The Supreme Court ruling:
More symbolism than substance

The Supreme Court’s recent decision striking down considerations of race (as one of a host of other factors) in the assignment of students to schools within a district was more of an embarrassment to us on the world stage than actually having any deleterious effect on the education of underclass or inner-city children. With or without the ruling schools in America are far more segregated today than they were when bussing was first initiated in an effort to bring about desegregation and parity in educational outcomes, and no court ruling is going to effectively change that reality now or in the foreseeable future. The ruling was essentially moot since few school districts across the country were still attempting to solve the desegregation conundrum...

But the impact the ruling will or will not have on the education of minority children is probably not what bothers people the most (although many would argue to the contrary). If the education of underclass children means all that much to us as a nation we would have long ago done more to help devise methods of creating real equality of educational outcomes...

And the fact is, we haven’t done squat. More on that later.

No, what really irks people is that the ruling was yet another blow to our nation’s highly touted (and largely false) “moral superiority” that we constantly attempt to convince the rest of the countries around the globe we possess in abundance. It exposes us for whom we really are in terms of basic fairness to minorities and makes us — once again — look foolish as we attempt to maintain hegemony of principle in our dealings with other world powers. How can our diplomats negotiate (without being outright laughed at) for the cessation of human rights abuses in other countries while we have not been able to deliver on the basic human right of providing a decent education to all of our own citizens?

The superfluous opinion was merely the final nail in the coffin of a grand and noble notion that had little chance of succeeding long-term since the initial Brown vs. Board of Education ruling over a half century ago. The country, it seems, is no more ready for school integration today than it was back then. The problem is deep-seated racial animus, something we Americans find very difficult to discuss in racially-mixed company due to the uneasiness it causes, which, of course, is part of the reason why we still have it with us. The racial divide continues to be our tragic national flaw and limits our potential for greatness ... no matter how much jingoistic hubris we force-feed ourselves every Fourth of July.

Perhaps this court ruling will have the positive effect of at last rousing us from our self-induced somnambulism vis-à-vis the monumentally important issue of quality education for all. The mere notion that a court ruling (or legislation, for that matter) can change the hearts and minds of people is a demonstrably false premise, so Brown vs. Board (and all of the other rulings and pieces of legislation that followed) had little chance of solving the national quandary of unequal educational opportunities. And the reason for the failure is simple: The solutions all flowed from the illogical assumption that somehow a Black child would do better academically by sitting next to a White child, when the truth was (and still is) ... a Black child will do better by sitting next to a computer ... whether a White child is in a nearby seat or not.

What Brown vs. Board, bussing, and every other well-intentioned scheme that followed were attempting to do was equalize educational opportunities, but going about it the wrong way. All it really took was to change the distribution of educational resources by moving money (rather than moving students) around. As long as it was not codified in law, and every parent can send their children to any school within the district where they can afford to live, there was (and still is) nothing really wrong with “separate,” as long as we make it truly “equal.” But, of course, this is something we’ve never been able to do in America — view all races as equal. But, mark my words, we will never, ever achieve integrated educational opportunities without first achieving true housing integration — something that remains a long, long way off in most communities.

It takes at least two races to integrate ... and clearly many (if not most) members of one race in America are not buying into the concept. Many, many Whites are still fighting the Civil War and have no intention of surrendering neither their long-held and much-cherished beliefs in racial superiority— nor their propensity for “White flight.”

The problem is rooted in our history. For one race to effectively enslave another race for over 250 years (and then treat it even more abominably for decades thereafter during Reconstruction) the slaveholders must first despise and fear those it has enslaved and, whether we like it or not, cultural change just doesn’t happen in relatively short periods of time. The problem is, we Blacks were slaves here — virtual strangers in a strange land — for much longer than we have been free, and some Whites can’t forget it ... and quite obviously don’t want us to forget it either. And that history negatively affects the self-image of some Blacks, just as it distorts the views of some Whites.

Nonetheless, one of the amazing stories in the annals of the histories of races has to be how far the Black race has come in so few generations out of slavery here in America. My grandparents were born into slavery, and yet my family and I are comfortably ensconced in the middleclass. I know of no other historical comparative. I write this knowing that some reactionaries will attempt to use it to ask, “Then why are Blacks still complaining?” The answer, of course is, complaining is what got us this far, and is the only method whereby we will continue to progress. We have to always remember, as Fredrick Douglass once said, “Power cedes nothing without a demand, it never did and never will.”

But, with that said, we need to be judicious in regards to what our demands are. We can “demand” that we be allowed to live wherever we can afford, but, quite simply, we cannot “demand” that Whites quit taking flight whenever the moving truck pulls up. Therefore, we cannot force integration no matter how hard we try, so why not use our efforts in more productive pursuits?

However, as much as I decry the racial divide in America, it mirrors the other on-going divides we see around the world such as in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and parts of Russia. Indeed, our stratification is far less entrenched and violent than on other parts of the globe. Plain and simple, we humans seem to love to find and accentuate the differences among ourselves; in America our differences are just compounded by skin pigmentation — which (at least to my mind) is actually one of the more stupid forms of discrimination found on the planet. If someone wishes to dislike me, I would much prefer they find a legitimate reason to do so ... of which I assure you there are many.

In spite of all of the foregoing I still sincerely feel that a world where people of all colors, races, ethnic backgrounds and orientations can live side-by-side harmoniously is a goal worth striving for ... I just don’t think my race should always be the one doing the striving. There is something inherently racist in the notion that Blacks should always be attempting to move into White neighborhoods, attend White schools, and ape White behavior ... as if we will somehow become “better” by doing so. If integration is to work and is worth achieving then the door should swing both ways. Well-meaning and progressive Whites should demonstrate their commitment to the principle by a willingness to move into upscale Black neighborhoods; of which there are many ... I happen to live in one. As long as that notion strikes most Whites as ridiculous then we are not really ready for housing integration, are we?

And if we’re not ready for housing integration then the real solution is to equalize the funding of school districts all across the region. But we’ve been fooled into thinking that funding for education has to be limited, and is a zero sum construct: If schools in predominantly Black districts are adequately funded then schools in White districts will lose some of their funding ... which is sheer nonsense. There truly can be enough funding for all districts if we but have the political will to demand it.

If Blacks and Whites quit allowing corporate entities like HMOs, big oil and pharmaceutical companies — which are only interested in their bottom lines — to use the mainstream media to play us off against each other with the red herrings of race and class we could easily solve virtually all of the social problems (quality education, universal healthcare, and a clean environment) we are currently faced with in America.

As I’ve written before, White people have more in common with Black people than they do with rich people, but it serves corporate America’s interests for us to be diverted by racial animus while they rob us blind. If you don’t believe me, go see Michael Moore’s new film Sicko, it’s a real eye-opener; he could just as well be talking about our nation’s flawed and failing public educational system. The question is, are we smart enough to wake up as to how we all are being played... and, as much as I hate to say it, I’ve come to doubt it.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com

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