I’ve been getting to know my neighbors better lately (both because we’re all cooped up at home and I’ve been walking the twins in the stroller a lot) and one couple recently told me they faked their address to improve their kid’s chances of getting into the public magnet school

It may seem kinda ~whatever, let them have their loophole~ but it’s really more of an instance of soft systemic racism. Mid-south Tulsa where we live has a higher quality of life, better public school outcomes, higher home values, etc. Historically very white.

My neighbors, to exploit this loophole, are taking up a slot at the magnet school that would otherwise go to a family in north Tulsa. Lower home values, shorter life expectancy, historically black.

I don’t know how aware of this disparity my neighbors are. They moved here from California a few years ago. Culturally they seem liberal. From talking with them a while I think they consider themselves, just as people, consumers and competitors within a tough economy.

I find what they’re doing to be morally repugnant and have no idea how to tell them. Even worse — because their first kid got into the school under this pretense, the next two will follow when they’re old enough. That’s three enrollment slots denied to north Tulsa kids.

Anyway, no idea what to do with all this except to just kinda push it out there in hopes that it illustrates how easily gamed and undermined these kind of magnet school systems are, and what soft racism looks like in tangible terms.

Oh! On the latter point I should say that my neighbors told me they were able to use the north Tulsa address by paying the water bill for the house for two months. The house is owned by a friend.