Resegregation: Now Or Later?

In a June 15, 2010 photo, North Carolina chapter NAACP President Rev. William Barber is escorted from the Wake County Schools board room in handcuffs by Raleigh Police after he was arrested for staging a sit-in with three other activists during a recess of the board's meeting. The Wake County Board of Education's decision to scrap a much-praised busing-for-diversity program has sparked a public backlash not seen for decades in these parts.

It is discouraging to see how some adults can act stupid but question their children’s behaviors. They wonder where the kids picked up that kind of language and actions because they couldn’t have learned it from home. They don’t realize that children watch what adults don’t do, too! I hear some parents say that they don’t tolerate racism or bigotry in their home but will not speak out against injustice. Currently, the argument is whether or not Tea Party activists or racists. I’m sure not all of them are, the majority is mostly white and there are opportunists in every race that use organizations as a front for their own hidden agendas. My question is this. Have people really forgotten the reason why so many black organizations, newspapers and functions were formed? Do they realize that Blacks were not admitted to any mainstream America organizations simply because they were black? Cotillions, parades, magazines, contests, restaurants, and etc., were not opened to blacks, so we developed our own. Segregation was wrong because not all schools had equal access to finest educational material available. The black teachers made do with what they had and I think they did a helluva job with what little was available to them and teaching us in subpar conditions. They didn’t put up with the foolishness we now see at schools. Integration brought on busing. Kids were leaving their neighborhoods to attend school across town even though their old school was right down the street. Wouldn’t it had been cheaper to improve the schools and improve the technology, give the teachers higher salaries and upgrade the books than buy buses and maintain them enough to haul kids across town? Now 50 years later, resegregation is gaining ground and ground zero is in Raleigh, NC. Black and White Americans couldn’t predict that when integration cracked segregated walls, there were bound to be some fallout. It could expand opportunities for jobs and improve black children’s access to quality education. Common sense would dictate sending your child to the closest school, it’s practical safer and cheaper. The problem is how much better is your school in your area? Low income neighborhoods may not get the funding and support they need to better equip their children for school and technical vocations. Let’s stay away from the stereotypical labeling expected from low socioeconomic upbringing because not everyone is the same. So what’s normally the color of the majority in poor neighborhoods and the majority in affluent neighborhoods? We all know if you live in an affluent area, you’re going to ensure you have all your needs met without going to far to find them. What we as a people need to know that if people don’t want to be around you, why be around them? You don’t have to spend your money to prove to people that you got it. It hurts more when you don’t do business with them and spend it in their stores. What concerns me more are the code words for state’s rights and sovereign statehood. I lived in the 60s and these ultra-right conservative politicians want to take us back to it. Don’t vote on party lines, vote for what’s right for all Americans.