Have we entered a period of passive resegregation?

writerk: We’re on the same page regarding funding,facilities and resources. I did not mean to imply that pre-integration was ‘shangri-la’. Something had to be done, but I submit that the baby got thrown out with the bathwater. I recall ‘freedom of choice’ was 1st attempted to address inequalities. Students of any race could choose the school they wished to attend. Naturally, both of most races chose the school they were already going to. That wouldn’t do because the bean counters and world-savers wanted to swat a gnat with a sledge hammer, so we got what we have - dysfunction. I teach in a rural school and integration went well here. Heck, everyone already knew each other and they were in the same community, so integration went more smoothly, but in larger systems it was a mess. If there is a point I am driving at it is that localities should have been allowed more latitude in how to address legitimate issues rather than being dictated to by people who were not accountable for what they created.

I have to agree with Ms. Roa’s opinions.  I didn’t live through the intergration of public schools, but my parents experienced it.  My mother attended segregated, all-black schools in South Carolina in the 50s and 60s.  Although she was a part of an active and closely-connected community, her schools were poorly funded. She remembers how she wasn’t always given the textbooks she needed, and many of them were terribly outdated (for instance, one of her high school science textbooks said there were eight planets instead of nine). When she attended the mostly-white University of South Carolina, she experienced a kind of culture shock.  After growing up in an insulated black community, she experienced a difficult adjustment period.  So while I can understand the comments Dave made about black students be “torn away from communities and loyalties” and how some blacks resented intergration, I do not believe segregation was ever a good thing.  Seperate was rarely equal, and just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s best for us.  The fact is, a segragated school system, where students were entrenched in the black community, didn’t and currently does not mimic the real world experiences many of those black students encounter, especially if they want a larger choice of colleges and graduate schools.  Also, to address Dave’s point, integration was never meant to be a panacea.  It was simply attended to address one factor that kept blacks behind. 
Regarding the comments made by Va_78, I think we are past a point where it is possible to live a day-to-day life in one’s own culture, whether we are comfortable with it or not (assuming one defines “culture” by a somewhat narrow racial, geographical, socioeconomic, or religious schema).  The world is too small, and more than likely, most of us have to interact with others who are very different.

Short answer, yes. Is it racially motivated? Yes. Is it justified? Yes. Beginning in the 60’s it was decided to make schools laboratories for social engineering. The notion was established that plopping a black student down next to a white student would cause the black student to perform better. Instead, statistics show black students performing the same or worse. Proximity to white people was not the answer. Black schools like Maggie Walker and Armstrong with strong cultural and social traditions had those traditions destroyed. I know. I lived through it. It wasn’t just white people that resented integration. Many young blacks did too, because in order to make politicians and activists feel good about themselves, young black students became pawns in busing and integration initiatives. They were torn away from communities and loyalties. As the schools went, so did the black social fabric. How many single-parent households struggle along in black communities today compared to the 60’s? What about illegitimacy in the black community compared with the 60’s? What about comparing social and behavioral pathologies of the black community now with the 60’s? What has integration accomplished other than to contribute to the creation of a perpetual underclass? Is it because blacks are racially inferior? No! It serves liberalism’s purpose to have a permanent aggreived minority with which to lay a guilt trip on the rest of society. Schools are resegregating because parents who fear for their children’s safety not to mention their academic progress are fleeing dysfunctional public schools that are set up to perpetuate—dysfunction. Maybe someone should do a statistical study on the number of middle-class black families that are fleeing the dysfunction. Are they sticking around or are they getting out of dodge just like white folks? I’m white, so go ahead and do the knee-jerk thing and call me racist. Continue to perpetuate the dysfunction.