Word: websterisms
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Jonathan is what is known as a VTS kid, or voluntary transfer student. In the early 1970s, under a court-ordered desegregation plan, Webster opened its doors to youngsters from the inner city. Today black students account for about a quarter of the 1,300-plus student body, with 161 of them, or 12%, bused in from the city...
...inner city. Jonathan's neighborhood friends often taunt him for being too good to simply walk the six blocks to Roosevelt High. But "all they do there is fight every day," he says. "You've got to worry about the gangs and what color you're wearing." He appreciates Webster's relative safety and its pride in racial diversity. Indeed, long before the 1970s desegregation, Webster Groves boasted an integrated community. Most blacks reside in Rock Hill, a part of town settled by freed slaves, whose businesses, churches and schools spawned a thriving black middle class...
...none was black. Searching the list for the highest-ranking black student, she runs her finger down the second page to No. 59, Tanya Hoard, who graduated with a 3.67 average. Hassler, who is black, wishes there were more like Hoard and thinks both black and white teachers at Webster must work harder to address the academic needs of African-American students. "The stuff about racial differences is built into American culture and is not particular to one place. It starts well before the kids get to high school. If there is not a high expectation and a channeling...
Middle-class blacks who live in Webster Groves and have strong role models tend to score higher--but can still feel isolated. By third period, senior Paya Rhodes, 18, is in her advanced-calculus class, sitting beside the only other black student. Rhodes has a 3.6 GPA, and in most of her advanced classes, she's the only black. Paya used to take pride in that status and in her family's record of excellence at Webster Groves. Her oldest brother maintained a 4.0 for four straight years; another went on to Washington University. Her mother and a third brother...
Even Sally Roth, whose best friend is black, admits that amid Webster's relative racial harmony, there are unsettling contradictions, which she experienced first-hand while dating a black guy at school. When she would visit her boyfriend at his home, some of the "popular white kids" at school would "make these rude comments about me going to Little Africa, Hershey Hill or Browntown. They were his friends too. It really pissed me off that they would say that behind his back." When Sally's black friends came to visit, new neighbors blamed them, without evidence, for a recent burglary...