Bi-racial family moving to Silicon Valley from SF (San Jose, San Francisco: fit in, neighborhoods)

[pianomom500]

I hope someone who lives in Silicon Valley will be able to shed some light on my concerns. My husband and I are a bi-racial couple. He's African-American and I'm Asian-American, and we have a 2.5 year-old daughter. He works in Silicon Valley, but we live in SF.

We are moving to the Silicon Valley area so that he will be closer to work and because I heard that the schools are better. I also heard that the best elementary schools in the area have an overwhelmingly Asian student population, and when I researched the student body diversity, I saw that there were no African-Americans. Although my daughter is half Asian, I would say she will be considered African-American like Tiger Woods.

Does anyone have recommendations in terms of which schools and neighborhoods would be the best fit for us? I would say our income is comparable to average family income for Silicon Valley. Thanks in advance for your advice!

[zitsky]

There are people from all over the world and many ethnic groups in Silicon Valley. I really don't think you're going to have any problem living in the area. As long as you pick a nice neighborhood, no one is going to bother you. Yes, there is a small population of African Americans but that mirrors the US population (I think). As you probably know, there are larger populations of African Americans in San Francisco, Oakland/Berkeley and East Palo Alto, although East Palo Alto has more Latino residents these days. I would find it highly unlikely that there are *no* African American students in the school systems. However, I think there is such a large amount of diversity that your daughter would fit in pretty much anywhere.

Palo Alto, Cupertino & Los Altos have the best schools, but Palo Alto has a small downtown area and is close to Stanford. Cupertino is more spread out and requires a car to get around anywhere. Mountain View also has good schools and Mountain View high school students go to the Los Altos schools.

[treedonkey]

Come one, have you ever visited Silicon Valley? Because, if you have, you should not even need to ask that question. The South Bay is one of the most racially diverse places in the country, if not the world. That said, the (slightly) more affordable cities like San Jose, Milpitas, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale will have a greater ethnic mix than places like Cupertino, Los Altos and Saratoga.

[pianomom500]

Obviously I haven't visited South Bay a whole lot, and that's why I need to ask. The truth is, of the few times I have visited, I've only seen Asians and Whites. Also, if you go to greatschools.org and take the top 10 elementary schools in the South Bay and check out their stats, you'll see that the student body population is on average: 88-90% Asians, 8% Whites, Hispanics, Latinos <1%, African-Americans <1% or 0%.

I'm not trying to stir anyone up here. I just want some honest opinions, and my concerns are coming from my personal experience of being the only Asian in an all-white school in the rural South. Like any concerned parent, I want my daughter to go to a great school but not at the sacrifice of her well-being.

[treedonkey]

It's only a 50 minute drive from SF, so you really should make a habit of coming down here to visit if you're seriously thinking of moving.

San Jose is not the rural south. You're right, the SV population is predominantly asian (esp. if you consider folks from India and the middle East to be 'Asian' as well), with hispanic and white following in 2nd and 3rd place (depending on the neighborhood, of course). For some reason, the east bay seems to have a much larger afr-am population, so if you really want that, that's the place to choose. But I lived in SV for over ten years and always had close freinds of many races and nationalities, including several afr-am, native african, indian, persian, far-eastern, brazillian and hispanic folks. As a white male working in the tech industry and living in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, I was never in the racial majority, and race always seemed like a non-issue to me... Of course it could be an issue if someone chose to make it one, but if you're respectful of people's backgrounds they'll be respectful of yours. I'm sure that will be more or less true of school-age children as well.

[denver_hacker]

Originally Posted by pianomom500

Obviously I haven't visited South Bay a whole lot, and that's why I need to ask. The truth is, of the few times I have visited, I've only seen Asians and Whites. Also, if you go to greatschools.org and take the top 10 elementary schools in the South Bay and check out their stats, you'll see that the student body population is on average: 88-90% Asians, 8% Whites, Hispanics, Latinos <1%, African-Americans <1% or 0%.

I'm not trying to stir anyone up here. I just want some honest opinions, and my concerns are coming from my personal experience of being the only Asian in an all-white school in the rural South. Like any concerned parent, I want my daughter to go to a great school but not at the sacrifice of her well-being.

Wow - comparing the South Bay to the rural South - that is really impressive.

I'm not sure what schools you're looking at for the South Bay, but here's what I see (the titles on these pages say 'test score', but they're links to ethnicity charts):

Los Gatos Union Elementary School District is 72% white:

Test Scores for Los Gatos Union Elementary School District | GreatSchools

Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District is 60% white:

Test Scores for Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District | GreatSchools

Los Altos Elementary School District is 52% white/27% asian:

Test Scores for Los Altos Elementary School District | GreatSchools

Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District is 48% white/21% latino:

Test Scores for Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District | GreatSchools

Palo Alto Unified School District is 48% white/28% asian:

Test Scores for Palo Alto Unified School District | GreatSchools

Cupertino Union School District is 70% asian/23% white (Cupertino is where *a lot* of the old Honk Kong and Taiwan money ended up):

Test Scores for Cupertino Union School District | GreatSchools

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by denver_hacker

I'm not sure what schools you're looking at for the South Bay, but here's what I see (the titles on these pages say 'test score', but they're links to ethnicity charts):

Great stats, Hacker. The OP should keep in mind my earlier comment that those areas (Cupertino, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos, and Mountain View) are some the most affluent in the entire Bay Area (not to mention the country). Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and San Jose will be more diverse, both ethnically and economically.

[pianomom500]

Appreciate the tips, everyone.

Just so we're clear, I'm not comparing the rural South to South Bay, which is why I got the hell out of there in the first place. I'm comparing the experience of being the only representation of a race in a school.

[denver_hacker]

Originally Posted by pianomom500

Appreciate the tips, everyone.

Just so we're clear, I'm not comparing the rural South to South Bay, which is why I got the hell out of there in the first place. I'm comparing the experience of being the only representation of a race in a school.

OK - still not sure where you got that the top 10 south bay schools are 90% Asian.

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by pianomom500

I'm comparing the experience of being the only representation of a race in a school.

I guarantee you that in the Bay Area you could be Antarctican or Moonian and your child would not be the only one in their school of that race.