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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2322
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2007 - 12:36 pm: | 
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Court limits schools considering race
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago 28 June 2007
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected integration plans in two major public school districts but left the door open for the limited use of race to achieve diversity in schools.
The decision in cases affecting how students are assigned to schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide, and it further restricted how public school systems may attain racial diversity.
The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. The court's four liberal justices dissented.
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race," Roberts said.
Yet Justice Anthony Kennedy would not go as far as the other four conservative justices, saying in a concurring opinion that race may be a component of school plans designed to achieve diversity.
To the extent that Roberts' opinion could be interpreted to foreclose the use of race in any circumstance, Kennedy said, "I disagree with that reasoning."
"A district may consider it a compelling interest to achieve a diverse student population," Kennedy said. "Race may be one component of that diversity."
He agreed with Roberts that the plans in Louisville and Seattle violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent joined by the other liberals on the court, said Roberts' opinion undermined the promise of integrated schools that the court laid out 53 years ago in its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
"To invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown," Breyer said.
While Roberts said the court was being faithful to the Brown decision, Justice John Paul Stevens in a separate dissent called the chief justice's reliance on Brown to rule against integration "a cruel irony."
Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's only black member, wrote a separate opinion endorsing the ruling and taking issue with the dissenters' view of the Brown case.
"What was wrong in 1954 cannot be right today," Thomas said. "The plans before us base school assignment decisions on students' race. Because 'our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,' such race-based decisionmaking is unconstitutional."
The two school systems in Thursday's decisions employ slightly different methods of taking students' race into account when determining which schools they will attend.
Federal appeals courts had upheld both plans after some parents sued. The Bush administration took the parents' side, arguing that racial diversity is a noble goal but can be sought only through race-neutral means.
The Louisville case grew out of complaints from several parents whose children were not allowed to attend the schools of their choice. Crystal Meredith, a white, single mother, sued after the school system turned down a request to transfer her 5-year-old son Joshua Ryan McDonald, to a school closer to home.
Louisville's schools spent 25 years under a court order to eliminate the effects of state-sponsored segregation. After a federal judge freed the Jefferson County, Ky., school board, which encompasses Louisville, from his supervision, the board decided to keep much of the court-ordered plan in place to prevent schools from re-segregating.
The lawyer for the Louisville system called the plan a success story that enjoys broad community support, including among parents of white and black students.
Attorney Teddy Gordon, who argued that the Louisville system's plan was discriminatory, said Thursday, "Clearly, we need better race-neutral alternatives. Instead of spending zillions of dollars around the country to place a black child next to a white child, let's reduce class size. All the schools are equal. We will no longer accept that an African-American majority within a school is unacceptable."
Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson said he was disappointed with the ruling because Louisville's system had provided "a quality education for all students and broken down racial barriers" for 30 years.
He said he was confident school leaders would come up with effective new guidelines.
The Seattle school district said it used race as one among many factors and relied on it only at the end of a lengthy process in allocating students among the city's high schools. Seattle suspended its program after parents sued.
Kathleen Brose, mother of a white Seattle student who sued the district, said she felt vindicated by the decision. "We've never said we didn't like diversity," Brose said. "We're against discrimination. ... There's just other things they can do without discriminating."
The opinion was the first on the divisive issue since 2003, when a 5-4 ruling upheld the limited consideration of race in college admissions to attain a diverse student body. Since then, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who approved of the limited use of race, retired. Her replacement, Justice Samuel Alito was in the majority that struck down the school system plans in Kentucky and Washington.
The cases are Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 05-908, and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, 05-915.
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4766
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2007 - 01:29 pm: |
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This has been the problem with the schools.
The schools are largely segregated by race because neighborhoods are segregated by race.
But segregation is not the problem. The problem has been that sufficient monies have not been funneled into the black schools.
Integration mad Negroes and white folks who did not want to give up the money to the black schools came up with this sham.
Here in St. Louis a black woman sued about the state of the black schools. Integration mad negroes stepped in and worked out a "voluntary desegregation program"
Black participants could go to schools in the white suburbs. They got tons of money per student to accept them. Of course they took the best students and left the worst in the inner city.
Also white kids were supposed to attend schools in the city. Despite them being brought in by taxi few opted for it.
Millions were siphoned out of the inner city schools and the white suburban schools, where enrollement was falling, got to stay open, employ teachers, upgrade their facilities, etc.
I would hope this ruling makes Negroes dig in their heels and fight for local control and money--
But I won't hold my breath |
Renata
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 2331
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2007 - 10:32 pm: |
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I really need to see more of the country. I can't lie, I thought schools were still segregated only in the south. Really.
Basically, in MS, smaller towns usually have one white school and one black school. Larger towns have more schools, but they're segregated also. New schools are usually white schools.....until a black or biracial student shows up, a couple of more show up, and a few short years later it's a "black" school with hardly any white students at all, and a new community somewhere in town needs a school (where they've moved to get away from blacks).
You don't really think all of these new schools are popping up because so many more children are being born, do you? New "white" schools are needed when the old ones get "contaminated".
What's interesting is that those small towns that still have segregated schools don't seem to need any new schools at all, regardless of how many children are born in the community or how old the buildings are. |
Doberman23
Veteran Poster
Username: Doberman23
Post Number: 1007
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 09:36 am: |
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i think you are both dead on. the school i went to was about 90% white and now it is about 60% white. i think if michigan's finances weren't hit so hard it would be even less than that. i don't know if i can get a proper gauge right now because of the michigan financial issues but it also seems as though the more minorities that enter the school the less school stops improving things like that used to. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2113
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 09:58 am: |
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I'm reading right now Derrick Bell's "Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform." I'm hoping for a better understanding of what the case was aiming for initially, what compromises were made, and what it really did--and did not--achieve. I'm hoping that this knowledge, in turn, will give me additional perspective on rulings like this. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4776
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 12:44 pm: |
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And I seen somebody I would call a ••••••--that coon Clarence Thomas. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9069
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 01:34 pm: |
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Have schools ever really been "integrated"? The schools I went to waaaaay back when, where blacks and whites coexisted could have better been defined as "inter-racial". In the present, I have observed that attempts at integration work better when blacks comprise less than half of the student body. Once they pass the half-way mark, whites become intimidated and feel threatened because the majority is in a position to make demands and this foments trouble, more specifically riots, as was the case at many highschool in my area. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9070
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 01:35 pm: |
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Where you been Dobes?? I missed ya, babe! Did you see who the Bulls got in the draft? Shades of Dennis Rodman. And how about the Kobe rumors? I, for one, am not enthusiastic about him coming to Chicago. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4779
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 02:15 pm: |
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The schools I went to waaaaay back when, where blacks and whites coexisted could have better been defined as "inter-racial"
(What was the percentage of blacks and whites there)
the present, I have observed that attempts at integration work better when blacks comprise less than half of the student body
(But they don't stay that way. As soon as white people start seeing too many blacks they start leaving and it is over.
Where I went to high school in the neighborhood around it when I graduated there were about four black families. Ten years later all the white people were gone.
Just one is enough, if there are others not far beind.
Once they pass the half-way mark, whites become intimidated and feel threatened because the majority is in a position to make demands and this foments trouble, more specifically riots, as was the case at many highschool in my area
(You act like white people never rioted on blacks. Blacks rioting on whites is a very new phenomenon.
Used to be they will kill every Negro within ten miles if there was one fight. Funny--when the whites riot when you first show up--which was the case at my high school--the blacks don't leave. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2334
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 02:30 pm: |
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"Did you see who the Bulls got in the draft? Shades of Dennis Rodman. And how about the Kobe rumors? I, for one, am not enthusiastic about him coming to Chicago."
Chi - Joakim Noah, Forward: The Bulls take the always excitable Joakim Noah at nine, which gives them another athletic inside guy with the big-time energy that they love. I like everything about this pick except it doesn't solve their low-post scoring issues because Noah is a dreadful shooter. That said, he makes them better next season, and that is always a good thing. And know this, over the last six or seven years, no team in the league has been more consistent on draft night. The Bulls have never missed on a pick – discounting Jay Williams' motorcycle accident.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9073
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 02:31 pm: |
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I didn't say blacks started the riots! You're always jumping to conclusions, chrishayden. And the highschool I attended had a student body close to 3,000. Of this number, about 400 were black. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9079
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 - 03:33 pm: |
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Thanks for posting the pix, NTFS. Being the colorful character that he is, among other things, Joakim Noah will bring a sense of fun back to chicago fans languishing in the lackluster aura of the present team. |
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