Silent Covenants: Brown V. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial ReformWhen the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education was handed down in 1954, many civil rights advocates believed that the decision finding public school segregation unconstitutional could become the Holy Grail of racial justice. Fifty years later, despite its legal irrelevance and the racially separate and educationally ineffective state of public schooling for most black children, Brown is still viewed by many as the perfect precedent.Derrick Bell here shatters this shining image of one of the Court's most celebrated rulings. He notes that, despite the onerous burdens of segregation, many black schools functioned well and racial bigotry had not rendered blacks a damaged race. Brown's recognition of racial injustice, without more, left racial barriers intact. Given what we now know about the pervasive nature of racism, the Court should have determined--for the first time--to rigorously enforce the "equal" component of the "separate but equal" standard.By striking it down, the Court intended both to improve the Nation's international image during the Cold War and offer blacks recognition that segregation was wrong. Instead, the Brown decision actually enraged and energized its opponents. It stirred confusion and conflict into the always vexing question of race in a society that, despite denials and a frustratingly flexible amnesia, owes much of its growth, development, and success, to the ability of those who dominate the society to use race to both control and exploit most people, black and white.Racial policy, Bell maintains, is made through silent covenants--unspoken convergences of interest and involuntary sacrifices of rights--that ensure that policies conform to priorities set by policy-makers. Blacks and whites are the fortuitous winners or losers in these unspoken agreements.The experience with Brown, Bell urges, should teach us that meaningful progress in the quest for racial justice requires more than the assertion of harms. Strategies must recognize and utilize the interest-convergence factors that strongly influence racial policy decisions. In Silent Covenants, Bell condenses more than four decades of thought and action into a powerful and eye-opening book. |
Contents
PLESSYS LONG SHADOW | 11 |
BROWNS HALF LIGHT | 14 |
BROWN RECONCEIVED An Alternative Scenario | 20 |
THE RACIALSACRIFICE COVENANTS | 29 |
THE INTERESTCONVERGENCE COVENANTS | 49 |
BROWN AS AN ANTICOMMUNIST DECISION | 59 |
THE ROLE OF FORTUITY IN RACIAL POLICYMAKING | 69 |
RACISMS ECONOMIC FOUNDATION | 77 |
THE END OF THE BROWN ERA | 114 |
BROWN AS LANDMARK An Assessment | 130 |
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND RACIAL FORTUITY IN ACTION | 138 |
SEARCHING FOR EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS THE POSTBROWN ERA | 160 |
MOVING BEYOND RACIAL FORTUITY | 180 |
CONCLUSION | 194 |
NOTES | 203 |
| 223 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
achieve advocates affirmative action African Americans Amendment black children black parents black rights black schools black students Board of Education Brown decision busing challenge City civil rights lawyers color commitment compromise Constitution decades Democratic Derrick Bell desegregation disparities Dred Scott economic effect efforts Emancipation Emancipation Proclamation enforced equal protection fear federal fortuitous beneficiaries funding gain goal Hispanic integration interest-convergence interests issue judicial Law School leaders Leake County legacy preferences litigation major minority admissions NAACP nation Negro percent Plessy policymakers political Professor programs public schools race racial balance racial discrimination racial fortuity racial injustices racial segregation racism recognized reform rejected relief remedy reparations resistance school board school desegregation school districts school system segregated schools separate but equal served slavery slaves social society southern status Supreme Court teachers tion University vote voucher W. E. B. Du Bois white schools York