‘Resegregation’ Protesters

In March, the Wake County School Board in Wake Country, North Carolina, voted 5-4 to end a busing policy that sent kids to schools outside their neighborhoods, a scheme that was unpopular among parents.

According to media reports, discussions at the school board meeting were “heated” and “tense.” At least three men were arrested, and one was heard shouting, “Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Resegregation has got to go.” The local NAACP’s William Barber said busing opponents had “racist attitudes.” Making a mockery of real civil rights issues, Barber said the vote to keep children in their own neighborhoods is “morally wrong…legally wrong…economically wrong.”

As he uttered those ridiculous words, his face was likely straight. Allowing children to attend schools in their own neighborhoods is tantamount to Jim Crow, an injustice.

On Tuesday, the police arrested 19 protesters at a board meeting.

In a previous post about this matter, I offered the following:

I wonder what Oliver Brown [of Brown v. Board of Education], Linda Brown’s father, would have thought about “resegregation” hysteria. Linda had to walk six blocks to a bus stop to ride the bus to a black school a mile away, bypassing the white school closer to her house. The government said his child could not attend her neighborhood school because she was black. In 2010, the government is still shuffling the racial cards. And for what? Why would parents allow the government to experiment with their children?

I suppose it’s lost on “resegregation” protesters that the whole Brown revolution began after a father put his foot down and refused to accept that his children could not attend their neighborhood school, by government mandate, because they were black.

I’m not a shrink, and I don’t play one on TV, but I wonder what goes on in the brains of black liberals who vehemently protest choice and fear predominantly black schools. Funding can’t be the only concern. There is something about giving parents — all parents — a choice and allowing consequences to unfold that terrifies them. Most likely, school demographics will change once children are allowed to attend schools closer to home. But so what? Well, liberals may say, the “best” teachers will avoid predominantly black schools, and black children will get the shaft.

Let’s say that will happen. Is it enough to justify the government busing children across town? The results are predictable. Wake County parents were fed up with the assignment plan. Had the school board voted to keep the plan, parents likely would have started taking their children out of government schools. If that were the case, most of the schools may have ended up predominantly black or Hispanic anyway.

Is there a middle ground? Perhaps: Parents who wish to send their kids across town for diversity’s sake may continue to do so. Do liberal types fear most parents, regardless of race, won’t do so?

Addendum: A Facebook commenter said she lives in Wake County, and calls the busing plan a nightmare. Her neighborhood has been redistricted for “economic diversity” to five different elementary schools. She’s now homeschooling her children.