What the Harvard study suggests is that it is wrong for schools to reflect the racial demography of their respective communities.
Public schools are segregated in fact because Americans, by and large, choose freely to live in segregated communities. Not because they have to but because they want to. For example, middle and upper class African Americans, because of choice--not housing discrimination--dominate the Cascade section of southwest Atlanta. The number of whites in a given school declines because white families move to other areas. . . .
Why do community schools have to be integrated? The study notes that interracial exposure has positive implications for white socialization and minority academic performance. There is, unfortunately, no data to support this claim.
Do African Americans and Latinos need to be around white students in order to learn and perform well? African American and Latino teachers, administrators, and parents should be insulted at the idea that minority students need "exposure" to white kids and teachers in order to increase academic performance. As an African American, my parents had far more to do with my academic performance than my "exposure" to white kids.
Many brilliant African Americans and Latinos have been educated in racially isolated environments without negative academic consequences. In the past, barriers occurred when discrimination on the basis of race prevented educated minorities from making use of their education.
Are white kids somehow better socialized just because they have been exposed to African Americans and Latinos occupying the same space in a building? Again, there is no evidence at all to support the idea that "exposure" results in better socialization and changing of attitudes. Most of us get "exposed" to healthy food once a week in the grocery store but it does not change what we eat. . . .
If community public schools are open to admitting all students who live in the community, then there is no need to force integration by race or class. If there is no discrimination, nothing illegal occurring, then there is no need for government intervention.
It is not the responsibility of the government to determine where people should have lived by race. Nor is it the government's responsibility to determine where people should go to school by race. It is not the responsibility of the government to force people to integrate their social lives either.
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