The people from the opposite camps gave their all during the debate, each party stood for its own cause .. and in a debate, one is going to win and the other is going to loose .. thats just the way it works. This does not mean that the people from the opposite parties are arch rivals ! Give me a break.

We moved into this area recently .. we were in the mid-west. Folks - you don't realize what a great society PA is. There is so much diversity, there is so much tolerance, there is abundant of acceptance. Not being a caucasian .. well, I felt it from time to time elsewhere. But for us .. Palo Alto .. turned out to be melting pot.

No one raises a brow at my accent, no one is curious about my chidren's mixed-heritage. People, no matter what race, religion they are .. treat others as "people" and not the personFromEurope, personFromAsia .. unfortunately in today's day and age, its hard to come by. We/our kids have been going to their friends' houses without thinking twice about 'are we different/are they different' .. it does not matter. All we care about is those people being nice people and responsible people - and you know what - most of the people in this town ARE NICE and RESPONSIBLE !

"Differences" are just accepted here. My daughter's pre-school had an awareness week - where they talked about how as people we have different eyes, hair .. but we are "people" . Now if 3yr olds can get it - why is it so difficult for the adults to get it ?

Go Palo Alto ! A truely nice place to live ...

Can someone please explain the racism charges in the MI debate? Connect the dots for me here: who are the racists? Are the Pro-MI people racist because they want to build a Chinese school, or are the Anti-MI people racist because they want everyone to kum-bye-ya together in the neighborhood schools regardless of race? Is it possible that some of the Anti-MI sentiment came from people who were wondering about the wisdom of creating a separate-but-equal-schools thing here in Palo Alto; didn't we decide that this approach doesn't work toward achieve the greater goals of a multi-ethinic society?

Confused,

The racism aspect was discussed on multiple threads, but the following one probably contains the best summary of the issues.

Web Link

"Racism" is used frequently (and wrongly) when people really mean "bigotry." Racism is governmental, institutional. Bigotry is personal.

Palo Alto does have problems with racism: I personally know people who've been stopped for no other "offense" than "driving while black." Quiet, older, courteous. I don't think the school district is racist.

Mandarin Immersion brought out some truly irrational reactions. I think many parents had no prior knowledge of many of the school district's problems. They blamed this proposal for the unpleasant news they've been getting about re-drawing of boundaries for neighborhood schools, a school administration in chaos (acrimony leading to the dismissal of the superintendent, and resignation of one of her top aides) and many other things not related to language instruction. The school board members took far too long to go public with the "available space" constraints, and the absence of planning to change any of that.

Also, the school district alienated many of us with two bond issues, the first failed; the other passed. Until the first of the two, my husband and I had been voluntarily paying tax, although we are eligible by age to "opt out." The publication by the district of the names of those who had chosen to "opt out" infuriated me, and I decided that henceforth we too would "opt out." We were wasting money we could give to charity.

The Mandarin program interested me. I thought we might want to opt back in. The Chinese government has outstanding programs in language. English, for example. In general, language instruction is weak in the U.S. (This is not an endorsement of everything the Chinese government is doing. The persecution of Muslims, for instance, is violent and horrifying.)

I understand that the district really had no place to put it, but I think those problems should have been made public, loudly and repeatedly, long before they came to a boil over the MI proposal.

The anger that comes out in this forum is preferable to cover-up.

I'm not impressed or optimistic about where the schools are going, so those tax savings will continue to go to more promising projects