Semester Writing Assignment

Since 1954, segregation has been outlawed throughout the US by the highest court in the
nation. However, regardless of changes to law, nothing has really changed at all. Forty-three
percent of Latinos and thirty-eight percent of blacks attend schools where fewer than ten percent
of their classmates are white, according to a report by the Civil Rights Project at the University
of California, Los Angeles. In addition, it noted that the percentage of “hyper-segregated
schools,” in which 90% or more of students are minorities, grew since 1988 from 5.7% to 18.4%.
While some may argue that integration has been legally possible and certainly present, the grip
of segregation is irrefutably there due to the high percentages of single race or nearly single race
schools in education. This retention of racial segregation can be attributed to three main factors,
a failure in governmental oversight, residential choice, and a perpetuation of norms and
expectations.
While the government has taken the initiative to foster closer relations between people of
different backgrounds, it has failed in bridging great divides. Since Brown v. Board of Education
(1954), programs such as busing were formed to help integrate schools across the nation. When
looking at the effects of such a policy however, less than ten percent of Blacks and Whites
supported it and in some instances such as in New England, Black segregation increased from
sixty-seven percent in 1968 to eighty percent in 1980 (Gallup Inc.). Nonetheless, the percentages
of Blacks going to predominantly Black schools lowered to around fifty-five in 1988 as opposed
to seventy-seven in areas such as the south (PBS). The catalyst of regression can be associated
with numerous political factors under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, but the 1991
decision in Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell was what really put an end to the
illegalization of segregation so-to-say (Frontline News). By a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled
school districts can be freed from an injunction to desegregate if they can demonstrate
compliance with the order and also show that they will not “return to their former ways.” The
problem is that almost immediately, schools that were released from oversight certainly did
“return to their former ways” according to Stanford researchers. The pattern of integration, as a
result, may be seen in the form of a bell curve with government involvement peaking around the
same point where integration peaked.
But the government still lacked clear ground in matters that involved neighborhood
composition. This can be seen using a dissimilarity index that ranges from 0 (most integrated) to
1 (most segregated). The Census Bureau presented that the figure was 0.60 on average amongst
all metropolitan areas in the year 2010. The reason for this great divide is simply due to the
human tendency to be closer to those who are familiar to us. Sadly, this has caused centuries old
separations to remain, with “ghettos” and similar types of neighborhoods being all-too-common.
What exacerbates this is the correlation between race, neighborhood, and wage. Income
inequality remains persistent with Blacks and Hispanics making $38 thousand and $46 thousand
respectively, in contrast to the White average of $61 thousand (United States Census Bureau). As
neighborhoods are commonly grouped into low income, middle income, and high income areas,
the racial divides naturally follow such a trend. The phenomenon of “White flight” adds to this
by creating the problem of White people voluntarily moving to suburbs, away from the central
areas to cities where Blacks and Hispanics are more common. This drastic shift has led to greater
homogenization and a greater frequency of homogeneous schools. Relating the matter back to
busing, the government attempted to relieve the issue but mostly failed to truly get anywhere.
The income situation would also come back to haunt the Black and Hispanic communities in the
form of redlining. Even if some wanted to move to the suburbs as well, the practice of loan
denial along neighborhood lines along with low incomes hindered this ability. The level of
financial security, as a result, prevented any true “choice” as to where people wished to live
which in turn prevented proper school integration.
Yet, both government oversight and residency are governed by a society that views the
average citizen as White. W. E. B. DuBois wrote in 1935 that segregated schools were still
needed due to the “growing animosity of the whites.” White public opinion, he explained, was
overwhelmingly opposed to establishing racially integrated schools. In such a context, he
believed, it was impossible for Black children to receive “a proper education.” While it is
popular belief that such is not the case, latent intentions of education which have been pressured
by society project a kind of attitude that excludes minorities. The idea of the model minority has
been commonly presented, but has taken time away from the idea of the “model citizen.” In the
case of the US, children are brought up with various hints and connotations that harm their
ability to view others indiscriminately. The model is White, the model criminal is Black. While
statistics point out that Blacks actually do not commit more crimes than their White counterparts,
popular culture proliferates archetypes that are, at times, exclusively Black. Differences in
academic achievement; frequency and severity of school discipline; rate of neighborhood school
closures; fundraising capacity of PTAs; and access to arts, music, and unstructured playtime are
all characteristics that are divided among race as a result of standards. The expectations for
Blacks and other minorities is low due to a self-perpetuating cycle of negative stereotypes. These
go on to complete a self-fulfilling prophecy as people tend to follow their expectations. What this
means for the education system is the tendency of White students to go to primarily white
dominant schools. The reason remains in the cycle of delinquency and culture of deviance that
has been societally ascribed to Blacks in combination with funding trends. The lower academic
standards lead to lower performance, low in-school involvement, and a high tendency of
succumbing to the cycle of poverty. This goes hand-in-hand with White flight and adds the issue
of school choice. As schools with increasing or constant levels of large Black presence fall into
these issues, White individuals tend to leave such schools in favour of other public schools or
even private schools. The latter is evidenced by the fact that forty-three percent of private school
students attend all-white schools. This leads to a condition under which segregation is
strengthened simply due to stereotyping and self-manifestations.
As a result, societal norms and expectations present the issues of Afro-pessimism and
minority-pessimism, which inhibit the true potential of Black and minority students. This in turn
leads to a lowering of performance amongst such students that lowers the overall quality of
schools. White students typically tend to move away from this due to the worsening educational
environments and cycle of poverty present. Instead, they move to higher income residential areas
and typically attend either very homogenous public or private schools. In addition,
minorities/minority students of various races favour living amongst people they closely associate
with, which provides an environment of sameness. Government involvement has been initiated
in the past to deal with the matter, but a retreat was initiated far too early to have lasting effects.
Because of this chain of factors, segregation has not gone away no matter if it has been
illegalized, begging the question of not why it is present by how it will be solved.