School Colors Episode 5: "The Melting Pot"

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NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2022

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Until recently, School District 28 in Queens, N.Y., was characterized by a white Northside, and a Black Southside. But today, the district, and Queens at large, has become what is considered to be one of the most diverse places on the planet. So how did District 28 go from being defined by this racial binary, to a place where people brag about how diverse it is?

Transcript

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0:00.0	So my name is Azea Rujo.
0:02.8	A born and raised in forest.
0:04.6	So this is like the Forest Hills Regal Park border.
0:06.7	Yeah, this was my elementary school.
0:07.9	PS 175 right across the street.
0:10.2	It was very lucky.
0:12.0	And for some reason, I was still always late.
0:14.5	So much of our storytelling up to this point
0:16.3	has focused on a black and white racial divide
0:18.4	in District 28, but that's changed.
0:21.1	In 1970, Forest Hills was 97% white.
0:24.8	It's not like that today.
0:26.6	Azea Rujo's family is part of that change.
0:29.4	My parents are born in Goa, India,
0:32.0	and they immigrated to America in the 70s.
0:35.0	And yeah, here I am.
0:37.9	Azea told me a lot of people when they first meet him,
0:40.2	think he's Latino because of his last name.
0:42.5	It's Portuguese.
0:43.3	So it's actually Ata Uj.
0:45.0	So everybody's like, you have a Portuguese last name,
0:47.6	but you're from India.
	...

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