you talk about this school as riverview high school, the principal is maurice weber and metro midwest is what they're saying. how much of that is made up? can you tell us -- is this a real school? >> guest: it's a real school, it's a real location, it's a real suburban context that's racially diverse and a place that's known for its progressive, liberal ethos and context. >> host: so maurice weber made up, riverview, made up. metro midwest -- is it in the midwest? >> guest: it is in the midwest. those are all pseudonyms for real people, rell places. >> host: okay. what is it about this school that attracted you to write about it? >> guest: you know, it's a really fascinating place because it's been stably integrated for, you know, probably 30 years, 40 years. and what you find there is not the sort of standard disparity between income. most folks there are middle class including the black, latino families as well as the white families. most folks, again, they espouse this egalitarian ethos. they believe in diversity. many of them move to this community because it's a diverse place. an

you talk about the principal as maurice weber and metro midwest is what you're saying. how much of that is made up? can you tell us exactly -- is this a real school? >> guest: it's a real school. it's a real location. it's predominantly middle class, racially diverse and a place that's known for its progressive, liberal ethos and context. >> host: so maurice weber made up, riverview made up, metro midwest -- is it in the midwest? >> guest: it is in the midwest. those are pseudonyms for real people, real places. >> host: okay. what is it about this school that attracted you to write about it? >> guest: you know, it's a really fascinating class because it's been stably integrated for, you know, probably 30 years, 40 years. and what you find there is not is sort of standard disparity between income. most folks are there middle class including the black, latino families as well as the white families. most folks, again, they espouse this egalitarian ethos. many of them move to this community because it's a diverse place. and so the idea that this is a really progressive comm

host: so despite the best intentions, what improvements did you suggest to retiring principal maurice weber? >> guest: well, one of the things that we wanted to get across is that it's not so much that people intend to do bad things. teachers don't go into education because they want to create achievement gaps, they don't go into education because they want some students to do well and others not to. but they do live in a society where race permeates everything about the society, right? where the inequalities persist across a number of domains, and schools are no different. and part of the way this happens is not necessarily by the sort of old-fashioned racism where you have people organizing in the streets in ways that reproduce racial inequality, but the sort of day-to-day dynamics that people engage in when they're talking to someone, what they expect of them is and how that sort of manifests itself almost at a subconscious level where people act on their racial beliefs even when they don't intend to. and those are some of the mechanisms that led to performance expectations for black stu