Justice Breyer's Dissent Says It All, "Never Have So Few Done So Much So Quickly."
The Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to school integration efforts today, ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not allow students to be assigned particular schools based on race, even when the goal is as lofty as campus diversity.
Correction, not campus diversity - but rather equal access to the more desirable public education "certain" communities afford their young people.
Never mind that a huge percentage of schools in urban areas have lower paid, non-credentialed teachers with higher rates of absenteeism.
Let's ignore the deplorable physical conditions and overcrowding at these campuses.
All that's important here is that White parents, ticked off because their children were turned away from their preferred schools simply because they were White, ultimately got their way.
The court's most conservative members, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, actually wanted to go further and ban all school district efforts at racial balancing. In Roberts' parrallel universe, these efforts violate the principle of a "color-blind'' Constitution.
The reality is, the constitution -- hell, the entire country -- is anything but colorblind.
According to a report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, Whites made up 58 percent of the nation's public school enrollment in 2003, but the average White student attended a school that was nearly 80 percent white.
African Americans accounted for 17 percent of all students, but the average Black student attended a school that was 53 percent Black. Latinos made up 19 percent of enrollment but attended schools that were typically 55 percent Latino.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration sided with the plaintiffs.
Allowing "the use of a racial classification to achieve a desired racial balance ... would remove the critical requirement that individuals be considered as individuals,'' Solicitor General Paul Clement, argued in court papers.
The Seattle system at the center of the case -- suspended since 2002, when it came under legal attack -- gave officials in the 46,000-student high school district a list of factors to consider when a school had more applicants than space.
The first factor was whether a student had a brother or sister at the school, and the second was whether the student's race would move the school closer to the district population of 40 percent white and 60 percent minority.
In Jefferson County, Kentucky, which includes Louisville, the 97,000-student district was under a court desegregation order until 2000.
To avoid resegregation, officials said, they established guidelines of between 15 and 50 percent African American enrollment at each school. Overall Black enrollment in the district is 36 percent.The 5-4 decision came over five decades after the court unanimously outlawed racial segregation in public schools and declared that segregated schools are inherently unequal.
Dissenting justices said the ruling endangered the principles of racial equality established in the landmark 1954 ruling, Brown vs. Board of Education.
"The last half-century has witnessed great strides toward racial equality, but we have not yet realized the promise of Brown,'' said Justice Stephen Breyer. "To invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown.
Today's decision to strike down race-conscious enrollment systems in Seattle and Louisville, Kentucky will impact similar to programs in hundreds of school districts nationwide.
"This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret."
Honestly, this unfortunate ruling is the best thing that could happen to us.
Black people are being told -- straight out -- that America is done. The country is over trying to right the wrongs of slavery, Jim Crow, environmental racism, housing discrimination, and a litany of other "color-blind" activities that folks in both the public and private sector - and their ancestors - have benefitted from.
Brothers and sisters, you better wake-up and handle your business. It's a new day family!
San Francisco Gate