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 Unmaking HistoryPosted on Jun 29, 2007WASHINGTON—It’s time for those of us who are old enough to remember when the U.S. Supreme Court was a major force for racial integration and justice to stop living in the past. We need to realize that, for the foreseeable future, any progress our increasingly diverse country makes toward fairness and equality will come in spite of the nation’s highest court, not because of it. No one should be surprised that the court, as it made clear Thursday, does not consider promoting racial diversity in the nation’s public schools a particularly worthy goal. No one should be surprised that Chief Justice John Roberts pretends not to even understand the concept: In his majority opinion striking down school integration plans in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., Roberts describes what the two cities were doing as “racial balancing,” even though local officials made clear that their intent was nothing more sinister than racial inclusion. George W. Bush’s packing the court with conservatives is likely to prove one of the more enduring aspects of his unfortunate legacy. Bush appointees Roberts and Samuel Alito have joined Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in a solid, four-justice bloc that can be reliably counted on, pretty much whatever the issue, to vote for turning back the clock. That means all they need to do is win the vote of one of the court’s more moderate members and, voila, history can be unmade. In the schools decision Thursday, Anthony Kennedy sided with the conservative faction to invalidate the integration programs. Kennedy wrote his own opinion making clear that he does, too, understand what diversity is, and also why schools might want to foster it—if they can just figure out how. Go ahead and promote racial diversity in the classroom if you think that’s important, the court basically said. But whatever you do, you can’t take race into account. The irony is that the Seattle and Louisville plans were widely popular among both black and white parents. Both plans were designed, in essence, to ensure that segregated housing patterns—which are a fact of life in many U.S. cities—did not inevitably result in segregated schools. The Louisville schools—like many other school systems in the South—had spent decades under a court-ordered desegregation plan. When a federal judge lifted the order several years ago, the local school board decided to keep most elements of the plan in place because it had worked so well. Racially integrated schools, officials decided, were good for the educational process and good for the community. In Seattle, which had never been under a court-ordered desegregation plan, school officials had been using race as just one of several factors in trying to ensure diversity in the city’s public high schools. I start from the premise that racial integration in the schools is a good thing. I think the educational process benefits from diversity, and all students are better served in an integrated classroom. I also believe that in a nation where minorities will someday form the majority, integration is an important civic lesson that our schools ought to be teaching. Given those beliefs, it seems to me that allowing local officials in Louisville and Seattle to continue with limited programs to ensure integration in the schools should be a no-brainer. But our revanchist Supreme Court obviously doesn’t share my belief in diversity. Thomas, the court’s only black member, wrote a concurring opinion in which he had the gall to cite Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 decision that integrated the nation’s schools, as precedent for Thursday’s ruling—which will boldly advance the cause of resegregation. Let’s not grasp at straws here. While Kennedy kept the court from definitively shutting the door on school integration, it’s clear what direction we’re headed. This court would have been perfectly happy for me to go to the “black” high school in my hometown of Orangeburg, S.C., instead of following a handful of pioneers who integrated the “white” high school. This court has the whole concept of affirmative action in its sights. Sorry about the whole slavery thing, and the whole Jim Crow thing, and the whole “separate but equal” thing, and, oh yes, the whole racism thing. That was then, and this is now. If we as a society—black, white, brown, yellow, red—are going to work toward fairness, inclusion, equality and, yes, integration, we’re going to have to do it by working around those dour men in black robes on Capitol Hill. They have decided to stand in the schoolhouse door. Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at symbol)washpost.com. © 2007, Washington Post Writers Group SHARE THIS TRUTHDIG ARTICLE:
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Confronting the Terrorist Within
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By cyrena, July 2, 2007 at 12:20 am #
#82751 by THOMAS BILLIS on 6/30 at 2:44 pm
I had to chuckle at your question Thomas…
..."If their are any black republicans out their I would be interested in hearing how you defend these rulings...”
Here’s my immediate answer, they CANNOT defend these rulings. That’s not to say that one or two might not TRY. There was a black attorney on somebody’s show last week...I can’t remember his name, but he was supposedly a part of cheney’s attorney staff, which really did kind of surprise me, since I’ve never seen or heard of him before, and it’s really pretty hard for me to imagine cheney having any black attorneys, (or any other black folks for that matter) even ON his staff. Then again, his staff is all so secret, and this guy might have just been another suit to put on TV, to make a total jackass out of HIM, actually trying to defend cheney’s position that he isn’t part of the executive branch now, because he won’t give up the papers that Waxman has been trying to get for what seems like years.
Considering how totally overwhelmingly stupid the whole thing is on it’s face, it was obvious that he was gonna be ridiculed, so...let the black guy do it, and make a fool of himself.
Politics are so nasty.
Report thisBy Sang Ze, July 1, 2007 at 12:07 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
The Supreme Court has nothing to do with truth, justice or ethics. It is a political tool to be summoned at the whim of the president to do his bidding.
Report thisBy Rachel, June 30, 2007 at 3:05 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Even in 1968 in Berkeley’s PFP, some parents felt busing too hard on the kids, and neighborhood integration--viz., income redistribution--the route to take. Wonder how the current back-to-1863 Court would react to that. . .
Report thisBy THOMAS BILLIS, June 30, 2007 at 2:44 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
As Gomer said “Surprise Surprise”.What did you expect when Alito and Roberts were elevated to the court.The ghost of Roger Taney is back and he lives in the skin of Clarence Thomas.Irony of irony.Generations have worked and sacrificed to make America a racially diverse society and now one man George W Bush by his nominations to the Supreme Court is trying to unravel it.The good news is unless the democrats nominate Adolf Hitler the minority community will be democratic for the next generation.If their are any black republicans out their I would be interested in hearing how you defend these rulings.
Report thisBy Chaseme, June 30, 2007 at 8:22 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Another example of “Unmaking History”: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062907M.shtml
Report thisBy Chaseme, June 29, 2007 at 9:43 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Okay Skruff, I refuse to continue this banter, for obvious reasons. Furthermore, I apologize for taking this approach with you.
I would like to say this before I end; I do not believe in an objective point of view with an exclusive monopoly on reality.
I was fortunate enough, or at times it seems, unfortunate to choose this approach, because it was in telling my story that I discovered the real story I wanted to tell.
In the name of WHAT does one mask fundamental similarities in human symbolismif not out of stubborn loyalty to rationalist fragmentation?
Report thisBy Skruff, June 29, 2007 at 4:34 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Chaseme on 6/29 at 2:59 pm
“Stop eating their baby food Skruff, its obviously stunting your growth.”
What stunted my “growth” (defined as growing with tha pack) is my years of work in white ghettos.
No “poor folks” white or black get shit from our “benificant” country
Report thisBy Chaseme, June 29, 2007 at 2:59 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Oh Skruff, It’s only a B-E-L-I-E-F! You don’t actually believe people of color get handouts, do you?
The Klan, the Republicans and the Christian right for what seems to be an eternity now have used this tactic. How is it still working after all these years?
I don’t want to hurl insults Skruff, but its a Coded Language. And, after years of use, its not so coded anymore. At least, not to those of us who are conscious.
Therefore, I would say to you, Reject mediocrity!
Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand.
The current standard is the equivalent of an adolescent restricted to the
diet of an infant whose rapidly changing body would acquire dysfunctional and deformative symptoms and could not properly mature on a diet of apple sauce and crushed pears.
Stop eating their baby food Skruff, it’s obviously stunting your growth.
Report thisBy cyrena, June 29, 2007 at 1:37 pm #
#82378 by Joseph Conrad on 6/29 at 9:53 am
All of your assessments are pretty much in agreement, but Joesph is right about how dangerous SCOTUS has become, and we saw that coming with the Clarence Thomas appointment by Bush Sr. The only black SC Justice on the bench, in outside appearance ONLY. We already know that Thrugood Marshall is kicking and screaming in HIS grave, because he made it clear how he thought about this Clarence Thomas dude before he died. Specifically, he called him ‘The WRONG kind of Negro’. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Anyway, this is the part that Joe mentioned,
......
...."They have proven themselves to be small, vicious, miopic little men unhappy that America has been moving forward from the days of lynchings, cross burnings and interpersonal race-based barbarism”.....
BUT, if you would like to check out the link below, you’ll find that we haven’t much moved forward at all. Or, maybe it would be better to say that we’re moving in giant steps backwards.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062907M.shtml
Report thisBy Skruff, June 29, 2007 at 11:59 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
82350 by Chaseme on 6/29 at 7:48 am says:
“....And, this is why many so-called liberals support this administration, because they believe Democrats support programs that gives people of color hand outs, while not considering how they may benefit in the process.”
some facts here:
1 here in my part of Maine we have very few minorities. The people resent “giving handouts” to folks they know (in small towns nothing is hidden) who they see as “able” and “fit” for work. These folks are, without exception, white.
2. The big secret of “welfare” is it was never for the poor. When welfare began, food stores stopped extending personal credit, and landlords upped their rents.
The absolute best way to “revive” an economy after recession is to give poor folks money. They spend it immediately instead of saving, investing, or moving it to tax-free havens.
The absolute worst thing society can do to human dignity is to hand money to folks and say “We resent doing this, but starved children laying in the street are bad for business.” Liberals may chaffe, and conservitives may hurrumf but charity is evil.... bad for people. The best social program ever invented is a job.
Report thisBy ~B~, June 29, 2007 at 10:47 am #
This is the scariest issue of the entire Bush fiasco. Not the education issue but the SCOTUS issue. Where once the halls of the Supreme Court held some of the most esteemed minds in law, we now have a Supreme Court made up of some of the most unqualified, morally deficient, and downright despicable “Justices” the court has seen in my lifetime.
Worse, we are stuck with em. They have already set us back decades in their decisions. They have already shown their utter contempt for the historic precedents set within those same halls. If Washington had ANY credibility ANYWHERE within the Federal Government - most would have chosen the Supreme Court. Now our government is truly bankrupt of the Ideals the Revolution set forth.
Liberty is dying.
The founding fathers worst nightmares have been realized.
The nations people are largely still unaware, don’t care, or worse.
It looks bleak, especially with the beacon of liberty extinguished.
B
http://b-political.blogspot.com/
Report thisBy Joseph Conrad, June 29, 2007 at 9:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL! The decision of the 5 judge majority is in keeping with the purpose Mr. Bush et al had in mind when he selected them - division and distraction. I’d call it a truly incidious ‘Paris Hilton’ decision, devoid of reason and berift of historical precedent.
The 5 justices in the majority in this decision have condemned themselves to a legacy of gross and unpalatable MEDIOCRITY & BANALITY. More pointedly, like a humanoid Time Machine, they have taken this nation back in Time to a period of enmity and discord. Although they may not have been driven by personal Racism and inveterate Maliciousness, they have indeed come to serve their MASTER well - and they did so.
They have proven themselves to be small, vicious, miopic little men unhappy that America has been moving forward from the days of lynchings, cross burnings and interpersonal race-based barbarism. Now that have made this and other nefarious decisions to disrupt America’s social order, I am very pleased they have removed all doubt as to their mission, ethics and morality - especially Justice Roberts. For, in then end they’ve become not august thinkers but tools of other, much smaller men.
Report thisBy Chaseme, June 29, 2007 at 7:48 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Why is this surprising? It’s not.
In 2005, while on the road to obtain my teacher’s certificate, we discussed this possibility, because we knew our city (Seattle) was doing something exceptional.
However, there were many “future teachers” who opposed this approach, simply because they believed kids of color were receiving “hand outs.” Not taking into account that all kids benefit from a diverse classroom environment.
And, this is why many so-called “liberals” support this administration, because they believe Democrats support programs that gives people of color “hand outs”, while not considering how they may benefit in the process.
Many Union members consistently vote Republican, supporting the same political organization that seeks to eliminate their jobs. But they are so driven by comparing themselves to others, that they are blinded by their own self-destruction.
And, I would say this to my old classmates and others who may support this move by the U.S. Supposed Court, your decisions are not only hurting others, but your own standard of living is at stake. The possibility of developing a more tolerable future is at stake. Like the many bush administration decisions, your support and agreement with him are stifling our kids lives that will only create more efforts on their part to mend your selfish and racist decisions.
No one wins with this one. Like in the many photos after the Brown v. Board decision, you will look back and attempt to conceal the one of you spitting on the young kids who were simply trying to get an education.
“The extension of civil rights today means not protection of the people against the government, but protection of the people by the government .... We must make the federal government a friendly, vigilant defender of the rights and equalities of all Americans. And again I mean all Americans."-Harry Truman 1947.
1947? 2007? And Americans are confronting the same issue. At what point in our menial existence do we stop “Unmaking History”?
Report thisBy Skruff, June 29, 2007 at 6:12 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
“standing in the schoolhouse door.....pleeze, give us a break.
Although I’m not pleased with the court’s decission, I also do not believe George Wallace is the governor in Alabama.
and… in an educated discussion, I must ask, who may decide if diversity in the classroom is a plus?
Detroit, under an african American /Democratic mayor is planning on an experimental all black school, on the grounds that distractions inhibit education. Some years ago here in Maine Ellsworth (a small town in Hancock County near bar Harbor) began teaching boys and girls in seperate classrooms in some Junior High classes. the results were spectacular. grades rose for both groups.
What is really needed is an end to the national focus on education, a dismanteling of the Federal Education Department, and a return to local control. We tried nationalization, and it didn’t work. grades have been declining since the 60s… time for something new.....or proven.
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