I am also in the Education Law class, where Milliken v. Bradley has served as a focal point of what we have been learning this semester. I think that the court made the wrong move by overturning the lower courts' ruling in that case. At the trial level, a good portion of that case was spent showing exactly how de facto segregation was affecting the schools. The plaintiffs demonstrated that Black families were being "contained" by state action, such as courts legally enforcing racially restrictive covenants, the FHA denying government funding in "high-risk" areas, and different organizations being created for White and Black realtors, among many other actions. It was an originally very skeptical District Court judge who determined the metropolitan integration plan was necessary to make any real progress. I completely agree with the sentiment that the Court's decision here made de facto segregation into an unsolvable issue.
Yes. When the Supreme Court treated a man-made, government-shaped system as if it were just an accident of housing patterns, it made it harder for courts to recognize and address structural racism at all.
These same issues have come up in my Education Law class. Efforts to end segregation in schools cannot succeed without addressing the root causes of inequality: housing discrimination, socioeconomic disparities, zoning laws, interstate placement, government housing placement, and unequal access to resources. Without meaningful reforms to housing policies and systemic inequities, the promise of Brown v. Board of Education can never truly prosper. School districts cannot be tasked with remedying segregation on their own. It is a issue that far extends outside of schools. Desegregation efforts require the support of both the communities and local leaders. If the community remains segregated it is a tough task to desegregate the schools.
Good point. Schools can’t be separated from the neighborhoods around them. Without tackling housing and community segregation, any school-based remedy is always going to be limited.
Really curious about the effects of this "look away" method of jurisprudence. How has it created the reality in which we live today? Are there specific laws or instances that you can point to that stem directly from this change in attitude?
I am also in the Education Law class, where Milliken v. Bradley has served as a focal point of what we have been learning this semester. I think that the court made the wrong move by overturning the lower courts' ruling in that case. At the trial level, a good portion of that case was spent showing exactly how de facto segregation was affecting the schools. The plaintiffs demonstrated that Black families were being "contained" by state action, such as courts legally enforcing racially restrictive covenants, the FHA denying government funding in "high-risk" areas, and different organizations being created for White and Black realtors, among many other actions. It was an originally very skeptical District Court judge who determined the metropolitan integration plan was necessary to make any real progress. I completely agree with the sentiment that the Court's decision here made de facto segregation into an unsolvable issue.
Yes. When the Supreme Court treated a man-made, government-shaped system as if it were just an accident of housing patterns, it made it harder for courts to recognize and address structural racism at all.
These same issues have come up in my Education Law class. Efforts to end segregation in schools cannot succeed without addressing the root causes of inequality: housing discrimination, socioeconomic disparities, zoning laws, interstate placement, government housing placement, and unequal access to resources. Without meaningful reforms to housing policies and systemic inequities, the promise of Brown v. Board of Education can never truly prosper. School districts cannot be tasked with remedying segregation on their own. It is a issue that far extends outside of schools. Desegregation efforts require the support of both the communities and local leaders. If the community remains segregated it is a tough task to desegregate the schools.
Good point. Schools can’t be separated from the neighborhoods around them. Without tackling housing and community segregation, any school-based remedy is always going to be limited.
Really curious about the effects of this "look away" method of jurisprudence. How has it created the reality in which we live today? Are there specific laws or instances that you can point to that stem directly from this change in attitude?