Can a child be barred, on the basis of his race, from attending a particular public school?
Don’t be so quick to answer that. NRO has The Pending School Cases   and Segregating the Leaders from the Followers, which brings Brown v. Board of Education back to the front burner.Â
At issue before the Court is a pair of cases from Seattle and Louisville in which both school systems classify children by race and ethnicity and assign them to various schools in order to maintain a fixed racial balance.
In the Louisville case, for instance, this meant Crystal Meredith’s white, four-year-old son Josh was denied admission to his neighborhood elementary school because too many white children were in attendance there. He was forced to take a 90 minute cross-town bus ride to a school in need of more white kindergartners. The Meredith family sued the school district claiming the system violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
If Louisville’s school assignment policy sounds familiar it’s because it’s a mirror image of another case decided by the Supreme Court in 1954 ” Brown v. Board of Education. In that case, Linda Brown, a black seven-year old living in Topeka, Kansas, wasn’t allowed to attend a neighborhood school because of her skin color and was forced to walk a mile through a railroad switching yard in order to catch a bus to an all-black elementary school.
So, the key question the court must resolve now is whether policies designed to achieve proportional racial integration in a schools’ student body should be allowed even if it causes some children to be excluded from certain schools because of their skin color.
For those who attended the oral arguments at the Court last December, it appeared the answer from five members was a resounding “no.” Justice Kennedy, in particular, expressed his skepticism of the concept of beneficial racial discrimination by remarking to the lawyer representing the Seattle school district that “outright racial balancing” of the kind used by Seattle was “patently unconstitutional.” He inquired, “Isn’t that what you (Seattle) have here?…You are choosing each student by the color of their skin.”
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June 20, 2007 - 09:13 PM on June 20th, 2007
Affirmative action was held to be necessary to correct for past discrimination. Where there was no past discrimination it’s still used to achieve a “racial balance”.
Plain and simple it’s nothing but racism. To judge someone based solely on the color of their skin is simply wrong, whether the victim is white, black, asian, or of any other race.
June 20, 2007 - 09:32 PM on June 20th, 2007
It took me a while to find it, but I recalled having blogged on the Seattle case back when oral arguments were going on at the court.
Several hundred racists gathered outside U.S. Supreme Court
An interesting argument ensued on The Debate Link as a result.
It’s interesting that preferring a “color-blind” society is considered racist today.
June 20, 2007 - 09:47 PM on June 20th, 2007
Is your pension plan invested in Iran? Stop it now..
Did you know that millions of pension fund dollars are invested in companies doing business with Iran? Missouri has already removed its investments from Iran and Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan and Florid…
June 20, 2007 - 10:40 PM on June 20th, 2007
Tony Snow and Laura Ingraham: Another White House
Baghdad isn’t the only surge the White House is deep into. Radio talk-show host, Laura Ingraham, interviewed White House Press Secretary Tony Snow last week. Snow says the immigration fix is “a $4.4 billion “surge
June 21, 2007 - 01:49 AM on June 21st, 2007
Global Warming Surprises: We’re Number 2 and Global Cooling is looming:again
We’re Number 2! We’re Number 2! We’re Number 2!
China overtakes U.S. as top polluterÂ
China has overtaken the United States as the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, because of surging energy u…
June 21, 2007 - 02:55 AM on June 21st, 2007
Shocker: America does not trust Congress
Here is a real shock:Â People do not trust Congress.
New Gallup data show confidence in Congress at all time low
Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.Â
This 14% Congressi…
June 21, 2007 - 05:59 AM on June 21st, 2007
The Knucklehead of the Day award
Today’s winner is Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer.
June 21, 2007 - 06:48 AM on June 21st, 2007
Perri-great links. When I went to the Debate Link, it was interesting to note that actual studies were not cited, just heresay of an alledged study.
Now keeping kids out for the color of their skin is against the law, as well it should be. I can accept when schools are faced with low enrollment and it becomes necessary to shuffle kids around in order to maximize the amount of kids in the buildings after closing down some of the buildings they couldn’t fill, but all kids should be shuffled and placed as close to home as possible….
This type of selection is unacceptable though. This reminds me of the busing from the 70’s..and in St. Louis, where my cousins were a product of it, it was not something that many will tell you great stories about.
June 21, 2007 - 07:07 AM on June 21st, 2007
When To Accept Defeat
When your plans have proven flawed and futile. When your strategy results in only dead ends. It is time to accept Defeat, Try to salvage what you can Admit that you were wrong For You have LOST All that you hold in your hand is FAILURE Oh, did you th…
June 21, 2007 - 07:16 AM on June 21st, 2007
Newt: No to Amnesty, Yes to Border Security
I’ve always said that an open border during wartime is foolhardy. I wrote last year,Homeland Security has assured us that even though they can’t stop the millions of Illegal aliens from entering our country every year, they can magically keep
June 21, 2007 - 08:37 AM on June 21st, 2007
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June 21, 2007 - 08:49 AM on June 21st, 2007
To say I was merely providing “hearsay” of the studies is a bit uncharitable, no? I provided a link to the Amici Brief of the American Educational Research Association which had all the studies cited specifically therein. But if following links is that difficult, here are your cites:
Intergroup contact reduces prejudice
Thomas F. Pettigrew & Linda R. Tropp, A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory, 90 J. Personality & Soc. Psychol. 751 (2006); Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 49 Ann. Rev. Psychol. 65 (1998).
Racial diversity of schools impacts prejudice levels of children–more diverse = less prejudice
Heidi McGlothlin et al., European-American Children’s Intergroup Attitudes About Peer Relationships, 23 Brit. J. Developmental Psychol. 227 (2005); Nancy Geyelin Margie et al., Minority Children’s Intergroup Attitudes About Peer Relationships, 23 Brit. J. Developmental Psychol. 251 (2005); Heidi
McGlothlin & Melanie Killen, Intergroup Attitudes of European American Children Attending Ethnically Homogeneous Schools, 77 Child Dev. 1375 (2006).
Overall performance levels rise in diverse schools–minority children get most of the gain, Whites stay even
Jomills Henry Braddock II & Tamela McNulty Eitle, The Effects of
School Desegregation, in Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (James A. Banks & Cherry A. McGee Banks eds., 2d ed. 2004); Janet Ward Schofield, Review of Research on School Desegregation’s Impact on
Elementary and Secondary School Students, in Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education 597 (James A. Banks & Cherry A. McGee Banks eds. 1995); Kathryn M. Borman et al, Accountability in a Postdesegregation Era: The Continuing Significance of Racial Segregation in Florida’s Schools,”41 Am. Educ. Res. J. 601 (2004); Eric A. Hanushek, John F. Kain & Steven G. Rivkin, New Evidence about Brown v. Board of Education: The Complex
Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement (2004), available at http://edpro.stanford.edu/hanushek/admin/pages/files/uploads/race.pdf; Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, The Academic Consequences of Desegregation and Segregation: Evidence from the Charlotte- Mecklenburg Schools, 81 N.C. L. Rev. 1513 (2003).
Students attending diverse schools see continued positive impacts as adults
Jomills Henry Braddock, Marvin P. Dawkins & William T. Trent, Why Desegregate? The Effect of School Desegregation on Adult Occupational Segregation of African Americans, Whites, and Hispanics, 31 Int’l J. Contemp. Soc. 271 (1994); Jomills H. Braddock, The Perpetuation of Segregation Across Levels of Education: A Behavioral Assessment of the Contact-Hypothesis, 53 Soc. Educ. 178 (1980); James M. McPartland & Jomills H. Braddock, Going to College and Getting a Good Job: The Impact of Desegregation, in Effective School Desegregation (Willis D. Hawley ed. 1981).
Children who attend diverse schools more likely to interact with and be comfortable around other races as adults
Amy Stuart Wells & Robert L. Crain, Perpetuation Theory and the Long-Term Effects of School Desegregation, 64 Rev. Educ. Res. 531 (1994); Amy Stuart Wells, et al., How Desegregation Changed Us: The Effects of Racially Mixed Schools on Students and Society (Apr. 2004), available at http://cms.tc.columbia.edu/i/a/782_ASWells041504.pdf.
I could keep going, I’m only half way through the one brief I linked to. Hopefully 15 independent studies will be sufficient to stem your suspicion.
And finally, to your “interest” that color-blindness could be considered racist today–given the context in which it was coined by Justice Harlan, I think I’m quite borne out.
“The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth, and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time….” –Justice J.M. Harlan, Plessy v. Ferguson, dissenting. It’s how he opens the paragraph coining “our constitution is color-blind.”
June 21, 2007 - 09:21 AM on June 21st, 2007
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June 21, 2007 - 09:47 AM on June 21st, 2007
4- David, what hot link did you provide other than the link back to the brief that lists studies….So I set about to take a look at one that caught my eye: How Desegregation Changed Us: The Effects of Racially Mixed Schools on Students and Society
The study focuses on the class of 1980 yet the study didn’t begin until 1999.  Somehow testing kids and putting them into advanced classes is racist? Should we dumb everything down? What about the kid that needs more challenges? Are their needs any less important?
You still have yet to prove that this case is not racistÂ
June 21, 2007 - 11:09 AM on June 21st, 2007
Umm, yes, they started in 1999, because the goal was to see how desegregation effected students as adults. Hence how I tagged it: Children who attend diverse schools more likely to interact with and be comfortable around other races as adults. If they started in 1981, the students wouldn’t have been adults for long enough. This is how one conducts a study.
The testing and tracking stuff is a) tangential to the outcome of the study as being discussed here and b) is also reasonably well warranted in the essay–it does not say that tracking is intrinsically racist, it does say that White students were given better information and more access, which is undeniably problematic. In either case, it has nothing to do with the upshot of the study as the AERA and I tagged it. And unless you think the AERA wanted to commit academic fraud in its amici, I see no reason to suspect they mislabeled the 14 other studies I cited above either.
I proved the position of Seattle & Louisville wasn’t racist in the comments to my post, with at least three big arguments you never gave even a half-way compelling response to:
1) Your definition of racism is internally incoherent–it would make identifying racism racist.
2) The programs aren’t even racist under your definition because they are linked to a standard that the schools can and should pursue (diverse schools are better than non-diverse schools, hence all else being equal, students who make the school diverse are more meritorious than students who make the school less diverse). This cuts back into the veritable paragraphs of analysis I gave on why merit is a contingent and polycentric concept and this is variant across contexts, which, needless to say, you also didn’t contest.
3) Even if I were to grant that the programs violate your definition of racism, that just means we have a definitional clash–they’re uncontestedly necessary to fight the first AHD definition of racism, and I explained why that definition takes precedence. So, worst case scenario, both sides are racist, but we have to pick one and your racism has empirically far more damaging effects.
The fleshed out version of those arguments can be seen in the comments.
All that being said, I don’t dispute that this case is racist. I just dispute which side is.
June 21, 2007 - 11:19 AM on June 21st, 2007
World at War: In Depth Part Eight
Wars ebb and flow like tides, and this particular flood of battles in which we are involved, this Ideological World War, can be traced to a flare-up of a millennia-long war in the opening shots fired in 1776 by the…
June 21, 2007 - 11:58 AM on June 21st, 2007
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June 21, 2007 - 11:58 AM on June 21st, 2007
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June 21, 2007 - 12:20 PM on June 21st, 2007
6-You haven’t proven anything David. And fyi, I have only looked at 1 portion of your first response and have found enough errors to show that the research is highly flawed.
What you did was cite a study that didn’t actually study the students and their progress during the actual time period, but rather they were studied afterthefact, almost 20 years later..the study should have started when the students, used for participation, were starting school and follwed them through the years. That isn’t how the study was done though.
How did the study determine that whites were given better access than other races if the researcher was not present during the time period? I noted opinion but no facts to back up the charge.
So, worst case scenario, both sides are racist, but we have to pick one and your racism has empirically far more damaging effects. Based on what criteria?
June 21, 2007 - 12:26 PM on June 21st, 2007
[...] and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. Filed under Illegal Immigration | | Trackback URI Leave aComment [...]
June 21, 2007 - 12:26 PM on June 21st, 2007
[...] and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. Filed under Sharing Good Stuff | | Trackback URI Leave aComment [...]
June 21, 2007 - 12:54 PM on June 21st, 2007
You haven’t proven anything David. And fyi, I have only looked at 1 portion of your first response and have found enough errors to show that the research is highly flawed.
What you did was cite a study that didn’t actually study the students and their progress during the actual time period, but rather they were studied afterthefact, almost 20 years later..the study should have started when the students, used for participation, were starting school and follwed them through the years. That isn’t how the study was done though.
You haven’t shown any flaws. I’m not even sure why you say that–what methodological flaw occurs in asking people, at 40, to reflect on their experiences in high school? At best, you’ve shown that the study doesn’t do everything you want it to, because it doesn’t give progressive analysis over time. Which would be lovely, if they’re weren’t 14 more studies that use a variety of methods to get to the same answers–including some done at the time. Saying “study one doesn’t tell me everything under the sun, so I don’t need to even look at studies 2-15 or even bother to give counter-evidence of my own” is laughable argumentation.
How did the study determine that whites were given better access than other races if the researcher was not present during the time period? I noted opinion but no facts to back up the charge.
First, this is a tangential point. Tracking isn’t the issue–and I’m sure if you looked you could find research focusing on tracking that would answer your question. But that’s not what we’re talking about. Second, they went, and they asked people. Do you have any grounds to say that the teachers and students are lying about their experience and observation?
So, worst case scenario, both sides are racist, but we have to pick one and your racism has empirically far more damaging effects. Based on what criteria?
Distributional justice, equality norms, utility…pick it, really. What we’re weighing here is definition #1: policies designed to subordinate one race to another, which includes slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, massive economic deprivation, and lynching, versus (a misapplication of) definition #2, using color-conscious policies to try and bring about race equality–such things as affirmative action, the civil rights act, and the EEOC. Segregation is a worse harm under any metric than affirmative action (in fact, there’s no proof that AA harms anybody at all, while I’ve given loads of evidence that it helps. So you’re the one missing the burden here).
Look, you’re obviously not someone with a debate background, so I’m going to be nice and give you a clue on what you’d need to do to win this argument. You’d need to provide credible, empirical evidence that there are no educational or social benefits to diversity. That would take out my #2 argument and render #3 moot. Or, you could show empirical arguments that diversity programs intrinsically worsen the inequalities between Blacks and Whites, which would take out #3 and let you outweigh #2. But the arguments need to be empirical ones–they can’t just be assertions or suppositions. Give me a source denying making those claims that has “journal” (not including “Wall Street”) in its name, and shoot me an email, and we’ll chat more. Until then, you have some reading to catch up on.
June 21, 2007 - 01:23 PM on June 21st, 2007
Some turning against Israel – is the answer a healthy dose of neutron bombs?
Palestinians rush to Israel for protection and shelter when their own kind turn against them. The New York Times is again a Mouthpiece for Terrorist Propaganda against Israel by giving Ahmed Yousef, political adviser to Ismail Haniya, a platform to
June 21, 2007 - 01:48 PM on June 21st, 2007
“I’m not even sure why you say that–what methodological flaw occurs in asking people, at 40, to reflect on their experiences in high school?”
If I may David.
It would appear that the problem is the evidence isn’t empirical. Subjective perception would play a large role and thus the methodology used is flawed.
“You’d need to provide credible, empirical evidence that there are no educational or social benefits to diversity.”
That’s not accurate. One can not prove a negative. It is akin to a Christian saying “Prove that there is no God”.
The assertion is made by the study and I would assume you, thus that is where the burden of proof resides.
June 21, 2007 - 01:56 PM on June 21st, 2007
8- I’m not used to ‘debating’ with a person that can’t tell the difference between an actual study, one that isn’t looking for a desired outcome, and one that is outcome driven, such as the one we are discussing.
Justice Kennedy summed it up brilliantly…you claim to be for racial equality, but it really can’t be equal if you are chosing based on the color of ones skin.
June 21, 2007 - 02:48 PM on June 21st, 2007
If all the studies are so biased (It’s the liberal academia again. My heart bleeds for you), you shouldn’t have any trouble finding counters. Tick-tock.
Were I the admission director at a college, I would choose my admitees based on who will create the best possible entering class. Having a healthy quantity of trumpeters being something that makes an entering class better, I have no trouble choosing people who will add to the trumpet section. Racial diversity being something that makes an entering class better, I have no shame in choosing people who will make my college more diverse. I don’t think that’s choosing on skin color–I think that’s choosing based on who makes my college the best place it can be. And attending one of those colleges right now, I can happily and confidently report to you that they’ve done a fine job of it.
June 21, 2007 - 02:59 PM on June 21st, 2007
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June 21, 2007 - 03:02 PM on June 21st, 2007
9: That’s not accurate. One can not prove a negative. It is akin to a Christian saying “Prove that there is no Godâ€.
One can prove a negative ( 2 + 2 does not = 7, go), but the point is well taken. Nonetheless, one could show there is not enough evidence to reject the null–but again, nobody out there in the academic world in the seems to be on your side here. You’ve got to give me a little more than constant hen-pecking at methodology when all the studies are coming out on one side here. I’d also note that the negativity problem cuts both ways: you can’t show that segregated schools don’t have the effect of maintaining racial hierarchy. But the evidence does seem to point very strongly in my direction.
Incidentally, taking stock of perceptions can be empirical data if there is a measurable distinction between how study group A relays their experiences versus control B. If A is more likely to say “I want to work with Black people” than B, that’s a data point. The problem I did have with this particular study is that it didn’t seem to be sufficiently comparative (it seems their control was just reference to the general population, though we’d probably have to read the book to be sure). But other studies in the clump had the comparisons (e.g., Hanushek, Cain & Rivkin), so this isn’t fatal.
I’m just curious–if I were to show, to your satisfaction, that racially diverse schools were significantly beneficial to student performance and measurably increase racial equality in America–how would that effect your position on this issue?
June 21, 2007 - 03:58 PM on June 21st, 2007
A Good Vote
I so often have to vote for the least offensive person, or vote against the most offensive person, that it’s nice to have a reminder of a vote I was actually happy about. Senator David Vitter is doing a good job, not just on immigration, but on …
June 21, 2007 - 04:11 PM on June 21st, 2007
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June 21, 2007 - 05:09 PM on June 21st, 2007
12, So David, you prefer putting unqualified students into higher education where they fail or need massive academic support and grade quotas based solely on the color of their skin to mantain a mediocre presence in class?
June 21, 2007 - 07:34 PM on June 21st, 2007
13, Hardly. I support colleges admitting the most qualified students. I just think contributing to diversity is part of what makes one “most qualified.” And what’s more, you agree with me. You don’t want an elite college band program with 40 trumpets and no flutes. You don’t want an elite college science department to have 40 physicists and no bio majors. You don’t want every incoming student to be from the same neighborhood in Boston. You don’t want every incoming student to be able to afford a summer house in Maine. You want different students. Diversity (racial and otherwise) is important. Affirmative Action is what measures qualified.
When I visited Cornell, the admissions staff told me a very interesting story. The said that they could make a class made up entirely of people they rejected–not waitlisted, rejected–and it would look identical, in terms of demographics, achievements, whatever, to any class they’d ever admitted. You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The moral, they told me, was that 90% of the people applying to top-level universities can do the work and are more than qualified to be there. Once you’ve leaped that hurdle, then it’s somewhat arbitrary. Do we need another saxophonist? How many community service projects are worth one debate trophy? Are too many of our students from New England? And, is it starting to hurt our educational mission when 85, 90, 95% of our students are White?
The people who are admitted to Carleton and other schools under affirmative action programs are supremely qualified for the position they are in. I know that from my own experience at the college, I know that from talking to my friends at other colleges, and I know that from my interactions in the classroom. They’re not flunking out. They’re succeeding with flying colors. They are our best and brightest. And if we replaced these students with 100 kids whose names end in “the third,” our school and our education would be the worse for it no matter what the SAT scores say.
June 22, 2007 - 12:16 AM on June 22nd, 2007
I am so sick of affirmative action. Take the most qualified, i.e. highest scores on the SAT and other standardized tests and get on with it. Honestly, I was encouraged to go into an area of study that I had minimal interest in and took a language that was twice as hard as I needed to and my grades suffered. My bad. DO I really think that I should’ve wasted 4 years studying political science for law school when I didn’t want to be an attorney? Not no, but HELL NO. Should I have taken 3+ years of Russian language when Spanish was probably available and required less then half the studying? Probably NOT.
Want to really improve college output? Improve counseling so that you don’t have people getting pigeon holed into courses of study that they have minimal interest in and even less aptitude for. Can I negotiate a car deal? Yes. Does that mean I should be an attorney or a diplomat? NO! I’m a fan of the Corbin Dallas school of negotiation. If you’ve never heard of it, go rent a dvd of “The Fifth Element”, grab a bowl of popcorn and learn a little bit about modern pop culture. I’m seriously considering going back to school. I could be one of the oldest Sophomores at ASU. Hey I graduated on the Dean’s List 23 yrs ago, I could probably do even better taking classes I was actually interested in. Of course my last semester was when I took the upper level history course on unconventional warfare in the 20th century. For some reason I did really well in that one. Perhaps thats why I seem to have a better grasp as to why the war against terror in and out of Iraq isn’t going to be over just because the Democrats say it is, nor can we lose militarily but we can lose psychologically. Someone needs to explain to the leaders of at least one political party in this country, and the citizens as a whole that you don’t “end” wars. You win or you lose them. Which do we want to do? Especially since the islamofascists (remember supporting terrorists could be called supporting diversity) have said they’d like to see the Israelis driven into the Mediterranean and the Islamic flag flying over the White House.
June 22, 2007 - 05:53 AM on June 22nd, 2007
14, Nice speech, but you ignored what I said to inject your racial politics. You have a liberal way of lying to everyone about your true goals and intentons.
June 22, 2007 - 08:32 AM on June 22nd, 2007
Time has come to dump AFFERMATIVE ACTION and tell JESSIE JACKASSON to GET A LIFE:razz:
June 23, 2007 - 09:14 AM on June 23rd, 2007
Take Advantage Of “China’s Rampant Employment Discrimination”
Employers will always discriminate on the basis of something. As human beings, we just cannot help it. Obesity, ethnicity, height, looks, disability, race, gender, religion, age, sexuality, the list is endless. Smart employers try to avoid this. Basic …
June 23, 2007 - 10:45 PM on June 23rd, 2007
has JESSIE JACKASON forgoten about MARTIN LUTHER KING and his I HAVE A DREAM speech and talked about a child and the color of their skin?:grin:
June 24, 2007 - 08:39 PM on June 24th, 2007
“I’m just curious–if I were to show, to your satisfaction, that racially diverse schools were significantly beneficial to student performance and measurably increase racial equality in America–how would that effect your position on this issue?”
You seem to have mistaken me for someone who has an opinion on this issue. I have not looked at it at all, so I do not have enough information to form an opinion. I was only pointing out the obvious flaws.
Regarding you statement “One can prove a negative ( 2 + 2 does not = 7, go)”, that is not a negative.
The statement would be:
“2 + 2 = 7″
That is a positive.
You would then, using empirical data (mathematical formula) to prove the positive statement false.
June 24, 2007 - 08:54 PM on June 24th, 2007
We aren’t arguing that diversity is not beneficial, we are arguing about racial profiling in order to fill the seats in the schools.  Â