Books in Brief: Desegregated Schools

Desegregated Schools, edited by Ray C. Rist (Academic Press, 242 pp., $14). The great liberal dream of the 1950s and ’60s was that more interaction between the races—forcibly imposed if necessary — would end racism and lead to a new era of harmony. The dream was plausible. If racism is the result of ignorance, then familiarity with other races should cure it. Alas, there was never much hard evidence that things would work that way, and in recent years scholars such as Nancy St. John have found that racial integration in schools, if it has any effect at all, makes the races more ill-disposed toward each other. Where Miss St. John dealt with numbers—summarizing the results of student attitude surveys—the present volume takes us into desegregated schools to look in detail at the dynamics of relations between the races. We find, not spectacular disasters, but rather a series of quiet hurts. Riots, fights, racial taunts, and overt hatred are rare. But genuine good-feeling is equally rare. Blacks who become too friendly with whites are ostracized by fellow blacks. When whites are displaced from extracurricular activities they disparage the activities they formerly dominated, and withdraw to other organizations from which blacks are subtly excluded. When black athletes begin to dominate team sports at a formerly all-white school, attendance plummets, and the white community withdraws its (previously generous) financial support. The blacks don’t play team ball, but seek individually to impress college scouts. Meanwhile, the blacks in the community from which the students are bused lament the loss of their school, a source of community pride and cohesion. The authors never draw any hard conclusions from any of this. They may, for all one can tell, be of the we’ve-got-to-try-much-harder-to-make-integration-work school. But the implications are clear enough.

JM

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John C. McAdams

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Desegregated Schools, edited by Ray C. Rist (Academic Press, 242 pp., $14). The great liberal dream of the 1950s and ’60s was that more interaction between the races—forcibly imposed if necessary — would end racism and lead to a new era of harmony. The dream was plausible. If racism is the result of ignorance, then familiarity with other races should cure it. Alas, there was never much hard evidence that things would work that way, and in recent years scholars such as Nancy St. John have found that racial integration in schools, if it has any effect at all, makes the races more ill-disposed toward each other. Where Miss St. John dealt with numbers—summarizing the results of student attitude surveys—the present volume takes us into desegregated schools to look in detail at the dynamics of relations between the races. We find, not spectacular disasters, but rather a series of quiet hurts. Riots, fights, racial taunts, and overt hatred are rare. But genuine good-feeling is equally rare. Blacks who become too friendly with whites are ostracized by fellow blacks. When whites are displaced from extracurricular activities they disparage the activities they formerly dominated, and withdraw to other organizations from which blacks are subtly excluded. When black athletes begin to dominate team sports at a formerly all-white school, attendance plummets, and the white community withdraws its (previously generous) financial support. The blacks don’t play team ball, but seek individually to impress college scouts. Meanwhile, the blacks in the community from which the students are bused lament the loss of their school, a source of community pride and cohesion. The authors never draw any hard conclusions from any of this. They may, for all one can tell, be of the we’ve-got-to-try-much-harder-to-make-integration-work school. But the implications are clear enough.