The Schoolhouse Door

Is diversity good for America? America's racial and ethnic mix is based on the great melting pot but in reality it causes people of different ethnicity or race to withdraw and retreat into their own culture. The greater the diversity in an area the less trust neighbors have and the more isolated they become. Diversity at least in the short run seems to bring out the worst in a lot of us. That's because we look at diversity as a threat not a challenge. Over time we get used to diversity but it is a time consuming process. We too often confuse racial imbalance with racial segregation. Racial imbalance is a fact of life that is usually based on housing patterns. Racial segregation is racial separation which has been imposed by the State.
I am old enough to remember when the Supreme Court was a major force for racial integration. Up until my second year in high school my town had two schools, one for whites and one for blacks. The overturning of Brown vs the Board of Education by the US Supreme Court will transport America back to an era of racial schools. The Court has now made it possible for the former Governor of Alabama, George Wallace to reappear and once again block the schoolhouse door as he did in 1963 at the University of Alabama while stating to all blacks "You can't come in, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever"




If we as a society are going to work towards fairness, inclusion, equality and integration we are going to do it by working around those men in black robs on Capital Hill because they have decided to stand in the schoolhouse door just as George Wallace did in 1963. Racial integration in schools is a good thing because minorities of today will become the majority of tomorrow, that is surly a no brainier in the case of America's population.
The debate on race and ethnicity will continue and the courts will be ask if diversity is a compelling State interest and for a way to achieve it. All the while Americas will continue to define themselves using the superficial physical features of race and ethnicity.