The "National Discussion" of Race...

Since the subject of "racism" is such a hot button right now, I thought I'd just ramble for a while. If you have better things to do, just move on along...there are plenty of interesting things on the worldwide computer.

When US Attorney General Eric Holder said a while back that it was time to finally have a national discussion about "race," a couple of thoughts came to mind.

1) Eric Holder has not been living in the United States, because we have been having a national discussion about race my entire life. Or...

2) Eric Holder is too stupid to be the Attorney General of the United States.

I settled on number 2 as the most likely.

In 1974 I was a Sophomore in High School in the deep US South, and watched along with the rest of the nation as the Boston Busing Riots broke out. It was on the television news every night. And, it was a "hot topic" of discussion among students (and in the classroom btw) at my racially diverse High School.

The whole concept of racially segregated schools was foreign to me. Now, I know that Boston public schools were not "segregated" by race, and that the uproar was over "busing." Busing to achieve racial equality was a stupid idea, and I'll get to that.

By the time I began public school in 1965, the Bossier City, LA schools had been desegregated. The elementary schools all still remained, but the all black High School, Charlotte Mitchell High (the alma mater of the great San Diego Charger, Gary "Big Hands" Johnson, btw) would later be closed, and it's students attend either of the 2 "white" high schools depending on their neighborhood. Most (but not all) of the black kids in Bossier lived in the district of the "old" High School in town which I attended. So, Bossier High was thoroughly integrated with a student population that had grown up in school together.

I do not remember one "racial" problem in my years in school. Sure, a white kid might get in a fight with a black kid, but it most often had something to do with just regular kid junk. In fact, most of the "fights" I remember were intraracial...and usually sprung up because of a girl. I'm just saying...

So, by 1974, it was hard for me to wrap my head around what I was seeing unfold in Boston. Daily riots, protest marches, rock throwing, cops cracking heads, vile spewing from mostly Irishy Bostonians about "them niggers" coming to our schools, etc. were standard nightly news fare. I ran across an interesting piece from 2000 by Michael MacDonald who was a school child in South Boston at the time. It's worth a read.

The whole subject was fascinating to me, and I even did a research paper on the whole subject of school integration and busing. I'm sure I got an A on it...probably an A+. Probably not.

Of course, time has proven the whole "busing to achieve racial equality" thing to be a complete disaster...as most things are when judges make policy. Wikipedia's article on Desegregation and Busing is actually pretty thorough, with some solid information...and some interesting history about Congressional debate over The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (voted against by Al Gore, Sr.). It is well worth a read. I found it very interesting that Senator Hubert Humphrey wrote two amendments to the act that would specifically prohibit the Civil Rights Act from being used to force busing. But some judges don't care about no stinkin' laws!

In the long run, "forced busing" did nothing but make matters worse. Major cities like Boston, Detroit, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cleveland, etc. saw many high achieving students transfer to private/parochial schools, and a breakdown of the "nuclear neighborhood" in both black and white communities. Young people became less likely to participate in extracurricular activities (or more likely to drop out of school from fear of violence), and parental involvement waned when it became an hour-long drive (or public transportation ride) both ways to make it to "Parent's Night."

The major cities saw enormous "white flight" to the suburbs, leaving the old inner city schools, and neighborhoods to crumble as the foundation of a healthy tax base eroded.

In short, it was a stinkin' disaster of epic proportions, and quite likely destroyed a large chunk of a generation (or two...or three) of young Americans.

And it did not solve the problem of "racial bigotry, or racial tension." In truth, it likely exacerbated it.

The problem of racial bigotry is a problem of the heart. No legislation, court ruling, or good intention will ever force it from a man. And certainly a "national discussion" will not.

I tend to stand with several prominent black citizens, such as Samuel L. Jackson who are beginning to say in essence, "It's time to quit talking about race. Let it die it's natural generational death." But don't look for the enormous, and lucrative "race industry" in the U.S. to heed their calls. They will keep their cash cow on it's iron lung for as long as they can afford to pay the light bill. And they'll keep milking that teet, regardless of how sour the mlk is. (not a typo)