Court Vetoes School Assignments On Basis Of Race

I'm not one who likes affirmative action, or anything putting a "group" ahead of another when that "group" always wants equality. Plus, I went to a "diverse" and "integrated" school. It was diverse mainly because people were bussed in to make it so. That's great, wonderful. A school with a big mix of socio-economic groups and races. But, while the school and town liked to say how diverse the school was, it did nothing with the diversity. No electives on race relations, understanding or learning about each other. Just busing people in and throwing them together.

It was like a rainbow at my high school. You could see the rainbow because each group would self-segregate themselves. Whites here, blacks there, Hispanics over there, Asians in the corner. And, sometimes you'd have a nice Yin-Yang in the main foyer when the Hispanics and blacks would gather to decide if they were going to fight each other then, or later. Ahhhh... diversity!

I was friends with everyone back then. Jocks (because I wrestled), skaters (which was my main "clique"), geeks, blacks.. whomever. But, there was always some sort of racial tension brewing through the year. And, I'd seen people who were normally friendly square off against each other because they were of a different race, or they were from different parts of town. I even remember a few people wanting me to help fight on "their side" if it came down to it (I was pretty damn scrappy back then). Funny thing is, if I remember, most of the tension was between blacks and Hispanics.. and within the Hispanics (Cuban vs. Puerto Rican vs. Other) and not White vs. anyone. The White's vs. "anyone" was usually the whole "clique" thing (Jocks vs. Everyone, Skaters vs. Goth, Math Club vs. Chess Club, etc...) but not racial. Not sure if that says anything, but I guess we could read into it if we wanted to.

So, if a school system is to assign based on race or bus kids in to be more diverse, they should do something with it. Have (force if needed) dialog between the kids, don't just throw them all into the same school. All that will happen is self-segregation within the school, which does absolutely nothing to promote true diversity. All it may say is "They are here, because they are different than you."