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But if we did experience it on another level to a point where we wanted or needed to pull her out of a cherry hill school could she go to school in another town? How does it work in South Jersey, can you live in say....Marlton or Moorestown and go to school in Cherry Hill or Mt. Laurel?
Peace everyone, I am from NYC, and my wife and I with our 2 girls age 4 and 6 months are looking to move to the Cherry Hill or Mt Laurel section of South Jersey. We are African-American and feel the need to give our girls a much better life and education than we had.....But! Are these places to do it. As I can see the Cherry is 5% black and Mt. Laurel about the same. I need people to be honest right now, would my daughters experience racism in these parts? I am not worried about it because I experience it everyday driving a bus for the MTA in NYC....But I cringe at the thought of my daughter being the only black girl in class and being the outcast. Can someone please be 100% real and tell me should we even "think" about moving to CH or Mt L. I sincerely look forward to any and everyones replies. I also am concerned about my wife's job opportunities.. She's been an at home mom for a while but when the baby is 2 she wants to get back to working in a hospital type setting. Someone, anyone please tell me the 100% truth about these towns.
I live in Mt. Laurel and the % of African American in school is closer to 13%. The break down are:
Our Student Population
Student Attendance Rate: 96.4%
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She may be the only African American in a particular classroom but not her grade. Will she come across folks that will look at her different? Yes.. that's the fact of life. Will it be a problem? I don't think so because there will be more of those that are "opened minded"
I can't speak for CH but I am told that there is a big difference between CH East and CH West.
I'll be honest with you and say this. If you drive around town, you generally see less African Ameerican in Mt. Laurel than Cherry Hill. It's just so happen that CH is closer to Camden and Philly.
BTW: For the school, Mt Laurel and CH are in 2 different counties so you will not be able to attend a different school. I believe for High school in the same county, you can but it may cost some $.
For the most part people don't care about race, and at most view it as something to make jokes about. If there is a problem, there are many fine parochial schools in Southern New Jersey.
Whenever you are a minority, you will have some bad experiences. When we moved to this area and were looking for schools, my son visited Haddonfield High School and was told by some kids - oh don't go to Cherry Hill, that's where all the jews are. Guess what, we are jewish.
Both areas have good and bad to offer. I've moved a number of times and no matter where you move it will take a few years to feel as if you belong to the community. Spend some time in the schools, the shopping areas and drive around the different housing communities. You will start to notice differences.
No matter what, your family will experience good and bad. We only break down the barriers when we live with each other.
I will say this area is one of the friendliest places I have lived (which includes NYC, Northern Jersey, Central Jersey and San Francisco). Philadelphia is real close as is the shore. There is a lot to offer.
Whenever you are a minority, you will have some bad experiences. When we moved to this area and were looking for schools, my son visited Haddonfield High School and was told by some kids - oh don't go to Cherry Hill, that's where all the jews are. Guess what, we are jewish.
Both areas have good and bad to offer. I've moved a number of times and no matter where you move it will take a few years to feel as if you belong to the community. Spend some time in the schools, the shopping areas and drive around the different housing communities. You will start to notice differences.
No matter what, your family will experience good and bad. We only break down the barriers when we live with each other.
I will say this area is one of the friendliest places I have lived (which includes NYC, Northern Jersey, Central Jersey and San Francisco). Philadelphia is real close as is the shore. There is a lot to offer.
My grandmother lives in Cherry Hill, in the Woodcrest development (not Jewish for the record), lived there since 1970 and they have said quite a few well-to-do black families have moved into the area in recent years. It's funny because my mother used to say when she was in high school back in the 1970s people used to ask her where she lived and she'd say in Woodcrest and their immediate response would be "you don't look Jewish."
Winslow I think has a significant black population, not sure what kinda place it is though. There's also Lawnside which I think is almost all black, again I don't know what it's like. I've always heard you get the best bang for your bucks in Evesham/Marlton area and the schools are pretty good, know quite a few people from there. Cherokee HS there looks almost like a college campus. It's an old town though, not sure about the ethnicity percentages, everyone I've met from there was white.
I wouldn't send my own kids to Cherry Hill East. I have old college friends who went there (who were white but not rich) and had a tough time with the snobbery and from what I hear it's only gotten worse. I don't think you'd have a problem with racism in Cherry Hill (or in many places in Camden County for that matter) so much as with classism.
Cherry Hill West is still a good high school without the same "my daddy bought me this car" issues and with a higher percentage of AA students. More Latino and Asian students as well.
I live in South Philly and a lot of the teenagers in my neighborhood are black or asian. The two groups don't socialize with each other that much but I have some pretty interesting conversations with both groups. Because of where they grew up and where they've gone to school they think that being in the majority is normal. Some of the asian kids think if a family doesn't have a buddhist shrine in their living room they must not be religious (even if they're not buddhist). I, of course, help to foster that stereotype because my wife put a small buddha statue on our bookshelf and it happens to be right next to some candles (not done on purpose). It's clearly visible from the street when we have the curtains drawn. I digress, when I first moved to my block I used to get the craziest questions about being white. They were sincere, honest questions (if sometimes offensive) that they didn't mean anything by but it still blows my mind. They used to ask me a lot of questions about baseball because it's "a white sport." People (even the adults) were really confused when we first moved here because we didn't have a car. If you don't have a car you must be poor - goes the logic. But we are white, so they couldn't understand how we could possibly be poor. (we're not, we just didn't need a car so we sold it.)
Point is, they're really not well prepared to navigate a world and a workforce that's 70% white. I'm not saying that you or your kids are like that. Just using it as an extreme example.
Even if your kids do run into the occasional racist in high school you're doing them a favor. Those people are really out there and your kids will fare much better in their careers when they know how to deal with people like that.
I grew up in South Jersey. I lived in Cherry Hill - went to Cherry Hill East - also lived in Marlton and worked in Mt Laurel. Don't know now, but when I went to CHE, we had a 90% college attendance rate. Mt. Laurel is very nice as well - both have good schools. If you want to raise kids either area is nice and safe. Yes, there are a lot more people of Jewish faith on the east side and more diversity on the west side. But this is 2010 people - diversity is everywhere - there are good and bad people of all religions, creeds and nationalities.
Yes there is snobbery, but what HS doesn't have cliques? I was not popular, but I made it out ok and I'm a minority. Cherry Hill and Mt. Laurel have good rankings in education so if that is your priority - you won't go wrong in Cherry Hill or Mt. Laurel. If you need specific neighborhood ideas, email me and I'm happy to help.
Good question. I know people who live there. I visit, eat, shop there, but don't know anyone who has a kid in school there right now... used to, thinking about it, but no one at the moment.
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