Balancing Act

Last week's Supreme Court decision, Seattle v. Jefferson County Board of Education, according to many, has once again thrown gas on the flames of the race problem in this country. Many, including the NAACP, declared the decision to be re-segregation. Hillary Clinton and other liberals have declared that Chief Justice Roberts and the "right wing" court have turned back the hands of the civil rights clock. But as with many things in our society today, the facts are not always clear nor are they always forthcoming. A few comments about the case and the decision.

First, years ago I sat on a panel where the issue being debated was the participation of blacks in the Republican Party. I remember using a line from Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech to drive home my point and was summarily dismissed by a black man on the panel as he basically called me an Uncle Tom. The diminution of my character was heart felt but I kept my composure and continued on. The line I used then and will use here is, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." I countered that the Democratic Party gave and continues to give lip service to Dr. King's dream and continues to regulate blacks to a life filled with affirmative action programs where race supercedes intellect. The line came to mind as soon as I heard about the decision of the Supreme Court and was reinforced by Chief Justice Roberts statement, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Second, the case was not about the content of the children of Seattle's character but rather about their skin color. The case was not about learning but about "diversity." The case was not about separate but equal but a numbers game where kids were moved around to create a sense of "balance." Of course "learning" was not paramount on the minds of those moving the chess pieces.

Third, moving kids around for the sake of balance, does little if anything for the kids and nothing for the environment in which they need to learn and become citizens capable of critical thinking. Fourth, the process undertaken by Seattle shows no evidence that the balancing act makes a difference in academic performance. Abigail Thernstrom has been trying to argue the point of closing the academic gap between blacks and whites for somtime and states here that this balancing act does little to help academic performance. And of course the idea that blacks tend to do better when among middle class blacks or whites is part and parcel of the argument but no one makes it better than John McWhorter here.

I'm sure the case will continue to be debated and Chief Justice Roberts will be demonized for a long time to come but we don't help blacks by constantly referring to their skin color.