Supreme injustice of ruling appalling

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 7/1/7 | Wendi C. Thomas

[SmithL]

Three years ago, when I and the 48 percent of Americans who voted for then-Sen. John Kerry for president were lamenting President George Bush's win, I made this prediction about Bush's second term:

He'd stick us with a right-wing high court that will chip away at the country's yet-young history of government-sanctioned integration methods. By the time the decider-in-chief was done, I'd be on a plantation somewhere, picking cotton.

That dire and admittedly over-dramatic prediction has yet to come true, but the Supreme Court took a good-sized step in that direction Thursday with its ruling that restricts how race can be used to manage diversity of public school student bodies.

I've waded through as much of the 185-page ruling as I could without vomiting in disgust, and the headline, according to a majority of justices, is this: Racial diversity is important in schools, but you can't use race as a means to achieve racial diversity.

R-i-i-ight.

Clearly, the court's majority doesn't really believe racial diversity is a worthy ideal. Because if it were, the conservative-leaning court (historically, they of less federal intervention into states' rights) would allow local governments some leeway in determining how best to desegregate schools.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a recent Bush appointee, managed to contort the essence of the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision in a manner that must have Thurgood Marshall spinning in his grave.

Roberts offered this rationale, simple-minded in its simplicity: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

This, of course, is a nod to those few but vocal white people who have convinced themselves that whenever their individual wishes must bend (not bow) in the interest of an integrated society, they are the victims of cruel discrimination.

The court's majority position also conveniently dismisses four centuries of government-sanctioned discrimination that crippled black -- not white -- people's chances for success, the effects of which are real today.

Instead, the majority offered the blather that the Constitution is colorblind, the very suggestion of which is patently offensive. Colorblindness is to be in denial of our differences, willfully ignorant of what makes us unique. If you insist you don't see my color, it's easy to dismiss any concerns I have about race relations.

It's not a crime to acknowledge my ethnicity, just as I'll see yours, and never hold your pride for it against you -- as if adding a dash between your ancestry and American makes you less of the latter.

As disheartening as the court's decision is, as a practical matter, it doesn't mean much. The city is about 35 percent white, yet white students make up fewer than 9 percent of the Memphis City Schools' population. At least a dozen city schools don't have a single white student, and at least two dozen more have less than three.

A black student need not sit next to a white one to perform better in class. But there's got to be some mixing for the black student not to buy into the stereotypes he'll hear about white kids, and vice versa. Especially vice versa.

Interracial interactions polish soft skills that No Child Left Behind was never meant to measure. For many of us, these interactions -- even if forced by the government on school bodies -- were our first introduction to people who didn't look like us.

If my white college roommate had had any prolonged interactions with black people in high school or before, it's a safe bet that she wouldn't have asked me in all seriousness and in 1989 if it was true that black men had tails.

And if I hadn't gone to school with dozens of Jewish students, I might have believed the Jewish stereotypes I heard first from college classmates. But the stereotypes didn't concur with what I knew to be true, so I figured my classmates were misinformed.

The court's decision is most disheartening for those of us who know firsthand the value of integration. But more distressing is that with no hindrances or help from the government, we've segregated ourselves by neighborhoods, in our churches, our social and country clubs and in most cultural venues.

America doesn't have to wait for the Supreme Court to thoroughly disassemble all the legal remedies designed to promote desegregation -- not when we've found ways to do it ourselves.

[SmithL]

About Thomas Wendi C.
A proud product of the Memphis City Schools, Wendi C. Thomas graduated from White Station in 1989 and went from there to Butler University in Indiana, where she graduated with a degree in journalism. She's been a reporter or an editor at The Indianapolis Star, the Tennessean in Nashville and at the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina.

In August of 2003, Wendi returned in Memphis after a 14-year absence to be the metro columnist for her hometown paper. Her column appears twice a week on Sundays and Thursdays.

[goldstategop]

Sure and the way to address racism is to apply racism in reverse. Its liberals who are obsessed with race and skin color.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[machogirl]

is this worthy of a projectile vomit alert?

[fortheDeclaration]

You do not replace one wrong, forced segregation, with another, forced integration.

[sarasmom]

Wendi should get over herself.

I judge her not by the color of her skin, but by the content of her character.

I deem her a racist,ignorant socialist idiot.

Welcome to the real world Wendi!
You don’t get extra points for being ignorant.

[muawiyah]

Seems Wendi diagrees with Brown v. where it got to the part about it being unconstitutional to assign public school students to schools on the basis of race.

Makes her a racist pig.

[an amused spectator]

By the time the decider-in-chief was done, I'd be on a plantation somewhere, picking cotton.

I guess that Wendi didn't get the memo about the Democrats changing the plantation location from the country to the big city, and managing to stick the Pubbies with the Democrat Party's history of actual racism.

So, Wendi - you live on the new Democrat plantation in Memphis.

[ChildOfThe60s]

If my white college roommate had had any prolonged interactions with black people in high school or before, it's a safe bet that she wouldn't have asked me in all seriousness and in 1989 if it was true that black men had tails.

If Ms. Thomas sincerely believes that her roommate would have been any less of an uneducated moron by interacting with black people, she is just about as dumb.

In fact, that little story is so hard to believe, it makes me wonder if it is even true. Honestly, it sounds an awful lot like the stories libs make up in order to make a point. Lying for a good cause and all of that.

[labette]

"I'd be on a plantation somewhere, picking cotton. "

If I said that, I'd be on my way to sensitivity training.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It's not a crime to acknowledge my ethnicity, just as I'll see yours, and never hold your pride for it against you -- as if adding a dash between your ancestry and American makes you less of the latter.

Methinks the lady would have no trouble bowing and scraping in abject apology for any "white pride" activities.

[Senator Goldwater]

Roberts offered this rationale, simple-minded in its simplicity: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

---

The simple-mindedness comes from anyone who can’t understand that Roberts is upholding the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.

Don’t be such a simpleton, Wendi. And learn how to spell your own name before accusing greater intellects than yourself of being simple.

[Lucas McCain]

If my white college roommate had had any prolonged interactions with black people in high school or before, it's a safe bet that she wouldn't have asked me in all seriousness and in 1989 if it was true that black men had tails.

There is no way that I could be convinced that this statement is true. I am convinced it is a lie, completely and utterly made up out of whole cloth.

[A_Former_Democrat]

Wow, a bachelor’s degree in journalism and she’s a constitutional expert. Just another robot of the political left.

Hey, Ms. Thomas, there’s a reason for all of this: people care about the education and safety of their children alot more than your code word for racism: “diversity.”

[sourcery]

I find this racist trash article extremely offensive. The author should be fired. At least Imus was funny.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If Ms. Thomas sincerely believes that her roommate would have been any less of an uneducated moron by interacting with black people, she is just about as dumb.

Isn't this where "social studies" is supposed to be involved anyhow? What about the American Indian, the Asian? Do they still have tails to her roommate?

[Inquisitive1]

...Clearly, the court's majority doesn't really believe racial diversity is a worthy ideal.

It isn't. Competence is a worthy ideal.

[3AngelaD]

I can understand why she is arguing the way she does. She is obviously one of the Commercial-Appeals’ diversity hires, and would not have that job as a columnist if she were a caucasian female. She lacks critical thinking skills. There is not one original thought or insight anywhere to be seen in her column. The editors must be proud.

[HiTech RedNeck]

She looks awful white for a black.

[CGTRWK]

It's not a crime to acknowledge my ethnicity, just as I'll see yours, and never hold your pride for it against you -- as if adding a dash between your ancestry and American makes you less of the latter.

You won't hold my ethnicity against me, but you want the government to use my ethnicity to decide whether to hire me and what schools I can attend. And they pride themselves for their tolerance.

[3AngelaD]

She is famously, proudly and professionally black. Think Cynthia Tucker with a few more pounds on her.