[monster]

I was at a PTO meeting a few months ago, and -as usual- they were moaning that we are "too white". We're a magnet school, so our demographics differ from the neighborhood the school is in. Which is a pretty white area. As usual we debate why/how ..........the more culturally diverse sections of the catchment area are over an hour's schoolbus ride away.....
and at the last moment of the debate, a black mom and former chair of the PTO (who resigned mid-term) pipes up (paraphrased): You ain't ever gonna get equality in the school until you really address the equity issues. Y'all say you want more "minorities", but you keep running it the white way. You're all so polite with whose turn it is to speak and not getting mad with each other. That's not our way. We get mad and in your face and you won't let us do that. That's not how we do it and why we feel alienated.

I got her point. I didn't realise before that moment that there were different ways of doing these things. She wasn't bitter, she didn't expect any change and ahe still is a part of it and apparently enjoys it, but it has hit a nerve for me....
but pretty much the rest of the PTO thought she was hallucinating because they know they have no skin color issues. And they don't. They just don't have any friends who have a different skin color to set them straight on what it is and how it feels to be black. or brown. or coffee. or caramel.... or green........

but the point being, because I was in the majority and was very used to the way thins run, it never occurred to me that anyone could perceive the setup as being biased. But it was. That understood, the mom didn't want us to change it, she just wanted us to realize that it was like a foreign language sometimes.

And I think that's all we non-Americans want. We don't want to change the board, we' don't even need a nod to the fact that you know we're not on the same page. We love how it is, but it is an American board and you guys just can't see that because you are American.