School Diversity, Another Way

The Chronicle: By Derrick Bell

The Seattle and Louisville decision places in jeopardy similar plans in use by school districts across the country. Given the nation's racial history, it is hypocritical for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to assert that 'the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.' The suggestion cruelly conflates minor cures with the major disease. Were he a medical doctor, Roberts would ban the use of vaccines that are fashioned from the disease-causing virus. ...

The resilience of civil-rights groups is praiseworthy, but future litigation, even if successful, is not going to alter the fact that most poor children, regardless of race, are attending schools that are not meeting their educational needs. Their dire condition, and that of the schools they attend, is not solely the result of an insensitive Supreme Court majority quite ready to manipulate precedent to stifle well-intended racial-diversity plans. The plain fact is that a great many white Americans, including many with otherwise liberal views on race, do not want their offspring attending schools with more than a token number of black and Latino children. Whatever their status, they do not wish to be burdened by efforts to correct the results of racial discrimination that they do not believe they caused. Their opposition may not be as violent or as vast as it was during the early years after the Brown decision, but it is widespread, deeply felt, and if history is any indication, not likely to change any time soon. ...

It is painful for many of us, but it is time to acknowledge that racial integration as the primary vehicle for providing effective schooling for black and Latino children has run its course. Where it is working, or has a real chance to work, it should continue, but for the millions of black and Latino children living in areas that are as racially isolated in fact as they once were by law, it is time to look elsewhere. ...

After-school and supplementary programs including the All Stars Project, and BELL (Building Educational Leaders for Life), are only a few of the many achieving academic success for children whose educational outlooks are poor or nonexistent. Civil-rights groups should recognize and support such schools and programs, not as a surrender of their integration goals, but as an acknowledgment that flexibility is needed in fulfilling the schooling needs of black and Latino children in today's conservative political landscape.

As to higher education, if the prognosis for maintaining race-conscious admissions programs is as grim as I believe, it too needs to consider supporting the kinds of school programs I have described. ...