Loading ...Diversity with only Face Value
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision this week limiting race as a factor in school integration plans. The sky-is-falling, old school civil rights crowd who still thinks this is 1957 and not 2007, is yelling about how the clock is being turned back on civil rights and the usual blather. First of all, the court did not say you could not use race, but merely put some limits on it. As one Justice said, “you can’t beat discrimination with discrimination.” I personally find it offensive for Black people to say the only way Black children can learn is if they go to school with white children.
I am all for diversity in the classroom, but the way the “old school” crowd wants diversity is to just put a black face next to a white face and call it a day. I argue true diversity comes from differing opinions. And you get different opinions from different people from different backgrounds, and it’s not just race.
One of my best friends is a white guy from Kansas. We attended college together and were amazed at how much we had in common. But had the “old school” crowd put us together in the classroom they would have been happy with “diversity” because was white with long hair and I was black with a jerri curl. Never mind the fact we had similar views on the major issues of the day.
On the reverse, my cousin who grew up a few blocks from me in Chicago is the biggest tree-hugging, Birkenstock- wearing, vegetarian-eating, Black Panther-partying person you will ever find and we have nothing in common. But there is more diversity between the two of us than Martin Luther King, Jr. and David Duke.
The point of this is simple, we should have diverse, integrated schools. But true diversity comes from thought, opinion and perspective, not just race. It is a fallacy to think that you would get diversity simply because you put different people of different races in the same classroom. That kind of diversity only has face value and it’s worthless.
July 1st, 2007 at 10:46 am
Abdul, I believe the case that went before the Supreme Court had children being bussed 3 hours A DAY (1 1/2 hours each way) to fulfill integration. How many adults do that kind of commute to work?!
July 1st, 2007 at 11:38 am
Almost 50 years ago I interviewed for an engineer job at WGEE, the Indianapolis “race” station: it played African-American music but the staff was lily-white. Those old-school civil rights leaders opened up broadcasting hiring. Sadly, now we have a Black AM-radio talk show host knocking those giants of American history who worked to open the way for his job today …
July 1st, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I agree whole heartedly with the decision of the justices. I disagreed with the position of the NAACP in the 1960s and so did many African Americans. As I recall, many light- skinned Negroes discriminated against darker skinned Negroes. They acted and thought they were superior to them.
The issue was quality schools and a quality education. Too many members of the African American community are in denial, and are ashamed of their heritage. They honestly believed that anything Caucasian people have is better.
Not so. I attended an all black populated elementary public school and received an excellent education. I was encouraged to achieve and excel. As an honor student with perfect attendance and highly motivated, African American teachers taught me how to survive in a racist environment. My experiences at an integrated high school and college left much to be desired. I had never experienced racism in class until I attended an integrated school. My Caucasian teachers had low expectations for me to achieve and it was evident. These teachers could not overcome their racial prejudices or racist attitudes in the classroom. This type of teacher does not encourage or motivate a minority student, they tend to oppress them.
I have witnessed higher grades given to Caucasian students in my classes with poor attendance and low achievement scores. Lower grades were given to African American students who excelled in the class with quality work. On the college level the same thing. Racism is alive and well in our education system. It is the teachers and professors who perpetuate this insanity in our great country.
Looking back, I would have rather attended an all black high school and college. Being robbed of grades earned by a racist Caucasian teacher who does not want to believe that intelligent and hard-working African Americans exist in this country affects a student psychologically. Many minority students become frustrated and give up when faced with this problem. Usually, complaints against those types of teachers are ignored.
Yes, African Americans can learn given the same opportunity as our Caucasian counterparts. Bussing was not the answer for achieving a quality education. African American history, culture and achievements should be incorporated into the curriculum as mandatory and not only during the month of February. On the college level, it is an elective. African American History did not begin with slavery which is taught throughout the public school system.
If this country is going to advance and become color blind, we need to stop referring to human beings as black or white, red, and yellow. These are each colors. The colors do not define the heritage or culture of an individual.
July 1st, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Wilson, once again you miss the point. I like to think I personify what the civil rights pioneers fought for, someone who has achieved much through hard work and effort.
I respect what they did more than you will ever be able to. However, their fight is different than my fight.
No offense, but it’s a black thing and you will never be able to understand it.
July 1st, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Busing, like affirmative action, has always been the patronizing idiot’s way to avoid addressing the real issues in education - the lack of positive parental involvement, the ghetto mentality, etc.
July 2nd, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Wilson, one thing I notice to be markedly absent in today’s ‘black culture’ is any sense of civic pride. I can’t tell you how many old-timers I’ve met that bragged about going to Attucks. It’s hard to brag about a school that it takes you 2 hours and 5 bus transfers to get to. Especially when your neighbor across the street goes to school right down the block and the kid next to him goes to school on the far other side of town.
It’s really pretty simple, discriminating by race is unconstitutional. That’s what they decided in Brown v. Board of Ed and that’s what they upheld the other day. Besides, if you make it a point to send a black child to a certain school, aren’t you essentially saying to a white child that they can’t attend that same school? I believe that’s what the student from Seattle was arguing. I have no problem with them even breaking it up according to poverty levels, but to blatantly assume black children need more help is stupid. Believe it or not, I’ve met plenty of black people who are a hell of a lot smarter, more motivated, adjusted, and educated than I am. I’d be offended.
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:25 am
The New York Times
June 29, 2007
Don’t Mourn Brown v. Board of Education
By JUAN WILLIAMS Op-Ed Contributor
LET us now praise the Brown decision. Let us now bury the Brown decision.
With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending the use of voluntary schemes to create racial balance among students, it is time to acknowledge that Brown’s time has passed. It is worthy of a send-off with fanfare for setting off the civil rights movement and inspiring social progress for women, gays and the poor. But the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.
Desegregation does not speak to dropout rates that hover near 50 percent for black and Hispanic high school students. It does not equip society to address the so-called achievement gap between black and white students that mocks Brown’s promise of equal educational opportunity.
And the fact is, during the last 20 years, with Brown in full force, America’s public schools have been growing more segregated ? even as the nation has become more racially diverse. In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the average white student attends a school that is 80 percent white, while 70 percent of black students attend schools where nearly two-thirds of students are black and Hispanic.
By the early ’90s, support in the federal courts for the central work of Brown ? racial integration of public schools ? began to rapidly expire. In a series of cases in Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo., frustrated parents, black and white, appealed to federal judges to stop shifting children from school to school like pieces on a game board. The parents wanted better neighborhood schools and a better education for their children, no matter the racial make-up of the school. In their rulings ending court mandates for school integration, the judges, too, spoke of the futility of using schoolchildren to address social ills caused by adults holding fast to patterns of residential segregation by both class and race.
The focus of efforts to improve elementary and secondary schools shifted to magnet schools, to allowing parents the choice to move their children out of failing schools and, most recently, to vouchers and charter schools. The federal No Child Left Behind plan has many critics, but there’s no denying that it is an effective tool for forcing teachers’ unions and school administrators to take responsibility for educating poor and minority students.
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:25 am
The New York Times
June 29, 2007
Don’t Mourn Brown v. Board of Education
By JUAN WILLIAMS Op-Ed Contributor
LET us now praise the Brown decision. Let us now bury the Brown decision.
With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending the use of voluntary schemes to create racial balance among students, it is time to acknowledge that Brown’s time has passed. It is worthy of a send-off with fanfare for setting off the civil rights movement and inspiring social progress for women, gays and the poor. But the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.
Desegregation does not speak to dropout rates that hover near 50 percent for black and Hispanic high school students. It does not equip society to address the so-called achievement gap between black and white students that mocks Brown’s promise of equal educational opportunity.
And the fact is, during the last 20 years, with Brown in full force, America’s public schools have been growing more segregated ? even as the nation has become more racially diverse. In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the average white student attends a school that is 80 percent white, while 70 percent of black students attend schools where nearly two-thirds of students are black and Hispanic.
By the early ’90s, support in the federal courts for the central work of Brown ? racial integration of public schools ? began to rapidly expire. In a series of cases in Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo., frustrated parents, black and white, appealed to federal judges to stop shifting children from school to school like pieces on a game board. The parents wanted better neighborhood schools and a better education for their children, no matter the racial make-up of the school. In their rulings ending court mandates for school integration, the judges, too, spoke of the futility of using schoolchildren to address social ills caused by adults holding fast to patterns of residential segregation by both class and race.
The focus of efforts to improve elementary and secondary schools shifted to magnet schools, to allowing parents the choice to move their children out of failing schools and, most recently, to vouchers and charter schools. The federal No Child Left Behind plan has many critics, but there’s no denying that it is an effective tool for forcing teachers’ unions and school administrators to take responsibility for educating poor and minority students.
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:25 am
The New York Times
June 29, 2007
Don’t Mourn Brown v. Board of Education
By JUAN WILLIAMS Op-Ed Contributor
LET us now praise the Brown decision. Let us now bury the Brown decision.
With yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling ending the use of voluntary schemes to create racial balance among students, it is time to acknowledge that Brown’s time has passed. It is worthy of a send-off with fanfare for setting off the civil rights movement and inspiring social progress for women, gays and the poor. But the decision in Brown v. Board of Education that focused on outlawing segregated schools as unconstitutional is now out of step with American political and social realities.
Desegregation does not speak to dropout rates that hover near 50 percent for black and Hispanic high school students. It does not equip society to address the so-called achievement gap between black and white students that mocks Brown’s promise of equal educational opportunity.
And the fact is, during the last 20 years, with Brown in full force, America’s public schools have been growing more segregated ? even as the nation has become more racially diverse. In 2001, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the average white student attends a school that is 80 percent white, while 70 percent of black students attend schools where nearly two-thirds of students are black and Hispanic.
By the early ’90s, support in the federal courts for the central work of Brown ? racial integration of public schools ? began to rapidly expire. In a series of cases in Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo., frustrated parents, black and white, appealed to federal judges to stop shifting children from school to school like pieces on a game board. The parents wanted better neighborhood schools and a better education for their children, no matter the racial make-up of the school. In their rulings ending court mandates for school integration, the judges, too, spoke of the futility of using schoolchildren to address social ills caused by adults holding fast to patterns of residential segregation by both class and race.
The focus of efforts to improve elementary and secondary schools shifted to magnet schools, to allowing parents the choice to move their children out of failing schools and, most recently, to vouchers and charter schools. The federal No Child Left Behind plan has many critics, but there’s no denying that it is an effective tool for forcing teachers’ unions and school administrators to take responsibility for educating poor and minority students.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Still trying to digest Abdul with jerri curls.