For Those of You Who Think Racism is Dead - and a Reminder for Everyone Else

This blog post is for those of you who think that Racism is dead, and a reminder for everyone else that ugly histories are not long past us.  The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has tried to opt out of legislation that binds it to enforce desegregation in Texas public schools.  Shockingly, desegregation laws only started to be enforced in Texas around 1970 due to the case US v. Texas - the law that TEA is now trying to get overturned.  Texas desegregation laws started being enforced about 17 years after Brown vs. Board of Education made desegregation a federal mandate.  This means that the TEA put off federal law ordering all schools in the nation to desegregate for almost 20 years.  And now they want to opt out of desegregating Texan schools. 

Also, here is a thought for you: 

Black people in the United States have only truly been free in this country for about 46 years.  That means if you a Black American in your 20's, or 30's, your parents were probably born before the end of segregation, and your grandparents lived in the thick of it.  

Citizenship was not equal for all people until barely 46 years ago!!!  Based on something as arbitrary as skin color!!!  This is why it is so significant that Obama is the first President who was after the end of Jim Crow - it means that there has be a giant generational leap, where the younger generations voted for Obama and the growing populations of ethnic minorities voted for Obama, because they are ready for the end of repression.

Another thought for you:

Jim Crow laws did not just apply to Black people, they applied to ALL people of color.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the first time in American history when explicit equality for ALL people, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin was written into Law.  Please also remember that people who suffered under Jim Crow also included Latinos, Asian populations, and other non-White peoples and immigrant groups, etc.  If you couldn't pass for White-Anglo or you weren't White, you were considered not equal.

Final thought of the evening:

LGBTQQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex) people are not included in the Civil Rights Act.  Therefore, while it could be interpreted in Court that Prop 8 is a violation of the CA State Constitution since it allows the state to single out one group of people to discriminate against based on a specific identity, Prop 8 technically does not violate federal law.  This is why protections for 'LGBTQII' people should be written into the Civil Rights Act and the American Constitution.

What do YOU think about these comments?

Please read the article below.

COURT REJECTS ATTEMPT BY TEXAS EDUCATION  AGENCY TO ABANDON DESEGREGATION EFFORTS

AUSTIN, TX – Yesterday, the Honorable William Wayne Justice of the Eastern District of Texas ordered that the Texas Education Agency must continue to carry out its statewide desegregation obligations under the long-standing case US v. Texas.  The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy, Inc. (META), on behalf of LULAC and the GI Forum, urged this ruling, arguing that TEA’s latest motion seeking to be released from the desegregation case was unjustified.      “TEA wanted a free pass from its obligation to prove to the Court that it has abided by the terms of the desegregation order and that the ill effects of discrimination have been eradicated root and branch,” stated MALDEF Staff Attorney David Hinojosa, “but the Court appropriately denied their request.”   “The statewide history of segregation in Texas is undeniable,” said Attorney Roger Rice with META.  “There are no shortcuts under the law to allow TEA to just walk away from that history without demonstrating that it has met its obligations.”     This desegregation case dates back to 1970 when the United States filed suit against the State of Texas, the TEA, and a group of school districts for maintaining all-black and all-white segregated schools in Texas.  Following a trial later that year, the court found that the State had contributed to the continuation of racially segregated schools in Texas, seventeen years following the Brown v. Board decision.  Thereafter, the court issued a desegregation order which required TEA to monitor student transfers between districts statewide to ensure that desegregation was not impeded.  MALDEF intervened in 1973 on behalf of a class of Mexican American students and was later joined by META as co-counsel.      In the court decision yesterday, TEA had asked to be released from all desegregation monitoring responsibility except for the nine former all-black school districts that were parties to the original suit.  The court denied TEA’s motion in part, stating that TEA must still monitor districts statewide unless the districts can prove that were not parties to the original lawsuit, they had ceased segregating students before 1970, and they have not re-segregated.