It isn’t an urban legend. The disparities that we all see are real, tangible with real effects. But as usual, many of let it pass by, like the fear of some “boogie man-“ we let it pass and wake up believing that the fear, or he will go away tomorrow.

But he doesn’t. He haunts. But unlike him-we aren’t talking about a specter-even if his image is rooted in real racism. That is what haunts-it is very real.

The supreme court in a 5-4 ruling removed the ability to utilize race as a factor in integrating schools. Let me tell you what it feels like to work in a segregated school that exists under the pseudonym “continuation school:”

They are mostly students of color, more than 90%. These are the students who did not acculturate into mainstream, western education/culture as they were told to: “raise your hand” before you speak, sit patiently through sometimes painful lectures for 50 minutes, obey authority who are often mean, self-righteous, pompous figures that are in actuality-strangers-not people who have rightfully gained trusts, and scribe, scribe, scribe.

As adults, sometimes our workplaces require this painful regiment. Many of us have either lost our minds or souls to this demanding ritual. But my students are young 16-18 year old minds who do not want to be molded into these obedient creatures. They want freedom, even if it is only intuitively- unguided and without critical, mature consciousnesses-but nonetheless they want freedom. Not just freedom from monotony or from being subjected to inhumane assimilation projects but also freedom to take care of their lives often filled with violence and tons of problems. My kids want their freedom and as their teacher, I want to help them define this freedom and this fight for it. But as well, I want them to obtain the same education that a student in upper-middle class schools have. I want this so that they have equal education, equal stakes for survival, equal merit-because with the riddance of affirmative action everywhere-maybe if they know everything every one else knows they’ll have some sort of chance.

But, this is an almost impossible task-even if I continue to try. There are not enough resources. I am at a continuation school the size of the comprehensive high school’s track and we are without money for the abundance of books that teaching and learning requires. We are without the sports teams, music programs, or any extra-curricular activities-all under the guise that we are a continuation school. We do not receive these excess funds. I work at a segregated school-my students have been slotted, derailed from any equal access to success and happiness. They are the punished students and it is not coincidental that they are mostly the lower income students of color-many with experiences with police brutality, homelessness, psychological traumas, and racism, sexism, and homophobia. It is no coincidence that my students who do not fit into “white, western values” are the ones who are denied “real education.”

I often read that school was for supposed to be for “liberating” purposes-so was the theme rampant in Friere and other critical pedagogy theorists’ work. If this is the case then u.s. definition of “liberating” is conflictual with every one else's. Liberating (or maintaining) here takes on the form of social, class, racial privileges not the liberating of self and society. Because my students are not of the correct class, race and sometimes sexuality, they will not be liberated-are not supposed to be. And so today, it is official-not just something that leftists claimed-it has been legally asserted-segregation is real. And so what…

So goes one of my student’s requests of me and of our staff before school let out this year, “can you teach us how to survive because many of us aren’t going to be able to get to college or have those opportunities.” The fear is real. And he is left with it every day.

Your readers may be interested in the responses
of nine university civil rights research centers across
the U.S. They can see the statement at civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

Gary Orfield

As long as we continue to live in a white supremacist society, where the majority of people are benefiting from the priviledge of being born with the "proper" skin color (to the detriment of the rest of us), we're going to perpetuate racism and inequality. The only way to put a clamp on that evil vein is to have deliberate intentions to counteract the disparities (like Affirmative Action, and Brown V. Board, etc.)

This conservative government and climate has set us back decades in more ways than one. What's the solution? ...be mad as HELL and refuse to turn a blind eye. Write to your elected representatives, protest, make phone calls, VOTE, build relationships with others who don't look anything like yourself, do a little non-violent resistance and civil disobedience, support public education, and just DO something to let others know that the current status quo is unacceptable.

As Dr. King said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"...Shame on the Justices!

By reversing the significance of "Brown," the US Supreme Court has reinstituted the legacy of Jim Crow and legitimized white supremacy despite all of its diversity.

In the 1890s the railroad companies orchestrated a situation that challenged the Jim Crow laws as they were applied to rail transportation. Maintaining two separate fleets of rail cars (one for "whites" and one for "blacks") and having to switch back and forth depending upon which state they were going into or out of, was quite costly for them. So, Homer Plessy was "used" to challenge the railroad car regulations in Louisianna. In other words, the impetus behind Plessy v. Ferguson - the case overruled in Brown v. Board of Education - was about the money. Likewise, the strategy underlying Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston's presentation in "Brown" was the belief that "green follows white," i.e. white people would make certain their schools were adequately funded and thus this was a good reason to make certain that children of color were allowed to attend those schools. As my civil rights law school professor opined, "It wasn't because we wanted our children rubbing elbows with white children. We just wanted them to get a decent education."

I plan to read the latest Supreme Court decision (available at http://scotusblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/05-908) but I know that as in the published case of Plessy v. Ferguson, that the underlying facts, subtext and motivations of the plaintiffs will not be there. The fact is under every desegregation plan I know of, it is the parent(s) who designate the race(s) of their children on school forms. I personally know at least two white families in Minneapolis who wanted their children enrolled in their neighborhood schools, which were all white and so they wrote down on the school's enrollment forms that their children were Hispanic. It worked. A friend of mine and I were outright told by a staff person within the Minneapolis Board of Education that upon deciding which school we wanted our children enrolled in that we would have to write down the "right race" in order to assure we got the school we wanted. In my case, it would have meant identifying my child as "Caucasian" or "white" even though she is African-American and Indian.

That few people understand that "race" has no biological basis and is a social and political construct subject only to self-identification - this is how the U.S. Census Bureau defines "race" - and leads to vacuous arguments re: "race-neutrality" and "colorblindness in admissions."

Many Boards of Education in the U.S., including Minneapolis, officially abandoned or unofficially gave-up on their desegregation plans decades ago, which is one reason that many schools are just as segregated now as they were in the 1950s.

Deborah