Voodoo Dolls and Oratory

Judges as social engineers

[Reprinted from Issues & Views Summer 1997]

There is a growing tide of resentment against judges who clearly overstep their bounds in attempts to do that which they were never legally empowered to do, that is, act as social engineers instead of interpreters of law. These "activist" judges think nothing of stripping one group of citizens of their civil liberties, in order to grant special rights to another group--just because it seems like the popular thing to do.

Until recently, even the strongest critics of this trend avoided pointing to the court decision that did the most to establish a model for these renegade judges to follow--the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Because race is such a hot button issue, outside of law classrooms few were willing to publicly discuss the merits of this case. Even an astute jurist like Robert Bork, who one might expect to lead the criticism against this decision, offers only the conventional insights about Brown, which claim that the decision was "morally right" but "legally wrong." But was it even morally right?

Put aside the fact that Brown was not argued on constitutional grounds (which is mighty weird in itself); put aside the fact that the issue of school desegregation was a matter for legislatures, not courts; and put aside the decision's outrageous denial of freedom of association. Brown's greatest damage was that done to the internal structures of black communities around the country. One could fairly ask if the disruptive effects of forced busing (a major consequence of Brown) exacerbated other social ills that resulted in setting back black progress, not furthering it.

From the deceptive prattle of psychologist Kenneth Clark to the grandstanding oratory of Thurgood Marshall, Brown was a concession to the integrationist fever of black elites, and had nothing to do with the desires of ordinary blacks. "Selected intellectuals," is what economist Thomas Sowell calls Clark and those who helped him devise his voodoo "doll theory." Sowell calls the acceptance by the Supreme Court of this unprovable sociological thesis "a regrettable precedent." In "Coming Clean About Brown," in the City Journal, Richard Morgan correctly claims, "Brown was breathtaking elitism in the name of 'rights.'" And in an excellent book on the subject, The New Color Line by Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence Stratton, the authors claim that out of Brown has come "the destruction of the institutions of a liberal society."

For the black masses, the consequences of Brown were stark. As schools were shut down and forced busing became the norm for black children, black teachers and principals were demoted or fired. Most often they were fired, since white schools took precedence over black ones. The local school that often was the center of cultural and social activities no longer played that role. Children were bused miles out of the reach of parents, who now felt like strangers in their children's new schools and no longer had any influence in them.

As was the case at Williston High School (Wilmington, NC), it was common for the town's male residents to form "booster clubs," so they could pool resources and skills to pay for athletic equipment or help with needed school repairs. Concern for the welfare of the local school often brought townspeople together. Williston is a textbook case of how the town's black elites imposed their will on the majority of residents. When it was clear that integration would mean the closing of their high school, black parents vainly sought compromises, in order to prevent the inevitable. About the school's closing, years later, an alumnus wrote, "Twenty-five years ago, a death occurred in our family."

Another alumnus, describing his busing experience, remembered "being snatched from the comfort of our own environment . . . sent into an unknown world by the powers who had made decisions behind closed doors." Still another alumnus claims, "We lost the bond between school, parents and teachers . . . in the way to which we were accustomed." And the ultimate lament, "Our communities have never been the same."

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