RK ARCHIVE - Nebraska's Segregationist Plot

There are many things that make me angry. This is one of the few select political issues that throws me into an uncontrollable, inarticulate rage. Nebraska is one seriously screwed-up state. They have just resegregated their schools.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, schools were segregated into White and Colored. THen, as we all know, came down an edict from the Supreme Court named Brown v, Board of Education of Topeka, and suddenly black kids and white kids could go to school together, in theory. Nowadays, rich kids go to Fairfax County schools, and black kids go to DC Public Schools.

I was utterly appalled by the actions of the State of Nebraska (what is the matter with the heartland?) when the Unicameral passed a piece of legislation that would create separate school districts for blacks, whites, and Hispanics. What's worse, this measure, sponsored by the Unicameral's lone black legislator, was signed by the governor into law. No mention of Asians. They get lumped in with the other coloreds, I suppose. I hit the roof upon seeing this.

What the hell is this?! Here we are, facing the fact that poor black kids in inner-city DC leave school barely knowing how to read, while here in Fairfax, whites and Asians battle each other for contested slots so they can go to godforsaken Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to learn all kinds of post-college multivariable calculus, and Nebraska resegregates the schools?! Did we learn nothing? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!

Really now, what happens when you have three parallel school districts aligned by race? Racial warfare. Blacks, whites, and Hispanics (who cares about the Asians? They, apparently, don't deserve anything in Nebraska) fighting for resources, never seeing the other races, stratifying themselves. Nebraska stomps on the grave of Martin Luther King and every other civil rights leader who fought for the tenous hold of equality we cling to today. In the entire New York Times article I cited, not one--not one--Asian or Hispanic person was quoted. We are the true losers.

Separate but equal? Such bullshit. It's been pure bullshit for over sixty years, and suddenly, the backwards troglodytes of Nebraska see Plessy v. Ferguson as a good precedent. I am disgusted by the amount of support this has received. Perhaps the history textbooks in Nebraska simply gloss over the racist days of yore.

Is the civil rights legacy dead? I'm going to say it right here. America is not the land of equality. We all know this. Our politicians have led us into the abyss of intolerance, the tyranny of discrimination. Not just resegregating our schools and dividing up the races, it's rampant homophobia, it's a resurgent nativist sentiment. Wake up, America!

Open your eyes. All of you. What happened in America? No longer does diversity and equality guide us, now we divide people up. Our fear of differences, our fear of the Other Person, has manifested itself in the noxious politics of bigotry. Sending kids of different colors away to different schools. Forcing gays to live in eternal hellfire. Deporting immigrants who do the work you don't want to.

I see the day that Martin Luther King's dream becomes a chamber pot of warm urine at the feet of America, and cringe. The fabric that makes America one country, united in the face of tyranny, is slowly being torn apart by the very values we strive to fight against. We are letting this happen. We are doing this ourselves. Let this be a wake-up call to those optimists out there: we are not living up to the grand dream we should be. America is moving backwards.

Now excuse me while I tar and feather Governor Dave Heineman and the 31 legislators who voted to reinstitutionalize racism. Wake up America. You may not believe it, but if you haven't realized that America is being subverted by the forces of racism, sexism, and bigotry, it's too late. Jesus Christ. Happy Easter.

Comments

Christ. I'm shocked (Craig - 4/17/2006 10:42:48 PM)

That said, I doubt they could get away with that in a more diverse state, like this one.

What surprises me the most is that the lone black in the unicameral was the sponsor. A black who wants to be segregated? I think my head may explode.

OK... (phriendlyjaime - 4/17/2006 11:36:57 PM)

hear me out for just a minute. I saw the guy praising the rule the other night on Lou Dobbs (who I never watched until I watched him bc Randi Rhodes from Air America was on--and he totally loved her and really respected her; in fact, he had her on again a week later), and I think he is going after another angle of the issue. He was an African American politician, and from what I could tell, he was trying to make the point that a) the schools are already segregated bc of the demographics and finances of residents of the cities and counties, and b) until they actually have a way to prove that African Americans and other minorities get less fed/state $$ allocated to them and their children in fed/state programs, racism will still prevail. So, unfortunately, in his mind and based on the situation, this is the last ditch effort to make the point that blacks definitely get less $$/benefits in the NE school systems. I may have heard it wrong, and if so, then please; ignore me and carry on. I just wanted to put it out there that there may be a deeper vein to the story.

Now I agree with you; segregation is not the America we know and love BUT...if there is no other way to prove to the rest of the country and the globe that PC doesn't work if it does not encompass every facet of life, then so be it. I want racism kicked in the ass YESTERDAY. So, for what it's worth, America, BRING. IT. ON.