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The New York Times, July 12, 2019
When Senator Kamala Harris confronted former Vice President Joe Biden at the second Democratic presidential debate about his support of bills to ban busing for school desegregation during the 1970s and early 1980s...
there was little discussion about busing's efficacy, at least not with facts, or about whether or not busing served its purpose of breaking apart the educational caste system...
we have come to be largely silent and accepting of the fact that 65 years after the Supreme Court struck down school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, black children are as segregated from white students as they were in the mid-1970s when Mr. Biden was working with Southern white supremacist legislators to curtail court-ordered busing...
When the Supreme Court handed down its radical ruling for racial justice, the white South began a systematic anti-integration campaign known as Massive Resistance...
Many white Northerners initially applauded the Brown ruling, believing it was about time the South behaved when it came to its black citizens. But that support hinged largely on the belief that Brown v. Board of Education did not apply to them and their communities. When black activists in cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Dayton, Ohio, pushed to dismantle the de jure segregation that existed in their cities, white support for the integration mandate of Brown faded.
It Was Never About Busing - The New York Times
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The truth I received from this very long essay is that the vast majority of white parents do not want their children to attend schools dominated by blacks. This was true when the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court Decision was made in 1954. It remains true, despite the fact that blacks have had over two generations to demonstrate that black majority schools are safe learning environments for whites and Asians. Frequently they are unsafe for blacks who want to learn. These are ostracized and beaten up for "acting white." That explains why responsible black parents usually want their children to attend white majority public schools. It also explains why white parents and white students shrink from the influx of black students.
I have never in my life talked to or read about a white person who had a positive experienced with forced school busing. Invariably the experiences were negative, often very negative.
Even white liberal parents move to white school districts or send their children to private schools if the alternative is to send them to public schools where black students are in the majority. The problem is not that the toilets do not flush. The problem is that whites who use the restrooms are sometimes beaten up by blacks. I actually read about that happening in a black majority high school in the black majority city where I live. When the whites complained to the black principal he suggested they use the rest room in the nurse's office.
The durability of white opposition to forced school busing should matter in a democratic country. Instead of wilting before Kamala Harris, Joe Biden should have said, "I opposed forced school busing in 1973. I still do. Here's why..."
When Senator Kamala Harris confronted former Vice President Joe Biden at the second Democratic presidential debate about his support of bills to ban busing for school desegregation during the 1970s and early 1980s...
there was little discussion about busing's efficacy, at least not with facts, or about whether or not busing served its purpose of breaking apart the educational caste system...
we have come to be largely silent and accepting of the fact that 65 years after the Supreme Court struck down school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, black children are as segregated from white students as they were in the mid-1970s when Mr. Biden was working with Southern white supremacist legislators to curtail court-ordered busing...
When the Supreme Court handed down its radical ruling for racial justice, the white South began a systematic anti-integration campaign known as Massive Resistance...
Many white Northerners initially applauded the Brown ruling, believing it was about time the South behaved when it came to its black citizens. But that support hinged largely on the belief that Brown v. Board of Education did not apply to them and their communities. When black activists in cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Dayton, Ohio, pushed to dismantle the de jure segregation that existed in their cities, white support for the integration mandate of Brown faded.
It Was Never About Busing - The New York Times
-----------
The truth I received from this very long essay is that the vast majority of white parents do not want their children to attend schools dominated by blacks. This was true when the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court Decision was made in 1954. It remains true, despite the fact that blacks have had over two generations to demonstrate that black majority schools are safe learning environments for whites and Asians. Frequently they are unsafe for blacks who want to learn. These are ostracized and beaten up for "acting white." That explains why responsible black parents usually want their children to attend white majority public schools. It also explains why white parents and white students shrink from the influx of black students.
I have never in my life talked to or read about a white person who had a positive experienced with forced school busing. Invariably the experiences were negative, often very negative.
Even white liberal parents move to white school districts or send their children to private schools if the alternative is to send them to public schools where black students are in the majority. The problem is not that the toilets do not flush. The problem is that whites who use the restrooms are sometimes beaten up by blacks. I actually read about that happening in a black majority high school in the black majority city where I live. When the whites complained to the black principal he suggested they use the rest room in the nurse's office.
The durability of white opposition to forced school busing should matter in a democratic country. Instead of wilting before Kamala Harris, Joe Biden should have said, "I opposed forced school busing in 1973. I still do. Here's why..."
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