As someone who is a direct beneficiary of
the larger efforts of the Civil Rights Movement and the subsequent Brown v.
Board of Education decision I find
no pleasure in stating that I feel neither the spirit nor the intent of Brown
v. Board of Education have benefited African-Americans. I would go as far
to even suggest that while Brown v. Board of Education has been
significant in terms of its ability to open doors for African-Americans the shortcomings
have been and continue to be the genesis of many of the social ills within the
African-American community.
To understand my
position on this I suggest an understanding of the term integrate, which by
definition suggest making something into a whole. However, if the majority culture already felt a sense of
superiority, thus a sense of wholeness then true integration never
occurred. Therefore, allowing
those with the means the ability to maintain a system of de jure segregation,
which exist till this day. As such
according to the Department of Justice 70 school districts in GA, 58 in AL, 12
in FL, 31 in LA, 17 in TX, were all still under court supervised desegregation
as late as 2008 (McNeal, 2009). In
city’s such as Los Angles the school that bears Dr. Martin Luther King’s name
is 99% African-American in Philadelphia a school with the same name is 98% and
in San Diego the school that bears Rosa Parks name is 86% minority (Kozol, 2005).
According to
McNeal (2009) laws serve two functions they are either (1) symbolic or (2)
substantive. However, in the case
of Brown v Board of Education it was both symbolic and substantive. Symbolic in the sense that it satisfied
the growing civil unrest of an entire population of “disenfranchised”
African-Americans, who saw separate and equal as an insufficient remedy to the
academic plight of African-American children. The substantive aspect of Brown
v Board of Education was that it caused an entire population of
African-Americans to give up a functioning although inadequately funded
educational system that spoke directly to the academic needs of its
constituents.
I further lament
the aforementioned as being a substantive issue because prior to Brown v
Board of Education you had a system that was built for and by African
Americans. Therefore, the system
of education innately had its student’s best interest educationally and
socially at heart. Furthermore,
substantive changes that come as a result of changes in the law are suppose to
solve that which is wrong with the law.
However, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education it is the
opinion of the writer the only thing wrong prior to the court ruling was the
inadequate funding of a separate educational system. Institutions that were created to serve the needs of
African-American were and still are in particular historical black colleges and
universities. Matter of fact
historical black colleges and universities collective have produced more African-American
professionals than majority institutions.
Finally, this is
not to suggest that I feel Brown v. Board of Education, was not a worthy
legal achievement on the part of African-Americans, nor is it to suggest I am a
racial isolationist. It is
quite the opposite. However, it is
to suggest there exist a larger issue of structural racism that exists within
not only our education system, but in the very fabric of our society. Therefore, those that have the ability
to avoid issues like desegregation do and those that don’t simply refuse to
cooperate. Furthermore,
leaving a system that is no less integrated now than it was 50 years ago.
Kozol, J. (2005). The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America (1st
ed). New York, NY: Crown
Publishers.
McNeal, L.R. (2009). The Re-Segregation of public Education Now and After the End
of Brown V Board of Education, Education and Urban Society. 41(5),
562-574.
