Great post DCM!
My wife and I share a fair amount of Edu background with Dad 2020. No Ivys for us, public schools on the West Coast were a better option when we where taking our adv degrees (I don't think they are anywhere near as good now) and then there's the issue of $$$$ available for tuition. My DD at USNA never went to private schools growing up, DW and I kinda don't believe in them K-12---- they seem a little elitist.
My DD grew-up in Microsoft world west of Redmond in an affluent burb of Seattle. Zero inner city influence. If we must label people, she is an obvious WASP. Her friends "Of Color" were most likely asian or east Indian, and Dad or Mom had a PHD or MD. DD made an effort to see more broadly into other socio-economic groups. That said, I'd have to say at 17 she would be a poster child for the USNA Kid you've identified as clueless about other races and cultures.
DD arrived at the USNA, and rather than "studying" people who are "different from her," learning about cultures that are "different from hers". She was required to crawl alongside latino, Asian, and black individuals during Sea Trials for a quarter mile. Tired and sleep deprived she rowed rafts alongside these same SHIPMATES (they were her squad, here team mates. The first happy letter we got from her during PS was mostly a description of each person in her squad, her place among them and what they were coming to mean to her. People who are responding to you have pictures of their Kids during Plebe Summer showing them asleep in a lecture with their head resting on the shoulder of a black shipmate, or an asian shipmate, or a latino shipmate. I have pictures of DD holding up a log (obviously tired and straining); the kids beside her are both young African American men. The USNA gave my DD NO CHOICE, she couldn't opt for a group of WASPy friends at her college dorm. The Navy made different kinds of kids from different environments her SHIPMATES, and then placed DD in situations that required her to know and rely upon those different kinds of people (and they her).
DD's has a sister, (adopted and ethnically different from DD BTW) at a liberal Arts College on the West Coast. I do have to agree with you in part. DD #2 does have more opportunity to define a course load that would have her study "differences". In fact discussion of Differences seems to creep into every class she takes; including Math. I am not going to say that "Differences" shouldn't be studied, (of course they should) but as a parent I pleased that my DD at USNA has been REQUIRED to see/know/depend upon her SHIPMATES independent of their blackness, brownness whiteness, sexual orientation, religious beliefs. Note: apologies if this point has already been made (I haven't looked at all the responses yet).
I will also add that when my daughter went to the fleet for summer block, her bosses were "Enlisted" that came from every socio-economic-racial background you can imagine. Each of the Enlisted she worked with knew more about the immediate subject matter DD was dealing with than she did. They were her teachers, they were her bosses. One of my best moments as a Mid Parent was DD calling to tell me that after a day of painting aboard ship one of her older enlisted (of non disclosed racial background) noted the paint stains on DD uni gained pulling her weight doing the days task. He'd told her "He would be proud to have her as his section officer" someday. She was elated!-------- I thought to my self "what a great learning opportunity the US Navy is providing her. She wouldn't have gotten anything close at Harvard.
Best of luck to you and your daughter, if she went to NAS she has the stuff to build a great life. I am sorry to hear of her negative experience at NAS. Life will teach her that the actions of one (or a few) people don't predict or define that beliefs of everyone who looks the same or comes from the same background. Just as the words or actions of one or to individuals would discribe the ethic of a broader organization------ a good lesson for anyone including you, including me.
Best:
Just Dad
BTW: Its hard for me to see the people your daugther encountered at NAS being successful at the USNA in 2018.
boy I am long winded---------and ----------my dog proofed this post
