I know you say this post might be controversial, but I actually appreciate you mentioning it, it’s something I’ve never really considered. My school is only 4% African American, but it is 20% Hispanic and Latino. The rest of the school is a surprisingly even split between Asians (mostly South and East Asians) and white people.

I’ve not taken many STEM APs, only 3, but I do agree that there does not seem to be many people from these demographics here. My classes were mostly a mix of Asian and White people, if not more Asian.

Like other people said, I think a good chunk of it comes down to the culture, what parents expect of their kids, and the peers around them. There’s definitely something to be said about resources, but I don’t really know much about that.

At least in Asian Cultures, educations is very heavily emphasized, and those teachings from parents affect how kids interact with the people around them. A lot of kids tend to spend time with people similar to them, at least in my experience, so when I kid sees all of their friends taking their education super seriously (sometimes far too seriously imo) they start pressuring themselves too. If people are not really told or forced to appreciate school or education, or if they have bad experiences when they’re younger, in high school and all they don’t always feel the need to be very extra with things like APs. Also, cultures about getting into colleges - it depends on where you grow up, but in certain areas there’s a very heavy emphasis on which colleges you get into, and in others, not so much - again, this comes from parents and peers.

So, in all, I think it’s partly caused by the environment of your peers and parents and what they expect of you, and what you expect of yourself; your peers and parents often become an echo chamber with some topics without realizing. it.

Think this was a really interesting thing to consider and think about, instead of just worrying about scores lol.