Another Victory for Colorblind Government Policy

6:53 a.m. PT: While no human being can be colorblind, government policy must be.

Given this country’s sordid racial history, the promise of equal treatment without regard to race, and the inherent unfairness of being judged as a member of a group instead of as an individual, it’s imperative that our government is forced, if necessary, to get out and stay out of the skin color business.

In response to the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and strong resistance to race-neutral school assigning, courts across the country ordered school districts to desegregate. They were required to dismantle official and unofficial race-based school assignment policies. But in a strange Alice-in-Wonderland interpretation of the case, school districts continued to use race to assign students (to achieve a racial “balance”), despite the wording of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (emphases added):

“Desegregation” means the assignment of students to public schools and within such schools without regard to their race, color, religion, or national origin, but “desegregation” shall not mean the assignment of students to public schools in order to overcome racial imbalance.

For the past 40 years, school districts have assigned students to schools based on race in order to “desegregate,” a direct violation of the law. Some people mistakenly believe that Brown authorized the government to continue racial bean counting, to coerce parents into sending kids to schools across town to maintain an arbitrary racial balance. A fair reading of Brown would quickly dispel this notion.

In recent years, courts have lifted decades-old desegregation orders. The latest occurred in Cincinnati last week. The city ended its so-called racial integration program. Students on a magnet school waiting list will be chosen on a “first-come, first-served” basis, without regard for the color of their skin. As you may know, the Supreme Court declared Seattle’s and Jefferson County, Kentucky’s race-based school assignment programs unconstitutional last summer.

It would be a great leap forward if children were taught and learned to expect equal treatment (as opposed to equal outcomes) without regard to race. But too many grow up learning how to see themselves as members of a racial group first. Too many are taught that group membership trumps individuality. They’re conditioned to believe that race is destiny and that people are out to get them because they’re black.

Race preferences are a source of contention for me, and I have a category of over 100 posts laying out my objections and arguments.