Jesus-loving, soft-spoken, with blonde hair spiked up in the front. His smile and laugh are comforting, and he sits with one leg resting on top of the other. Prompted about religion, he immediately said this:

“A lot of people think that I don’t like gay people, that I’m anti-abortion, just like a bunch of stuff,” said senior James Hibbert. “That’s obviously not the case at all.”

At a school dominated by academic pressure, Hibbert laughs about the jokes he has to endure as the only white-skinned student in the room.

“People think ‘Oh, you have to ask the white kid, he may not get as good of a grade in the class,’” Hibbert said. “They’ll just kind of assume I didn’t do as well on a test or something.”

Gayla Hibbert, James’ mother, grew up in Cupertino. The Hibbert family still lives in the same house to this day. Hibbert’s father David comes from a similar background. And the biggest cultural difference they have noticed as parents: the pressure.

“We caught on early that there was going to be a lot of pressure in the area” David said. “When we were driving to the hospital to give birth to James at 2:00 in the morning, [James’ mother] was pointing out the lights on in bedrooms as Monta Vista students studying.”

James is a white, Christian male, a rarity amongst the masses at MVHS in which white students make up only 15 percent of the student body. In a survey of 40 MVHS students, 60 percent say that being white, Christian and male carries a negative connotation. Yet, James is up front and open about his faith when asked.

James has been a member of the Peninsula Bible Church since age five, when his family changed churches from the United Methodist Church. And while he was too young to remember the transition, his parents think they have found their home. Gayla said the friends James has made at his new church are the ones who have kept him most in touch with his faith.

“Then, he started getting involved with some other kids at school and some of them were nice, some of them were not as good of an influence,” Gayla said. “He started to kind of reject going to church a little bit. He would go but he wasn’t as excited about going.”

This brief lack of enthusiasm during his middle school years came to an end when James began taking part in King City mission trips, where Gayla says James has really made an impact. Since then, James’ ties to his religion have stayed very strong.

On Tuesday nights, he goes to Bible study. Sundays, he goes to service. Throughout his entire life, James cannot remember a time when he wasn’t attending Church at least once a week. Volunteer trips, bible study and these Sunday mornings have shaped his religious identity.

“He didn’t really have a choice but he didn’t object to it either,” Gayla said. “It was pretty involved, as far as attending the Sunday School class and being involved in the youth group as well.”

James recognizes societal privilege that stems from both his ethnicity and his gender, but he doesn’t believe that they have helped him much in Cupertino. He says that because of our community’s general level of diversity, being a member of America’s 63 percent white majority does not help in any way.  But even more surprisingly, people pass judgement on his faith.

“Sometimes random people will be like, ‘Ah James, your parents voted for Trump, didn’t they?’ And actually no, my family is quite liberal,” James said. “And they’ll be like ‘What? But you’re Christian.’”

In such a culturally diverse school, it is surprising that judgement is passed so quickly. Yet he said he finds himself at the butt of racist jokes all too often.

“‘Are all of your family from the South? Are they all hicks?’” James said. “Oh yeah, and I get those jokes all the time. ‘Did your grandparents own slaves?’ Even though that’s totally not the time era.”

Considering the horrid nature of slavery, it seems like it’s a step backward when jokes are made about it. James said, however, that these remarks have given him both perspective and opportunities to learn.

“It’s positive because it’s forced me to take a step back and look at the benefits I have, living in Cupertino and white privilege,” James said. “I wouldn’t have recognized these without those white people comments.”

It didn’t take long for James to begin noticing the physical differences that made him the odd man out around his peers. In the first or second grade, flipping through class pictures, he saw himself as the only blonde in most of the frames.

“When I was in class, it wasn’t a big deal,” James said. “But when looking at the pictures, I definitely noticed it more.”

Being white is noticeable around MVHS, and being white in America has typically come with benefits in the past. But moving forward post-Inauguration, James is anticipating many questions about his political ideology. He identifies as liberal. As “progressive.” As someone who would never consider supporting candidates with racially insensitive and intolerant rhetoric.

According to the Pew Research Center, 56 percent of weekly churchgoers casted their ballots towards President Trump. Forty percent, including the Hibbert family, turned out for Secretary Clinton.

And while Trump may have won the contest, James emphasized that his actions do not characterize all white Christians.

In the end, the Hibbert family is just your typical MVHS family next door. Albeit, the white and blonde family next door.