Brown in the Balance
Students rally to protect affirmative action.
By Keith White, University of Virginia
Tuesday December 5, 2006
Thousands of students from across the nation rallied at the Supreme Court Monday, voicing their support for civil rights in America’s classrooms. The event, spearheaded by By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), sought to unify a diverse set of progressive voices in support of affirmative action and school integration on a day when the Supreme Court heard a challenge to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case. The event also comes after Michigan voters repudiated the state’s affirmative action programs in state universities, following the example of California and Washington.
The case, Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS) v. Seattle School District, has the justices deciding how far school districts can go to achieve diverse classrooms. PICS supporters argue that students should not be forced out of their neighborhood schools for the sole reason of diversity. Opponents fear that policy would effectively lead to re- segregated schools, undermining the court’s 1954 decision in Brown. The court must now mediate between two opposing principles: the value of diverse schools and concerns about students being judged solely by their race in educational decisions. Press accounts of the oral argument before the Court suggest that a court majority is leaning in favor of PICS, though to what extent will not be known for months.
BAMN National Spokesperson Shanta Driver told supporters that they represent a “new civil rights movement” and promised that “victory will be ours,” before leading the crowd to the Lincoln Memorial—the final stop in a rally that started at Howard University early in the morning.
The enthusiastic crowd cheered on Driver’s message, chanting, “Separate is unequal, unequal is unjust,” and “This racism has got to go.”
Matthew Taylor, a Howard University sophomore who said he was thrilled by the “absolutely great turnout” hoped the rally would remind people of the “problem of race in education that still exists.”
Nai Kalema, a student at George Washington University and member of her school’s NAACP chapter blamed “poor understanding of the systemic problems that blacks and other minorities face in education” for fueling the arguments against both school integration and affirmative action.
“Problems of race still exist,” Kalema said, emphasizing the need for affirmative action. “Look at the low rates of black students that are getting hired or in law school in California and other states that have removed affirmative action. While people may see one reality of being a person of color today, the numbers speak to something rather different.”
Many experts agree with Kalema. California, where Proposition 209 eliminated affirmative action in1996, has witnessed a steep decline in minority enrollment at the state’s top universities, particularly at the graduate and law school levels. Eliot Cose, a Newsweek contributing editor and author of Killing Affirmative Action, recently reported on California’s 10-year experience with Prop. 209, lamenting the decrease of minority owned businesses and noting the failure of Prop. 209 to foster economic diversity—the supposed stand-in for racial diversity—on California’s public college campuses.
“Affirmative action definitely needs to exist,” said Lolly Berger, a Tufts University student and member of Education Action—an organization promoting education services in war-engulfed countries. “While there are pros and cons to affirmative action,” Berger said, “[it is] necessary for people to remember that there is educational inequality throughout our nation.”
The “pros and cons” of affirmative action were discussed at length by a group of Morehouse College students who traveled from Georgia to attend the rally. Students William A. Hamick and Richardo Saxon defended the need for race-conscious programs such as affirmative action, pointing to America’s legacy of slavery.
“Why is it such a shock that African Americans need this leg up?” asked Hamick. “You don’t go from slavery to educated overnight.”
“Groups have to come together, form communities, and unite to defend these policies, our civil rights,” Saxon said. “We have fought too long and too hard for them to be taken away.”
Hamick also saw affirmative action as a “counterbalance to legacy,” criticizing school admission policies that favor the children of past students, noting that “these students are historically white.”
Tony C. Anderson, fellow Morehouse student and student body vice president, portrayed affirmative action more in terms of economics, not race.
“The reality is that affirmative action is not completely understood. It is a positive action to help economically disadvantaged groups. Too many see affirmative action as a race issue, but it’s an economic issue. Four-hundred years of indentured servitude cannot be made up in 40 years. Affirmative action works to bring social mobility to all Americans.”
But Hamick said, “You can’t fight racism by pretending it doesn’t exist. Race still matters today.”
Such discussions highlight the divides among young progressives over the best way to discuss affirmative action today, especially in light of the recent anti-affirmative action ballot initiative victory in Michigan.
While the rally did not end that debate, it did succeed in giving a new generation a taste of activism.
For Gwen Withrow, a high school senior from California, the rally—her first—cemented her commitment toward bringing about progressive change. “Our generation must be active when it comes to civil rights,” Withrow argued. “While many may see us as passive, I came here to show my active support for these programs.”
Photos by Madhuri Singh
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Comments
I would be a progressive if it were not for affirmative action.
I know all the arguments, but you don’t judge some based on race for any reason—period. I hope progressives wake up to this soon, I really want to support you guys [on everything else].
— Mike - Dec 5, 08:38 PM - #Gwen Withrow doesn’t sound terribly smart. She’s not thinking, merely parroting.
If the problem is that schools simply admitting kids meritocratically without regard to skin color is leading to ‘segregated’ schools, then fix the root problems.
Judging people based on their race is not the answer.
— Joe - Dec 6, 04:53 AM - #Thank you so much to the students who participated in this rally. I wasn’t able to come, but I’m so glad that many voices were heard and that there were so many different races represented.
Mike, you say “you don’t judge someone based on race” but you don’t walk in the skin of discrimination every day. People of color and other nationalities are judged every day. And if you don’t think so, then it means you either aren’t listening or you aren’t involved in very diverse communities.
This isn’t an issue that only affects minority groups — it affects all of us who are concerned about our classmates, our students, and life for our kids. I’m a white woman, and I’m proud that my University was represented at the rally.
— Jen - Dec 6, 08:45 PM - #Jen—-
I don’t think you got the point I was making.
“you don’t judge some based on race for any reason”This does not mean that the sad reality of discrimination does not exist, but instead reflects what is moral. In other words, it is immoral to judge someone based on race.
This does mean that there are not immoral people, there are—-But once you accept the idea that passing judgement on someone based on race is immoral you either must either accept that Affirmative action is equally wrong or justify it in you mind with some complex and convoluted argument that your judgement of someone based on race is good, but someone else’s is bad.
P.S. Please do not make the assumption that I am either white or have been the victim of racism. I think I’m owed an apology on this.
— Mike - Dec 7, 12:50 AM - #To Mike and Joe,
— Jane - Dec 7, 09:15 PM - #I can see your reasons for being against affirmative action. Presuming that Joe, like Mike, recognizes the “sad reality of discrimination”—I’m wondering what you two propose to end racial discrimination and resulting material divide. Doing nothing is not going to make this racial discrimination disappear.
The honest answer is that I don’t know. But that does not change what the answer isn’t.
— Mike - Dec 7, 09:46 PM - #Discrimination in America is not merely a case of White People versus everyone else – it takes a plethora of forms. America is a society where whether you face discrimination or not has much more to do with your personal situation than with the color of your skin – we are not a society with a racial heirarchy.
If you want to end the material divide, give affirmative action to poor kids. Plain and simple. If you have two equally poor kids and you only care about helping the one whose skin is a certain color, that’s the textbook definition of racism.
— Joe - Dec 8, 02:58 AM - #Gwen sounds quite smart to me. And she was there, And that’s admirable!
— plotinus - Dec 8, 09:37 AM - #is it interstesting that pople want deversty. they say that we need it. but when there kids are efficeted they sing a different tune. heres any idea lets actualy fund schols not just the rich ones but the one in the poor areas of town
— katherine - Dec 8, 10:46 AM - #this argument is sound, but the reality is not completely told. the organization “Parents Involved in Community Schools” should really be called “coalition of white parents that do not want their children to go to a school that is located in an impoverished section of the city”. if the good high schools in seattle were located closer to the poorer areas, do you think they would be arguing for community schools? i highly doubt it. why dont these dedicated parents get involved in fighting for better educational funding for all inner city schools so that all students can benefit? it is a misunderstood sociological and economic problem that allows the confusion surrounding affirmative action to continue and get worse.
— Kati - Dec 9, 06:57 PM - #The reason that the majority of Americans aren’t liberals is because they don’t want a socially engineered society. Liberals do. Racism is bad, they say, then they turn around and support racism.
Very nice.
Forcing white kids to go to an inner city school and vise versa isn’t going to solve the white-black disparity. This girl at issue has to get up a five in the morning then gets home at nine just so she can participate in a liberals wet dream of racism and a socially engineered society.
Even if this case fails (which would be a tragedy and a stab in the back of the values of the United States), it won’t affect diversity. The rich white parents are simply going to say ‘I don’t want my daughter going to a gang and crack infested high school that’s a hundred miles away’ and then take her out of public education and put her in a private school.
— joe - Dec 14, 05:55 PM - #