Considering Brown vs. Board of Education
Dear Topic Committee and NDT/CEDA Community,
I'm not sure what to make of the silence on this listserv since my post of last evening. It was not my intent to silence discussion, but rather create some. But since no one is using the airwaves, I will do what I promised Malcolm I would do: discuss my views on race and the possibilities on a Supreme Court topic.
Several folks have offered different ways of accessing the race debate. Affirmative action seems the most direct route, although there are others. Affirmative action in higher education via the Michigan cases is one route. But I'll argue that it is a more indirect route.
2 years ago, there were celebrations across the country celebrating the *landmark decision Brown versus Board". There is much healthy debate about this decision. Just a quick google search: "Brown versus Board of Education debate" brings up a host of interesting dialogues on the issue.
This is an NPR dialogue led by Tavis Smiley:
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/brown50/
The critical race law literature has a healthy, healthy discussion of Brown from many sides. And Brown is cited as a landmark throughout the legal research.
Here is the beauty of this case to engage race: this discussion/debate has occurred primarily within the Black community. The concern cited earlier on this list that we would "never consider" overturning Brown is a very white, liberal privileged community and I agree that this community would likely not consider it. The topic paper discusses education but ignores Brown. I suspect this is the reading of most in America, outside of the academic discussions to the contrary. Exactly the reason for including this case. It would be a unique case where the best evidence would be found in Black journals and Black authors, a great experience for our students. I'll hypothesize that nor of the other race cases would find as much quality evidence located in a different literature base.
Brown should be given serious, serious consideration. Nothing has cut against it's uniqueness. It's cited everywhere, creating a great possibility of advantages while keeping a stable mechanism, and it opens students up to some literature and perspectives that they might not normally access.
Sincerely,
Ede Warner