BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
The Ills of Integration
October 31st, 2007
A while back a message board discussion started about the “negative aspects of integration and the civil rights movement”.
A commenter that goes by the user handle dyvinesweetness said
My biggest gripe with integration is that it reinforces the idea that we need to have what white people have and be involved in white events/venues/etc. Instead of reinforcing the idea that we need to have our own shit and embrace the good of our culture and build on it.
(Regarding schools) I think the problem was we realized that “separate but equal” wasn’t accurate. Yet we chose to take issue with separate instead of equal. Had we focused more on making black schools better instead of telling little black kids that they needed to go to white schools, we might have seen a lot of different changes now.
To the point about the schools, my friend was just telling me the other day about how after the Brown V. Board of Education decision that Mississippi went to Medger Evers (latter slain Mississippi NAACP President) and offered him 30 million for black schools, and he said no deal, he wanted integration.
dyvinesweetness further went on to say “…assimilation requires losing your culture for the sake of the dominant culture. Black people will never be able to assimilate the way Jews, Irish, etc have so it’s a losing battle (as gal said). AND it’s ridiculous to even look at losing your heritage and culture as a positive thing.”
I added that, “Integration calls for Black people to give up all of whom we are - our heritage, culture, style, etc. and become imitations of white folk with dark skin. They’re not required to do anything but “tolerate” us.
I’ve always said that being around white people (ie being able to go to school with them) is no fucking prize. Most school funding is still based on property tax, and most blacks, particularly those without resources still go to schools in low property tax areas; leaving them with unequal funding, unequal access to education and hence, unequal opportunity.”
Another commenter, mizcheyenne,: said, “Another issue is that the Civil Rights Model dominates people’s perceptions of seeking equality, but there are people who want sovereignty rather than inclusion.”
Exactly, sovereignty and self-determination are my position. Hugging up on white folks neck does not enrich my life. Further, I don’t believe they will ever equally involve our culture, heritage and interest (certainly not in my life time) so we should have our own institutions and providence for our own benefit.
Simply tolerating me is not acceptable.
Malcolm X noted that the goal should be Human Rights not Civil rights, as civil rights are tied simply to a particular political system and what rights it deems you ought to have.
Ben Ammi asks in his book God the Black Man, and Truth, when have you ever known a people involved in revolution to be oppressed by a system, to call it an evil corrupt system, just to turn around and ask to join that system? [paraphrase, I haven’t read the book in like 6 years]
I’m going to do at least a 2 part series. We’ve identified the issue here, and will investigate some case study examples to illuminated it next.
What do you think about this subject? Was integration, per se, really the best thing for us? Or maybe was there a better way to do it?
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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This is a very interesting topic, and one that I have been thinking about more and more recently in regards to the schooling of my son who will be school-age in a few years.
I am a (proud) product of private schools. I say that because I think that there is a tendency to think of private = white, but in my case, I attended both Black and white (some of which were predominately WASP and others predominately Jewish). I totally agree with the notion that we as a people should be seeking sovereignty over integration because White folks don’t have their own shit together, so why should we attempt to follow them? However, as a mother and a product of some of these schools which provided me with an education that really superceeded any of my Black counterparts when I began at Xavier University in Louisiana 10 years ago, I think the choice of education really is two-fold:
1) Are my children receiving the best education possible (not available)?
2) Is the school sensitive to the cultural needs of my child(ren)?
I have been to predominately Black schools where #2 superceeds #1, and white schools where #1 superceeds #2. I am aware of a school in LA, The Marcus Garvey School, which integrates (sorry for the pun) both of the above, but then the question is, how inclusive is this school of other cultures since we do not live in a cultural vacuum of only our own. I think in a place like LA where Afrocentricity is really not valued and the “paper bag test” is still very relevant to alot of people, I think exposing a child to as much about their culture as possible is a necessity. On the East Coast, I think the argument can be made that there is such a larger population of Black folks that Black Pride and its mark it makes on society as a whole really is not as large of an issue as it is in LA. I can’t really comment on any other sections of the country because I’m not too familiar with the cultural influences and its impact of education.
The other option is to say the hell with everybody and to home school your children as many Black folks have now opted to do:
www.aahnet.org/
If it really was seperate but equal I believe things wouold have been better. Think about
living in an all black town with all black schools and shop owners and doctors and whatever.
Then there would be no need for Affirmative Action. The first post in my opionion is 100% correct.
Ill Mami,
Home schooling is a micro option for those in a position to wing it, but not an option for most; or not such a viable one even for many of those who do have it as an option.
So looking at it from a macro level, I think some options include, the largest and most financially solvent institution the black community stepping up and having a lot more Black churches provide school. There are four sister churches with my church who support a 1 through 8th grade school, and they get an excellent education. They easily outscore the public schools.
Next, charter schools, not in the mold of the voucher system but small community schools where the parents control the curriculum. Basically opting out of the top down (school board of a few elected people deciding everything) public schools system, and forming a bottom up (neighborhoods and parents) publicly funded system where the people invested in that community or school decide the curriculum and standards of their small learning center in their community.
The third, is a type of home schooling that works like day care. Maybe one person schools 5 -8 children in their home and you pay for it like day care. It would still be too expensive for many, but more financially possible for people who can’t just stay home themselves and do the schooling, and cheaper than private school at an actual school.
I think a combination of all three is quite viable.
How about if your kid goes to an inner city public school, be prepared to
come home afterwork and spend at least one hour with the kid to re-inforce or
teach the proper things. You only have one chance to get it right with your kids.
Its not an easy task after working all day but then again things that are worth it are never
easy.
The school associated with a church is such a simple idea that I never really thought of until now. My very first school (now that I remember) was an all-Black school adjacent to a Church that did not push any religious agenda onto the students. You are correct that home schooling is a micro option for us, but it can be done, especially with community support. The African-American Homeschooling Network website that is in my first post has a link to them. The Marcus Garvey School that I mentioned is doing great work with their students and have far surpasses public, some private schools, and have had 8th graders taking college-level courses. The key is to get these kids exposed early so that learning at this level is the norm, not the exception. If this were the case, the whole “talking white” argument would become defunct. I hope this can happen in my lifetime.
My son went to an inner city school through 3rd grade…during his 3rd grade year, I began to notice that he simply was being set up for failure. My options were to either put him in private school or move to a better school district…I chose to move to a better area, with better schools. Sure, he goes to a predominately white school that does very little during Black History Month, but…they are not setting him up for failure. They are tuned into his education, caring whether or not he succeeds…their goals are the same as mine as far as his education are concerned: to make sure that he gets the best possible…which he does.
So I guess I ride the fence…I don’t bow down to the white man, but when it comes to teaching my child, in this situation they offered a better system, a better curriculum, a better choice…there is no way that I would have allowed my son to continue to be put through the angst of facing failure when there were other choices. I am concerned about his being exposed to his culture; but now that is my responsibility. So we spend a great deal of time, studying black culture, talking about racial issues, and I introduce him to whatever I can about those that have come before us…I think that is one area that we as parents can step up…don’t leave it all up to school to teach your kids. School doesn’t end at 4:00…
I have no knowledge as to whether Medger Evers was offered 30 million for Black schools, therefore I cannot comment on that statement. However, I can say I find it difficult to believe that Evers would be approached with such a proposal, in that he actually utilized the Brown v. Board of Education decision to further his own educational pursuits. Evers applied to the University of Mississippi Law School and was denied entrance. Even though the Supreme Court ruling was in place, the school chose not to comply with the court’s decision. Evers actually began his activist days after he returned home from the war and found that even after serving his country, he was still not considered equal to Whites. This was reaffirmed when he and five fellow veterans were run off from a gas station with a shotgun because they wanted to use the restroom. The first organization which he became affiliated with was RCNL (Regional Council of Negro Leadership), an organization that focused on civil rights and pro self-help for Blacks. He and a group of other Blacks affiliated with the organization, boycotted service stations which would not let Blacks use their restrooms. Their slogan was Do not buy gas from stations that do not let you use the restrooms. In 1962, after becoming the first Black field officer in the Mississippi office of the NAACP, he and other Blacks forced the University of MS Law School to desegregate to enroll James Meredith in 1962. He also rallied against the inability of Blacks to vote and boycotted merchants who would not serve Blacks.
More importantly, Evers used the Supreme Court ruling Brown v Board of Education, because the ruling specifically stated that segregation was unconstitutional. It was always realized that the separate but equal idea was a falicy. Blacks were better off being separate, however, the government was not going to invest any monies in the Black neighborhoods to make them equal, much as it does not today. Black federally funded schools did not have suitable buildings, qualified teachers, books and materials to teach the children. Human and civil rights activism has always been about equal, not desegregation. It was about having the same rights.
What we must realize is that Whites did not want Blacks to be educated or to promote self-help. Segregation was another form of slavery, where Whites could still control what Blacks could and could not accomplish in this country. This is evidenced by Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s remarks in part where he said that whereas it might be wrong for the Majority to deprive the Minority of constitutional rights, in the long run, the Majority will determine what the constitutinal rights of the Minorities are. Rehnquist made this assertion while he was still a law clerk for Justice Robert H. W. Jackson. He has maintained to this day that he wrote this decision because he was voicing the opinions of Justice Jackson. When all of the civil rights laws and amendments were constructed, equality, not separatism was written into law.
I, as many Blacks feel that we would have achieved much more has we remained separate, however, we need to understand that the American government could not let separtism succeed. If we had remained separate, and achieved our requests of equality, then there would no longer be any control over the Black community.
We need to look back into our history to confirm that the above is true. Dr. King, Medger Evers, Malcolm X and countless others were assasinated. There are others, but what these men has in common was that they could organize and mobilize the Black community. These actions could not and would not be permitted in America for our race. The adage Divide and Conquer are the buzz words of today’s racist Whites. They are continuing these efforts with drugs, imprisonment of Black men, substandard educational and housing facilities and continued denial for the right to realize our heritage and history. I have stated many times, education is power. Assimilation was the worse thing that Blacks in this country could have ever done. For one, we will never be permitted to truly assimilate, and actually, why would we want to? When we has organizations like the Black Panthers, SNCC, SCLC (in earlier years), Nation of Islam, Operation Move and others, America considered them to be a threat to national security. America sought out and did destroy most of these organizations under the guise that they were radical and harmful to the American people. If we study our true history, we will find these groups wanted to separate our communities from White control. America could not let this happen.
This is why it is so important that we educate our children, because our fight continues as long as we are under white control. We can readily see the results of their so-called domination today. The White institution of racism has wreaked havoc on our families, our educational systems, our neighborhoods, indeed our very lives. In their own minds, they are superior, but superior to whom? America is despised around the world, this oountry wants to condemn other peoples and nations about their lack of human rights, while it does not afford these same rights to its’ own Black and Brown citizens. I think that all activists knew that assimilation was not the right road to take, however, it was a road we had to travel at the time to get to a point where we could be self-sufficient. I do not think any of us want to be anywhere where we are tolerated. What racist Whites need to understand is that if anyone is exhibiting tolerance, it is truly the Black community. What we have to do now, is learn to tolerate each other. I think Philadelphia has taken a step in that direction. Our communities around the U.S. need to take heed. The White media jumped all over the fact that over 400 deaths has occurred in that city, already this year. When the call for 10,000 Black men was sent out, the White media did not respond because 10,000 Black men came out. This was not the intent. The media would have been there if very few Black men had shown up. Then the bigots of America could pat themselves on the back and say I told you so. The media instead sent their Black journalists out to cover the meeting. How ironic. Once again, you Blacks are trying to organize. When the march on Jena occurred, how much media coverage did it get. We watched the Duke students get over a year of coverage. Why do you think every chance they get, they bring up the fact that Barker, the White student, was beaten unconscious by 6 Black students? Whey do you think they tried to insinuate that the hanging of the nooses was just a childish prank and had absolutely nothing to do with the beating? Racist Whites will and have done any and everything to prevent unity and organization in the Black community. It is up to us to continue down a path to freedom. We have a struggle ahead of us. We must prepare our children because they are our future. If we don’t want to go to their schools, then that is something we should be rallying around. We need better schools, teachers and educational services. More importantly, we have to teach our children, stay out of the jails, don’t have children before they are ready and educate themselves to the hilt. They are going to need it. The struggle continues.
Scootermonk,
Seperate but equal would be great. We need to be able to control the cirriculum in our own communities with equal funding per student.
I’ve often discussed with my husband our decision to move our children to a predominately white community with a superior school system. I felt we had no choice but to put their education first. Unfortunately the schools in the black neighborhoods were subpar and riddled with violence and drugs. It was a rude awakening once we moved and our family was the only black family on the street, my kids the only blacks on the bus at times. They were like a fly in the rice in classes with not another black person in sight, except of course the lonely custodian. My kids have been called nigger more times that I’d like to remember, I practically lived at the school to combat racist teachers, students, etc., low expectations, you name it we’ve dealt with it. It has not been an easy journey. As far as their cultural teaching, we have had to be responsible for that. We belong to a black church and I constantly talk to my children about racial issues.
Just because integration has not worked as well as we hoped does not mean it was a bad idea. It seems to me that the problems with integration are due to poor execution and not the idea itself. The statement that “separate but equal is inherently unequal” is true. Separate but superior would also be inherently unequal. I don’t know the answers to immediate problems but it seems that resegregation (on a large scale, anyway) is admitting the lunatics were right. I make this comment knowing full well that it is easy to be brave from a safe distance.
old white guy ,
Nah, it wouldn’t be admitting they were right. They wanted separation based on a claim of superiority. We want separation based on guarding our self-interest, seeing that the majority has refused to look out for our interest and to share power and control because of still harboring feelings of superiority or just disregard.
A 40 year experiment has been a resound failure. Any notion that we shouldn’t change course is more loony than the notion that we should stay the course in Iraq. As the saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
You might be a nice open-minded guy as an individual, but your race in this county has clearly shown that as a collective, they’re not willing to equally involve us, and are not concerned about what’s best for us.
I am trying to hang on to an ideal which probably never will exist in reality. The ideal that every person is entitled to live their own life without interference from others so long as that person does not interfere with others. And the derivative ideal that society is best served when every individual has the opportunity to be the best they can be.
But you are right about the world as it does exist and certainly correct about sticking with a strategy that has not worked.
History clearly shows that white males are not concerned with anyone’s welfare other that their own. We have mistreated African-Americans, women of all descriptions, Native Americans, Brown people, and homosexuals with predictable consistency. And we (white people) are too dumb to realize that with such mistreatment we rob ourselves of the contributions that individuals from each of those groups could have made.
Exasperating!
As a USA white woman (honestly, what can one do?, I very much understand the arguments here. I respect and honor them. But from my personal p.o.v., this country desperately needs black and white integration. American white people can only become whole human beings by embracing the African-American culture–and yes, recognizing the terrible evil we’ve committed and continue to commit in this society.
Cruel and disgusting as we may be, our ancestors are responsible for a good deal of the American half of African-American. The fact that the African-American culture has contributed so much joy and offered up such a profound celebration of life to this nation, despite slavery, its legacy, and the appalling, apparently unending indecencies which we so far very obviously have not overcome is the only miracle I know.
“Further, I don’t believe they will ever equally involve our culture, heritage and interest (certainly not in my life time) so we should have our own institutions and providence for our own benefit.
Simply tolerating me is not acceptable.”
Amen Yobachi. Well put.
The Portland model has been introduced to ensure there are black-oriented studies on the agenda of ’some’ schools, but it really feels like an uphill battle.
Like any other culture we need to return to schooling our children (even if for now we have Saturday programs to supplement the painted over information in public schools…or afterschool programs to get the momentum going). It is also for us to reclaim and pledge to maintain ownership our commodities. The tragedy of BET, Essence and other commodities that are now white owned should not be repeated.
Our culture is sacred. We have to protect it.
I touched on this a little for the post on Protecting Black women and their families today over at UU.
We can pool our money and hire security for our neighborhoods. Other cultures have done it without catching problems from ‘the man’. We also need to be making sure we’re introducing and lobbying for bills that affect the interests of our communities because other cultures for damn sure are not going to do anything but make things look nice on the surface…if they bother to go that far.
Great post.
Kathleen, I see where you’re coming from, thankyou for your honesty and for embracing the realities that we face as cultures with a very difficult history.
Integration can be a positive thing when it comes to tolerating differences, but it has to be done carefully, and I believe there need to be better choices for the education of people of color.
I wouldn’t claim to have all the answers, but something has to be done about the direction things have taken.
PurpleZoe,
They have the black studies option in some schools here in nashville too, as an elective. But it shouldn’t be an option and it shouldn’t be one class. Why is our existence not an integral part of regular history classes, and our contributions noted in science class and our authors read in literature class.
It needs to be comprehensive, because our kids need a comprehensive view of themselves to have a proper psychological view of themselves and hence strong racial self-esteem.
I agree with the supplemental programs of our own. It’s a must. The fact that we haven’t had such on a broad scale for the last 35 years is a tragedy of our own making that we can’t blame white people for. We’ve got a thousand churches in every city, so we’ve always got a place to hold them.
Tolerance, I have been reassessing the value of this word. Tolerance in no way means acceptance. We need to accept our differences not tolerate them. This issue is quite controversial but it is absolutely necessary to consider and debate. This post brings to mind the Bob Marley song “You can’t blame the youth.” The history taught in school continually avoids the reality of the past. We celebrate Columbus day without a thought to the widespread murder of native peoples. We try to condense the achievement and contributions of the black community into black history month. It is essential that EVERYONE know the truth, that is the only way we can move forward collectively. Public education separates us. Intellectuals attack revisionist historians for degrading the false pride we “should” have about our country. We need to teach truth and acceptance. All humans are the same. You are me. All humans develop within a certain culture which plays a major part of our individual identity.
Be well.
Danielle - “Intellectuals attack revisionist historians for degrading the false pride we “should” have about our country. We need to teach truth and acceptance. All humans are the same. You are me.”
Very true. This Amero-centric egotism very much gets in the way of any real education and cross cultural reconciliation. We really can’t reconcile with people who won’t admit the truth so it can be reconciled and dealt with.
I agree with Danielle on the “you are me” concept.
I strongly disagree with the commentary that blacks in this nation need to set up their own separate but equal system. To do so is akin to advocating for a country within a country.
The progress is slow. But it is coming. Black History Month is not exactly progress as too many educators fail to carry through during the rest of the year.
Integration has done one great thing for black children: it has given white and other kids an opportunity to get to know black kids as human beings instead of the boogeyman critters that Jim Crowists portrayed them prior to Brown v.
Some of the name-calling is still there. But when wasn’t it? The big difference now, as I see it, is that people are not afraid to confront the name-callers. People across the board are standing up for what’s right instead of doing things based on color, creed or race.
Sure, there are the idiots and jackasses. Just look at the persistent comments in my comments section whenever I blog about Jena. I refuse to believe those types remain in the majority.
There are areas of this country, Jena for instance, where much much more work needs to be done. But progress is being made.
Total integration, I’m afraid, will never occur. It’s not a jaded vision, it’s the reality of living in the midst of Italians and Irish and Germans and Greeks who all think they are superior to each other. I’ve noticed the same sort of attitude between Kenyans and Ethiopians and Nigerians.
And even then, County Corkians think they are superior to anyone from Belfast. I’ve run with Kenyans from different tribal regions who refuse to talk to each other. And I know Angelinos who do nothing with each other simply based on neighborhood.
It’s not just a white-black condition.
Integration is better than separation. Separation breeds ignorance. And it’s the ignorance of each other than remains our worst enemy.
peace. out.
meow.
“To do so is akin to advocating for a country within a country.”
You say that as if it’s a bad thing. The status quo doesn’t benefit us. This isn’t the great melting pot as advertised. It’s the half assimilated, equality on paper but not so much in reality, we’ll accept you if you become just like us and give up your identity pot.
“The progress is slow. But it is coming.”
So we’re supposed to wait? Why? Why should we have to wait one minute? If I calculated it correctly, it’s been about 204 million minutes since the first Africans were brought here as slaves in 1619, times up. What, we’re supposed to wait another 388 years?
“Total integration, I’m afraid, will never occur.”
We’ll exactly. So you make our point. So I don’t understand what you’re saying. They’ll never be full integration, so we should just except the short end of the stick forever and just be happy that it’s better than it was?
You’re analogy doesn’t apply to America. Different ethnic backgrounds of white Americans might have ethnocentric pride, but it doesn’t bleed over into the body politic. They intermarry left and right, most of them have mixed ethnic heritage at this point anyway, and their ethnic heritage doesn’t override their white American identity. Nobody knows if you’re a Greek or an Italian around here unlest you tell them. You’re just a white guy. They’re not subject school funding based on economics which are tied to a legacy of financial depravity based on race; nor are they treated differently in school because of the color of their skin. So it’s not a relevant analogy. They can think what they want about one another, but in the end the system doesn’t deprive them.
I for one have never asked that white people love us. Just make you’re wrong, right, so we can all go forward on a level playing field and then get out of our way and let us live. All I want is equal consideration and respect; you don’t have to love us.
love?
what’s love got to do with it
got to do with it
(slaps self upside the head)
I recall listening to a speech by a guy named Charles Taylor along time ago near Bentley College outside of Boston. He didn’t believe in integration, either. He said a ton of things, most of which I do not remember. But that integration thing has stayed in my mind - in great part because that comment came from someone who was not an American.
Little did anyone suspect what he was planning. Less than a year after listening to him, I was reading about him in the newspapers. I discovered in those stories that he was from Liberia - a place in western Africa set up by racial separatists nearly 150 years ago as the solution to America’s slave problem.
Charles Taylor, as many now know, hijacked the government of Liberia, caused massive destruction, was one of the driving forces behind blood diamonds and caused the deaths of 10’s of thousands of people.
South Africa tried their own version of separate but equal. Their own version, which wasn’t either, came crumbling down. That we both know.
Separation within a land simply does not work.
People simply do not always get along. Doesn’t matter if they are black, white, ethnicists, moralists, dickless cheneys, whatevers.
People do not always agree on every single point. Some people are simply disagreeable. Highly disagreeable. They don’t respect us or ours and take what they want when they want and how they want. Sometimes they ignore us, other times they downright diss us and sometimes they might even be friendly.
But there are a ton of really wonderful and interesting people on this planet - many of them right here in our back yards. Very few of them look the same. Even fewer have the same likes or dislikes or handshakes or personalities.
There is not black culture, white culture, chinese culture, etc. etc., no matter how much one group says there is. Italian culture is not the same as Irish culture. Roman culture isnt the same as Tuscan culture. Nor is Nigerian culture the same as Ethiopian culture. Hell, nigerian culture isnt even the same as Nigerian culture.
The Italians are not the same as the Irish. Do they intermarry? Absolutely. But an Irish Catholic mass is not the same as an Italian Catholic mass which is even more different than an Canadian Catholic mass.
See what I’m getting at here?
If we continually focus on our differences, how can we possibly work on those areas in which we are in agreement or alike? If we are moving backwards, how can we possibly move forward?
There are too many important things going on where we as a group of like-minded individuals need to be working together so that the assholes don’t get the upper hand on us. We don’t need to agree on each and every thing. We don’t even need to listen to the same music or like the same actresses. And we sure as hell don’t need to continue to separate ourselves based on the color of our skin, heritage, religion or education. I am too young to have lived the 1950’s. And I sure as hell don’t want to live them now.
peace and out.
Your argument is false because your premise is false, as you ridiculously called Apartheid separate but equal. There was nothing equal about it, it was the exploitation and suppression of the many by the few; they never tried for it to be equal.
Many countries the world over have ethnic self-determination, and it works just fine. It was the solution to the Bosnian crisis and has been working for 12 years when integration led to genocide. Also, we can see how great integration is working in Iraq, leading the likes of Senator and Presidential candidate Joe Biden to call for patrician. I guarantee you that the Kurds are loving their nation with in a nation as opposed to the integration under Sunni rule that they had the last 30 years. Seperation is working perfectly fine for them.
It’s not an if; we do. More importantly, the people who control public policy and funding do. And your idealism does nothing for our lives. As the Morgan Freeman’s character, Joe Clark, says in the movie Lean On Me, “we’re being crucified by a system that’s turning Blacks into a permanent underclass…missionarry zeal about Mozart has nothing to do with our problem. What good is Mozart going to do a bunch of kids who can’t go out in a get a job?
And I ask what the hell good does meeting “a ton of really wonderful and interesting people” do for a race being railroaded into special ed; cast aside before puberty as incorrigible, unable to learn and not worth the time; hit with overly aggressive discipline because the people in charge think they’re natural born savages anyway; and criminalized within the school system to the point where 5 year old black girls have the police called on them and charged with FELONIES for acting out?
Your idealism does my people no good. As I’ve said before in the thread, doing the same thing and expecting different results is insanity. The 40 year integration experiment has utterly failed. How is it all of a sudden going to work because you harbor flowery feelings of some melting pot that never was?