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I started reporting this story at the very same moment as I was trying to figure out my own

relationship to the subject of this story, white parents in New York City public schools as I was trying to figure out my own relationship to the subject of this story,

white parents in New York City public schools. I was about to be one of them. When my kid was old

enough, I started learning about my options. I had many. There was our zoned public school in Brooklyn,

or I could apply to a handful of specialty programs, a gifted program or a magnet school or a language program.

So I started to look around.

This was five years ago now, but I vividly remember these tours.

I'd show up in the lobby of a school at the time listed on the website, look around,

and notice that all or almost all of the other

parents who'd shown up for the 11 a.m. middle of the workday, early in the shopping season

school tour, were other white parents. As a group, we'd walk the halls, following a school administrator,

almost always a man or woman of color, through a school full of black and brown kids.

We'd peer into classroom windows, watch the kids sit in a circle on the rug, ask questions about the lunch menu, homework policy, discipline. Some of us would take notes.

And the administrators would sell.

The whole thing was essentially a pitch.

...