The importance of integration

When the South starting integrating schools, the initial response was backlash. Whites felt like their civil liberties were being trampled on and they were not willing to offer the education they received to black students. Some argued that there was no value to integrating schools but evidence shows there was true value. Even though both black and white students didn't feel the immediate importance of integration, it was seen in their morals and values they developed as time progressed. Whites increased comfort with blacks and they had a better understand of their social context. They were aware of their prejudices and they were given an opportunity to further their understanding of equality. Instead of increasing fear towards blacks, integration actually decreased the intimidation factor while allowing for empathy and insight to occur. It created a better working environment between two socially constructed races--which also played a significant role in the interactions between other races. Blacks were also able to develop effective ways to cope with how whites treated them since they were exposed to discrimination on a daily basis. It also allowed blacks to "learn" how to live in a "white" world. Life lessons are of the utmost importance and we cannot let ourselves look past these because it gives us a foundation for why integration today is so important.

One of the root problems of our modern education system is the segregation. There is clearly a distinctive difference between inner-city schools and suburban schools, and that is race. Jonathan Kozol in Shame of the Nation makes this distinction by describing the schools he visited where 99 percent of (so many) schools were black/hispanic and on the other side of two, 99 percent of the school was white. He claims that we have a current apartheid in our education system. He also argues, with sufficient evidence, that we are regressing. We aren't living up to the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr., JFK, Malcolm X, and so many other Civil Rights Leaders; rather we as a nation have created a densely segregated system. What happened to the importance of integration in our nation? Granted there are schools across the nation that are integrated and probably excelling but that doesn't give us an excuse to look past those schools with zero integration. We need to remember the importance of integration and how it creates even more cultural awareness. Too many people in our country aren't exposed (enough) to people who don't look like them. We cannot deny that we live differently depending on the color of our skin, that's simply ignorant. Let's integrate our school systems again... please?