Thirty-two years ago, white racist mobs tried to prevent court ordered busing aimed at desegregating the schools in Louisville, Ky. The racists lost and eventually the mobs vanished. Today, the Supreme Court has replaced the mob. It has ruled that the political program of the racists is now the law of the land, not only in Louisville but everywhere.
By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1
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Between the 1930s and 1970s, the capitalist ruling class and its government justified apartheid and argued that that they had to “go slow” in implementing civil rights protections because of the extreme racism that existed among so many white people. It was the fear of the racist backlash that tied their hands, they explained.
The new Supreme Court decision should allow every worker to see that the policy of promoting racism comes not from the base of society, but instead from the highest summits of the government and the corporate and banking capitalists. That has been true since the beginning of slavery in the United States in 1607. That system allowed the capitalists to grow rich and kept a section of the white workers functioning as their pawns.
Here are the facts about the recent decision: in Louisville—a school district that was under a court-mandated desegregation order until 2000—the guidelines applied to all elementary schools, requiring the percentage of Black children to range from 15 to 50 percent.
Seattle used guidelines governing what students could transfer to another high school. Race was a so-called tiebreaker in gaining entrance.
The guidelines were challenged by some white parents, who were fronting for racist organizations and who claimed the rules discriminated by skin color. Lower courts ruled against the parents, but the Supreme Court sided with them.
Right-wingers agreed wholeheartedly with the majority opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts. He wrote: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Roberts perverted the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education opinion to say that the Constitution forbids any “government classification and separation on grounds of race.”
Roberts articulated the prevailing view of the ruling class—that racism can “cut both ways,” affecting Black and white students alike. The view itself is racist.
Some liberals, like writer Eric Alterman and NPR correspondent Juan Williams, supported the decision for the same reason, albeit with a left-sounding twist. In Alterman’s view, affirmative action (1) “doesn’t work very well,” and (2) “American’s don’t want it.” Williams consigned the Brown decision to the dustbin of history. Their left cover is the phony argument that racism is no longer a burning issue—only class is. Poor students do not do well regardless of who they sit next to in school, they claim.
Both “right” and “left” views are false. They ignore the history of hundreds of years of national oppression in the United States—manifested in slavery, genocide, apartheid and racism. These historic wrongs have not been remedied.
The African American people have been the subject of systematic racism in housing, education, employment and all areas of social and economic life. Poverty and class oppression are dominant features for all workers. To counterpose class oppression to the racism and national oppression specifically affecting the Black community is entirely false.
Behind desegregation
Following the overthrow of progressive post-Civil War Reconstruction governments in the South, the aspirations of Black people for equality suffered a century-long reversal. This included legalized apartheid, police state rule, lynching and extreme racism. The Supreme Court and lower courts provided legal cover for enforced segregation.
This recent case must be seen in the context of the legal and political
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The specter of a rebellion evidenced by civil rights organizing pressed the Supreme Court to rule in Brown that “separate is not equal” and order school desegregation in Topeka, Kan.
Brown was a step forward at the time. It gave the budding civil rights movement a legal decision to use for further mobilization. Throughout the 1970s, federal courts enjoined school districts to desegregate by busing children to segregated schools. These decisions were rolled back in subsequent decades. The Supreme Court’s newest ruling follows them in line.
The problem of racism in education was pushed back temporarily by the movement, but never alleviated. Education for the African American community is not simply a question of separation or integration for courts to resolve.
As an oppressed nation, the Black nation has the right to self-determination in all spheres of life, including access to education. Some community forces may favor busing and integration as a means to access more diverse schools. Others may prefer to have schools in predominantly Black areas of U.S. cities and towns. The Party for Socialism and Liberation upholds and defends this important right to choose.
The Court’s latest decision certainly will not help Black people. It will diminish educational opportunities for African American children in numerous U.S. cities. It will contribute to the de facto segregation that already exists in public schools throughout the United States. It will give a green light to the most extreme racist organizations.
The vanguard of the anti-busing movement was always the KKK and other offshoot local fascist organizations who camouflaged their appearance by talking about the sanctity of neighborhood schools rather than their explicit hatred of Black people.
The struggle against racism needs to intensify right now. Salvation will be in the streets and in the direct action of the people. The corporate attorneys who make up the Supreme Court are the enemies of progress. They can be defeated not in the courtroom but through the revitalization of the civil rights movement.
