Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:06:28.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

RACE, JUSTICE, AND DESEGREGATION1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2014

Derrick Darby  and
Argun Saatcioglu
Derrick Darby*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan
Argun Saatcioglu
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and (by courtesy) Department of Sociology, University of Kansas
*
Corresponding author: Professor Derrick Darby, University of Michigan, Department of Philosophy, 2215 Angell Hall, 435 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this essay we argue that the ideology of colorblind justice has made resisting the retreat from public school desegregation a hard sell in postracial America. We do not believe that desegregation is the silver bullet for solving all the problems with public education. Nor do we believe that it alone can close the racial achievement gap. Yet there is convincing evidence regarding the potential benefits of desegregation and evidence on its negative consequences is weak. Therefore we believe that it is a policy still worth pursuing. Our hope is that by casting light on the anatomy of colorblind justice and its limits we can contribute to ongoing efforts to ensure that desegregation remains in the conversation about how to address the unfinished business of racial justice.

Keywords

DesegregationEducationInequalityJusticeEgalitarianismPostracialism
Type
Race in a “Postracial” Epoch
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , Spring 2014 , pp. 87 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

553 Social Scientists (2006). Brief for 553 Social Scientists as Amici Curiae Supporting Respondents, Parents Involved and Meredith, 127 S. Ct. 2738 (Nos. 05–908, 05–915).Google Scholar
Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education (1969). 396 U.S. 1218.Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth S. (1999). What is the Point of Equality? Ethics, 109: 287–337.Google Scholar
Anderson, Elizabeth S. (2007). Fair Opportunity in Education: A Democratic Equality Perspective. Ethics, 117: 595–622.Google Scholar
Armor, David J. (1995). Forced Justice: School Desegregation and the Law. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, Sandy, Ma, Jennifer, and Payea, Kathleen (2010). Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society. New York: College Board.Google Scholar
Balkin, Jack M. (2001). What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said? New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Barry, Nicholas. (2006). Defending Luck Egalitarianism. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 23(1): 86–107.Google Scholar
Bell, Derrick A. (1989). And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Board of Education of Oklahoma v. Dowell (1991). 498 U.S. 237.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence D. (2011). Somewhere Between Jim Crow & Post-Racialism: Reflections on the Racial Divide in America Today. Daedalus, 140(2): 11–36.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, Kluegel, James R., and Smith, Ryan A. (1997). Laissez-Faire Racism: The Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler, Antiblack Ideology. In Tuch, Steven A. and Martin, Jack K. (Eds.), Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change, pp. 15–42. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence and Smith, Ryan A. (1998). From Jim Crow Racism to Laissez-Faire Racism: The Transformation of Racial Attitudes. In Katkin, Wendy F., Landsman, Ned, and Tyree, Andrea (Eds.), Beyond Pluralism: The Conception of Groups and Group Identities in America, pp. 182–220. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Boeger, John C. and Orfield, Gary (2005). School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back? Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braddock, Jomills H. II and Eitle, Tamela McNulty (2004). The Effects of School Desegregation. In Banks, James A. and McGee, Cherry A. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, pp. 828–843. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne and Duncan, Greg J. (1999). The Effects of Poverty on Children. The Future of Children, 7: 55–71.Google Scholar
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). 347 U.S. 483.Google Scholar
Buckley, Jack and Schneider, Mark (2009). Charter Schools: Hope or Hype? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Carey, Kevin (2004). The Funding Gap 2004: Many States Still Shortchange Low-Income and Minority Students. Washington, DC: The Education Trust.Google Scholar
Carl, Jim C. (2011). Freedom of Choice: Vouchers in American Education. Santa Barbara, CA: Prager.Google Scholar
Cho, Sumi. (2009). Post-Racialism. Iowa Law Review, 94: 1589–1649.Google Scholar
Chubb, John E. and Moe, Terry M. (1990). Politics, Markets and America’s Schools. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Clotfelter, Charles T. (2004). After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Gerald A. (1989). On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice. Ethics, 99: 906–944.Google Scholar
Cook, Thomas, Armor, David, Crain, Robert, Miller, Norman, Stephan, Walter, Walberg, Herbert, and Wortman, Paul (1984). School Desegregation and Black Achievement. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education. U.S. Department of Education.Google Scholar
Darby, Derrick. (2009a). Educational Inequality and the Science of Diversity in Grutter: A Lesson for the Reparations Debate in the Age of Obama. The University of Kansas Law Review, 57: 755–793.Google Scholar
Darby, Derrick. (2009b). Rights, Race, and Recognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Darity, William Jr.. (2011). Revisiting the Debate on Race and Culture—The New (Incorrect) Harvard/Washington Consensus. Du Bois Review, 8(2): 467–476.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. (1981). What is Equality? Part II: Equality of Resources. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 10: 283–345.Google Scholar
Entwisle, Dorris and Alexander, Karl (1992). Summer Setback: Race, Poverty, School Composition, and Mathematics Achievement in the First Two Years of School. American Sociological Review, 57: 72–84.Google Scholar
Farley, Reynolds, Richards, Toni, and Wurdock, Clarence (1980). School Desegregation and White Flight: An Investigation of Competing Models and their Discrepant Findings. Sociology of Education, 53: 123–139.Google Scholar
Farrelly, Colin. (2007). Justice in Ideal Theory: A Refutation. Political Studies, 55(4): 844–864.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Ronald F. (2007). Toward Excellence with Equity: An Emerging Vision for Closing the Achievement Gap. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, Erica. (2005). The Impact of School Segregation on Residential Housing Patterns: Mobile, AL and Charlotte, NC. In Boger, J. and Orfield, G. (Eds.), School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back?, pp. 164–184. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, Erica and Lee, Chungmei (2003). Charter Schools and Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(32): 1–48.Google Scholar
Freeman v. Pitts (1992). 503 U.S. 467.Google Scholar
Garcia, David R. (2008). The Impact of School Choice on Racial Segregation in Charter Schools. Educational Policy, 22: 805–829.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. (1999). Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, Brian P., Mike Timpane, P., Ross, Karen E., and Brewer, Dominic J. (2001). Rhetoric Versus Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.Google Scholar
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968). 391 U.S. 430.Google Scholar
Greene, Jay P. and Winters, Marcus (2005). Public High School Graduation and College Readiness: 1991−2002. New York: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.Google Scholar
Grissmer, David, Flanagan, Ann, and Williamson, Stephanie (1998). Why Did the Black-White Test Score Gap Narrow in the 1970s and 1980s? In Jencks, Christopher and Phillips, Meredith (Eds.), The Black-White Test Score Gap, pp. 182–226. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Hanushek, Eric. A., Kain, John F., and Rivkin, Steven G. (2009). New Evidence about Brown v. Board of Education: The Complex Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement. Journal of Labor Economics, 27: 349–383.Google Scholar
Haveman, Robert H. and Wolfe, Barbara L. (1984). Schooling and Economic Well-Being: The Role of Nonmarket Effects. The Journal of Human Resources, 19: 377–407.Google Scholar
Hedges, Larry V. and Nowell, Amy (1998). Black-White Test Score Convergence since 1965. In Jencks, Christopher and Phillips, Meredith (Eds.), The Black-White Test Score Gap, pp. 149–181. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Henig, Jeffrey R. (1994). Rethinking School Choice: Limits of the Market Metaphor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L. (1984). The New American Dilemma: Liberal Democracy and School Desegregation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L. (1995). Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L. and Skovronick, Nathan (2003). The American Dream and the Public Schools. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hyden, Dolores. (2004). Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820–2000. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Jackson, Kenneth T. (1985) The Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
James, David R. (1989). City Limits on Racial Equality: The Effects of City-Suburb Boundaries on Public-School Desegregation, 1968–1976. American Sociological Review, 54: 963–985.Google Scholar
Jencks, Christopher and Mayer, Susan E. (1990). The Social Consequences of Growing Up in a Poor Neighborhood. In Lynn, Laurence E. and McGeary, Michael G. H. (Eds.), Inner-City Poverty in the United States, pp. 111–186. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Jencks, Christopher and Phillips, Meredith (Eds.) (1998). The Black-White Test Score Gap. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Jencks, Christopher, Smith, Marshall, Acland, Henry, Jo Bane, Mary, Cohen, David, Gintis, Herbert, Heyns, Barbara, and Michelson, Stephen (1972). Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America. New York: Harper Press.Google Scholar
Joseph, Peniel E. (2010). Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama. New York: Basic Civitas Books.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael B. (1989). The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1 (1973). 413 U.S. 189.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald and Mendelberg, Tali (2000). Individualism Reconsidered: Principles and Prejudice in Contemporary American Opinion. In Sears, David O., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America, pp. 44–74. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Jaekyung (2002). Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gap Trends: Reversing the Progress toward Equity? Educational Researcher, 31: 3–12.Google Scholar
Losen, Daniel J. (2006). Graduation Rate Accountability under the NCLB Act and the Disparate Impact on Students of Color. In Orfield, Gary (Ed.), Dropouts in America: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis, pp. 41–56. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Losen, Daniel J. and Orfield, Gary (2002). Racial Inequity in Special Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug. (1982). Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Magnuson, Katherine and Waldfogel, Jane (Eds.) (2008). Steady Gains and Stalled Progress: Inequality and the Black-White Test Score Gap. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Maltz, Earl M. (2000). The Chief Justiceship of Warren Burger, 1969–1986. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S. and Denton, Nancy A. (1993). American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mickelson, Roslyn A. (2003). When are Racial Disparities in Education the Result of Racial Discrimination? A Social Science Perspective. Teachers College Record, 105: 1052–1086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mickelson, Roslyn A. (2008). Twenty-First Century Social Science on School Racial Diversity and Educational Outcomes. Ohio State Law Journal, 69: 1173–1227.Google Scholar
Milliken v. Bradley (1974). 418 U.S. 717.Google Scholar
Milliken v. Bradley II (1977). 433 U.S. 267.Google Scholar
Mills, Charles W. (2005). “Ideal Theory” as Ideology. Hypatia, 20(3): 165–184.Google Scholar
Missouri v. Jenkins (1995). 115 S. Ct. 2038.Google Scholar
Mitra, Aparna (2000). Cognitive Skills and Black-White Wages in the United States. Journal of Socio-Economics, 29: 389–401.Google Scholar
Murray, Charles (1984). Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
National Center for Educational Statistics (2001). Digest of Education Statistics: 2001. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.Google Scholar
National Center for Education Statistics (2010). Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in the Public Schools Perform on the National Assessment of Education Progress. Washington, DC: Institute for Education Sciences.Google Scholar
Nixon, Richard M. (1971). Public Papers of Presidents: Nixon, 1970. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Nozick, Robert (1974) Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Orfield, Gary (1969). The Reconstruction of Southern Education: The Schools and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. New York: Wiley-Interscience.Google Scholar
Orfield, Gary (1983). Public School Desegregation in the United States, 1968–1980. Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political Studies.Google Scholar
Orfield, Gary (1996). Plessy Parallels: Back to Traditional Assumptions. In Orfield, Gary and Eaton, Susan E. (Eds.), Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown v. Board of Education, pp. 23–51. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Orfield, Gary (2001). Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade of Resegregation. Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Orfield, Gary, Losen, Daniel, Wald, Joanna, and Sawanson, Christopher (2004). Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.Google Scholar
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007). 551 U.S. 701.Google Scholar
Phillips, Kristie, Rodosky, Robert M., Munoz, Marco, and Larsen, Elisabeth (2009). Integrated Schools, Integrated Futures? A Case Study of School Desegregation in Jefferson County, Kentucky. In Smrekar, Claire E. and Goldring, Ellen B. (Eds.), From the Courtroom to the Classroom: The Shifting Landscape of School Desegregation, pp. 19–47. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). 163 U.S. 537.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Renzulli, Linda (2005). Organizational Environments and the Emergence of Charter Schools in the United States. Sociology of Education, 78: 1–26.Google Scholar
Rossell, Christine H. (1990). The Carrot or the Stick for School Desegregation Policy. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Rossell, Christine H. (2002) The Effectiveness of Desegregation Plans. In Rossell, Christine H., Armor, David J., and Walberg, Herbert J. (Eds.), School Desegregation in the 21st Century, pp. 67–117. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Rossell, Christine H. and Hawley, Willis D. (1983). The Consequences of School Desegregation. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Richard. (2004). Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Rury, John L. and Hill, Shirley (2012). The African American Struggle for Secondary Schooling, 1940–1980: Closing the Graduation Gap. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Rury, John L. and Mirel, Jeffrey (1997). The Political Economy of Urban Education. Review of Research in Education, 22: 49–110.Google Scholar
Ryan, James E. (2007). The Supreme Court and Voluntary Integration. Harvard Law Review, 121: 131–157.Google Scholar
Saad, Lydia (2007) Black-White Educational Opportunities Seen Widely as Equal. Washington, D.C.: Gallup.Google Scholar
Saatcioglu, Argun (2010). Disentangling School- and Student-Level Effects of Desegregation and Resegregation on the Dropout Problem in Urban High Schools. Teachers College Record, 112: 1391–1442.Google Scholar
Saatcioglu, Argun and Carl, Jim C. (2011). The Discursive Turn in School Desegregation: National Patterns and a Case Analysis of Cleveland, 1973–1998. Social Science History, 35: 59–108.Google Scholar
Saatcioglu, Argun and Rury, John L. (2012). Education and the Changing Metropolitan Organization of Inequality: A Multilevel Analysis of Secondary Attainment in the United States, 1940–1980. Historical Methods, 45: 21–40.Google Scholar
Scheffler, Samuel. (2005). Choice, Circumstance, and the Value of Equality. Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, 4: 5–28.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., Henry, P. J., and Kosterman, Rick (2000). Egalitarian Values and Contemporary Racial Politics. In Sears, D. O., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America, pp. 75–117. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Semple, Richard B. (1968). Nixon Scores U.S. Method of Enforcing Integration. The New York Times, September 13, 1.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya. (2006). What Do We Want from a Theory of Justice? Journal of Philosophy, 103(5): 215–238.Google Scholar
Shiffrin, Seana V. (2004). Egalitarianism, Choice-Sensitivity, and Accommodation. In Jay Wallace, R., Pettit, Philip, Scheffler, Samuel, and Smith, Michael (Eds.), Reason and Value, pp. 270–302. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sitkoff, Harvard (1993). The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954–1992. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Skiba, Russell J., Simmons, Ada B., Ritter, Shana, Gibb, Ashley C., Karega Rausch, M., Cuadrado, Jason, and Chung, Choon-Geun (2008). Achieving Equity in Special Education: History, Status, and Current Challenges. Exceptional Children, 74: 264–288.Google Scholar
Smrekar, Claire E. and Goldring, Ellen B. (1999). School Choice in Urban America: Magnet Schools and the Pursuit of Equity. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M., Crosby, Gretchen C., and Howell, William G. (2000). The Politics of Race. In Sears, David O., Sidanius, Jim, and Bobo, Lawrence (Eds.), Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America, pp. 236–279. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sowell, Thomas. (1981a). Ethnic America: A History. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sowell, Thomas. (1981b). Markets and Minorities. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Steiner, Hillel (1998). Choice and Circumstance. In Mason, Andrew (Ed.), Ideals of Equality, pp. 95–111. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stern, Mark J. (1993). Poverty and Family Composition since 1940. In Katz, Michael B. (Ed.), The “Underclass” Debate: Views from History, pp. 220–253. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971). 402 U.S. 1.Google Scholar
Tan, Kok-Chor (2008). A Defense of Luck Egalitarianism. The Journal of Philosophy, 105(11): 665–690.Google Scholar
Trent, William T. (1997). Outcomes of School Desegregation. Journal of Negro Education, 66: 255–257.Google Scholar
U. S. Department of Education (2010). 29th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Volume 1.Washington, DC: Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs.Google Scholar
Wagner, Mary, Newman, Lynn, Cameto, Renèe, and Levine, Phyllis (2005). Changes Over Time in the Early Postschool Outcomes of Youth with Disabilities: A Report of Findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) and The National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2). Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.Google Scholar
Wells, Amy S., Holme, Jennifer J., Revilla, Anita T., and Atanda, Awo K. (2009). Both Sides Now: The Story of School Desegregation’s Graduates. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Franklin D. (1985). The Impact of School Desegregation Programs on White Public-School Enrollment, 1968–1976. Sociology of Education, 58: 137–153.Google Scholar
Wilson, William J. (1978). The Declining Significance of Race. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, William J. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, William J. (2009). More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar