THE WEEK

TAX TAX, SPEND SPEND, ELECT ELECT DEPARTMENT (Presidential press conference division). Mr. Johnson: “Somehow or other, I do believe that the Democrats have the [economic] policy that is more likely to achieve better conditions for more people than our adversaries. I think the people recognize that and, recognizing it, I think they will express themselves along that line at the ballot box.”

The most recent school boycotts in Cleveland and Kansas City demonstrated that colored kids will jump at a chance to stay home from school for a day—and not a thing else. De facto equality: all kids love to stay home from school. But truancy qua protest seems no more able to meet the substantive questions of civil rights than do sit-ins, kneel-ins, lie-ins, stall-ins, drip-ins, smash-ins and riot-ins, and the other conceits of a revolutionary racist movement. The movement’s methods have been invidious, divisive, hurtful; but even worse, follow from the essentially racist attitude that regards all things first in terms of black or white. School boycotts serve only to aggravate this attitude.

Featured Tags

TAX TAX, SPEND SPEND, ELECT ELECT DEPARTMENT (Presidential press conference division). Mr. Johnson: “Somehow or other, I do believe that the Democrats have the [economic] policy that is more likely to achieve better conditions for more people than our adversaries. I think the people recognize that and, recognizing it, I think they will express themselves along that line at the ballot box.”

The most recent school boycotts in Cleveland and Kansas City demonstrated that colored kids will jump at a chance to stay home from school for a day—and not a thing else. De facto equality: all kids love to stay home from school. But truancy qua protest seems no more able to meet the substantive questions of civil rights than do sit-ins, kneel-ins, lie-ins, stall-ins, drip-ins, smash-ins and riot-ins, and the other conceits of a revolutionary racist movement. The movement’s methods have been invidious, divisive, hurtful; but even worse, follow from the essentially racist attitude that regards all things first in terms of black or white. School boycotts serve only to aggravate this attitude.