The neocon stacked Supreme Court appears to be ready and willing to overturn Brown v. Board of Education as it considers "a constitutional challenge to school desegregation plans in Seattle, WA and Louisville, KY."
“This is about what is left, if anything, of Brown v. Board of Education,” Theodore Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said in a recent debate hosted by the Century Foundation. If the high court strikes down the Seattle and Louisville programs, “it will be a reversal of historic proportions,” he said.
Outside the Supreme Court, members of the National Organization for Women, the NAACP and students from Howard University chant "Equal education, not segregation" and "We won't go to the back of the bus, integration is a must."
As always, the Bush Administration is siding with the white people:
Among the school systems' eclectic band of supporters: The American Psychological Association, a coalition of historians, the NCAA and a group of former professional basketball players, and 10 former high-ranking Defense Department officials.
On the other side, the Bush administration and a number of conservative legal organizations have joined the white parents in the two cities who brought the suits.
The position of the Bush Administration is the neocon position -- which views efforts to end discrimination against minorities as an imposition upon the rights of the majority. If it were up to these tyrannical champions of majority rights, Brown v. Board of Education would never have happened because the unanimous opinion held in Brown was obviously the work of 'activist judges.' If it were up to the neocons, we'd still be living in the segregated Jim Crow era of the 1950's.
In 2003, the High Court "upheld race-conscious admissions in higher education in a 5-4 opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor." The vote of the now retired Justice O'Connor has long been the only thing blocking a return to the racist, sexist, and classist ways of yesteryear. This time it's up to Justice Anthony Kennedy, and it does not look good.
Obviously, we are a far better society because of the affirmative action policies ushered in by Brown. The way to make desegregation efforts fairer is to add class to the race formula. But fairness is Not what this is about.
Photo via New York Times
Supreme Court Bush Politics Race News Brown v. Board of Education Racism Desegregation
