Race at the Top: Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools

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Wednesday, November 8, 2023 | 4:15pm to 6:30pm

CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Room 6112, Manhattan

The American suburb conjures an image of picturesque privilege: manicured lawns, quiet streets, and—most important to parents—high-quality schools. These elite enclaves are also historically white, allowing many white Americans to safeguard their privileges by using public schools to help their children enter top colleges. That’s changing, however, as Asian American professionals increasingly move into wealthy suburban areas to give their kids that same leg up for their college applications and future careers.

As Natasha Warikoo shows in Race at the Top, white and Asian parents alike will do anything to help their children get to the top of the achievement pile. She takes us into the affluent suburban East Coast school she calls “Woodcrest High,” with a student body about one-half white and one-third Asian American. As increasing numbers of Woodcrest’s Asian American students earn star-pupil status, many whites feel displaced from the top of the academic hierarchy, and their frustrations grow. To maintain their children’s edge, some white parents complain to the school that schoolwork has become too rigorous. They also emphasize excellence in extracurriculars like sports and theater, which maintains their children’s advantage.

Warikoo reveals how, even when they are bested, white families in Woodcrest work to change the rules in their favor so they can remain the winners of the meritocracy game. Along the way, Warikoo explores urgent issues of racial and economic inequality that play out in affluent suburban American high schools. Caught in a race for power and privilege at the very top of society, what families in towns like Woodcrest fail to see is that everyone in their race is getting a medal—the children who actually lose are those living beyond their town’s boundaries.

Purchase Book: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo149570065.html

Co-Sponsors
CUNY Graduate Center Immigration Seminar Series
Asian American/Asian Research Institute – CUNY

Author Bio

Presented By:

Natasha Warikoo is Lenore Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, at Tufts University. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Warikoo studies racial and ethnic inequality in education. Her book Race at the Top: Asian Americans and Whites in Pursuit of the American Dream in Suburban Schools (May 2022, University of Chicago Press), explores the growth of Asian Americans in suburban communities. In the book Is Affirmative Action Fair? The Myth of Equity in College Admissions, Warikoo argues that we should rethink college admissions, and walks readers through empirical evidence suggesting the important value of affirmative action. She is also the author of The Diversity Bargain: And Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities. Warikoo is co-chair of Scholars Strategy Network Boston, which aims to connect scholars, policymakers, and community leaders to effect change. Warikoo earned her BSc/BA in mathematics and philosophy at Brown University, and her PhD in sociology at Harvard University. She is a former high school teacher.