Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
BREAKING NEWS  LeftArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican   RightArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
Login | What's Hot
  • Check the boxes and send us your email address to receveive your free newsletter
  • Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
  • Townhall.com’s weekly inside scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes in the world of politics. When news breaks, we report.
  • Signup to receive the latest daily Townhall cartoons
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Walter E. Williams :: Townhall.com Columnist
Poor language, poor thinking
by Walter E. Williams
Forward Print Share Single Page
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
 
Poll
Was the Copenhagen Global Warming Summit Walk-Out a Win for the U.S.?


Here's what the Harvard University Civil Rights Project's "scholars" said in a July 2001 press release: "Almost half a century after the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that Southern school segregation was unconstitutional and 'inherently unequal,' new statistics from the 1998-99 school year show that racial and ethnic segregation continued to intensify throughout the 1990s." What's their evidence? They say that over 70 percent of black students attend schools where the student population is predominantly black, in some cases over 90 percent black. This, to Harvard's scholars, is resegregation -- but let us examine the term segregation. Blacks are about 65 percent of the Washington, D.C., population. Reagan National Airport serves the Washington, D.C. area, and like every airport it has water fountains. At no time have I seen anything close to blacks being 65 percent of water-fountain users. It's a wild guess, but I'd speculate that at the most 5 percent or 10 percent of the users are black. Would Harvard's scholars say that Reagan National Airport water fountains are segregated? If so, might they propose bussing blacks in from Anacostia to integrate the water fountains? What about ice hockey games? These are "segregated" affairs, for at no time have I seen any significant number of black fans in the audience. In fact, most times it was zero. There's also racial segregation at opera performances, dressage or wine-tastings. If you want to see some segregated states, visit South Dakota, Iowa, Maine, Montana and Vermont. Not even 1 percent of their populations are black. What proposal might Harvard's scholars have for us? Might they propose rounding up blacks where they're over-represented, such as in Georgia and Alabama, and bussing them to America's segregated states? Might they suggest drafting blacks to attend operas, dressage and wine-tastings? Of course, being politically correct, they might feel that blacks should not bear the burden of desegregation. Thus, Harvard's scholars might recognize that there are two ways to skin a cat and propose that whites leave states such as South Dakota, Iowa, Maine, Montana and Vermont until the percentage of the black population reaches 13 percent? America's non-scholars would easily recognize that just because blacks aren't proportionately represented in some activity, we can't call the activity racially segregated -- at least, in the historical usage of the term. A non-scholar's test for segregation would be: If a black person is at Reagan National Airport, is he free to drink at any water foundation he pleases? If the answer is yes, then the water fountains are not segregated. That would be true if a black person never uses the fountains. The identical test applies to the question of school segregation. A non-scholar would ask: If a black student lives within a particular school district, can he attend that school? If he can, then the school is not segregated, even if not a single black attends that school. The same test applies to whether ice hockey games, operas and wine-tastings are racially segregated or not. At one time, there was racial segregation. If a black wanted to use a water fountain, he was denied, often by law. And he was similarly denied by law from attending certain schools. Today, none of that is true. In turn, that means there is no school segregation. Because an activity is not racially integrated, a better word is heterogeneous, doesn't mean that it's segregated. More importantly to the issue of education, there is no evidence anywhere that supports the civil-rights vision that black education excellence is impossible unless white children have first been captured to sit beside black children in school. From my view, to contend that race-mixing is a necessary requirement for black academic excellence is racially insulting.
Share:
Forward Print Single Page
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author
Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.
 
TOWNHALL DAILY: Be the first to read Walter Williams' column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com daily lineup delivered each morning to your inbox.

Join The Debate!

Post Your Comment
(0 comments so Far)
View in ascending order     View in descending order
Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
 *
State:
 *
Zip:
 *
Phone:
       
Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
(Bi-Weekly) We highlight the best opportunities from our partners for surveys, action items and more.