In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

314 GARY ORFIELD Conclusion Returning to First Principles Working on civil rights usually means sailing against the wind. The wind has been blowing harshly toward the shoals of resegregation for nearly two decades . The social scientists and legal scholars writing in this book tell us that there will be grave consequences if that continues, and that there are ways to reverse course and head back toward the goal of an integrated society. They say this in a period in which segregation has been steadily growing in all parts of the country. Segregation and inequalityare basic parts of the American storyand usually have been silently accepted as normal. Although America was founded with massive racial problems due to slavery and the conquest of Indian peoples, only rarely have there been serious governmental initiatives to change these relationships. Separation and stereotypes have been common, and so has the idea that somehow these problems could be put aside. People of color were often separated from the white majority and allowed a limited sphere in which they could have their own institutions with limited resources and not make claims on whites. For two centuries after the first census the United States had 80 to 90 percent white residents, but we are now in the midst of massive racial transformation that will make us a society with no majority group and with profound inequalities if the existing trends continue. It is too big a problem to keep under the rug indefinitely. There have always been critics of the racial structures of society, but usually they are ignored. Their work, however, sets the stage for the big changes that occasionallycome.The last coordinated effort at civil rights reform in the United States came in the late 1960s and rested heavily on the advocacy and research of previous decades. Since that time the proportion of minority students in the United States has soared. Latino students have quadrupled as their ethnic group has become the nation’s largest minority. Research shows more clearly than ever that segregation is linked to worse educational outcomes. The importance of education has grown for both individuals and communities as low-skill jobs disappear while income and employment become ever more closely linked to unequal education. And CONCLUSION 315 yet many civil rights policies have been abandoned. Reconstruction and the civil rights revolution were each followed by decades of severe political reversals of civil rights policies. Attacking racial change and playing on stereotypes and fears have often been effective strategies for gaining political power. We have been living in a politics framed by reaction to the civil rights revolution, with little support for work on racial equity, for most of the past four decades. There has been a widespread view, often embraced by government, that further civil rights efforts were unnecessary or counterproductive. During most of this period, the people heading the civil rights agencies, those appointed to lifetime court appointments—and, sometimes, those chosen to staff the research agencies—have been opposed to civil rights policies and worked to limit or reverse them. Facing heavy barriers and with limited resources, many groups in the black and Latino communities have turned back to bootstrap efforts within segregated schools, since it seems futile to ask for systemic changes. During these long periods of reaction, researchers and the legal community often follow, rather than challenge, the political tides as research money and rewards flow to the dominant political issues. However, advocates and scholars with deeper understanding and a longer vision, who are willing to forego the rewards that come to those who embrace the government’s agenda, can make a difference in broadening the range of issues and strategies under discussion. That is what this book does; it is about critically examining and challenging a long, slow drift toward resegregation of American education aided and abetted by a transformed Supreme Court and the five presidential terms in which desegregation was disparaged and promises were made about equalizing schools through accountability systems and competition within a system of accepted segregation. This book features important voices, those of scholars who believe the policies are fundamentally mistaken, that resegregated schools are failing, and that there are alternatives that American educators, policy makers, and advocates must consider. Alternatives to Desegregation Often in the post–civil rights era, advocates argue that we should pursue other remedies, that desegregation is too hard, and that society is willing to solve problems in other ways. Looking at this period, however, one finds little...

Share