Breslin is the Joseph C. Paramountain Jr. Dean of Political Science at Skidmore College and “ “A Constitution for People: Imagine How Five Generations of Americans Will Rewrite the Nation's Basic Laws””
This is the latest in a series to help Americans navigate the difficult road ahead this election year. By highlighting the Constitution's components, principles, and story, Breslin hopes to remind us that the American political experiment remains, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, “the most interesting in the world.” .
American history is full of paradigm-shifting, landscape-changing, game-changing moments. Brown v. Board of Education is one such case. Next month he will be 70 years old.What we knew and understood before May 17, 1954 bears little resemblance to what happened after. Good thing.
The dismantling of America's educational apartheid system is long overdue. The stigmatization of black children as inferior or inferior to white children was more than enough to call into question the moral currency of racism. The Supreme Court will eventually address that question in Brown. Chief Justice Earl Warren argued that separating schoolchildren based on race “affects the hearts and minds.” [of Black children] It will never be possible to get it back. ” The whole race cannot be abandoned, he said. The state-sanctioned and legally recognized stigma is no longer tenable.
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The court's simple and profound declaration that the Constitution “does not recognize or condone” racial segregation was as remarkable as it was obvious. It has resonated ever since.
It is certainly true that racial discrimination has been abolished. come late Following Brown's decision.That's equally true De facto school segregation continues. Still, Brown managed to accomplish something essential for a free society. It gave legitimacy and enforcement to the Enlightenment ideal that “all men are created equal.”
America needed it. We needed a reminder that the republic's first principle, equality, was rotting away. There was no question on the unanimous side of the court. All nine justices were simultaneously cast adrift in their rightful corner of the moral world. It helped that I came from one of the most respected government agencies. It felt like a commandment, at least to progressives. The unwavering voice of the court brought about change.
Brown emphasized the benefits of diversity in the classroom. “We must look at the effects of segregation itself on public education,” Warren declared. He said racism has a devastating impact on African-American children, but white children are encouraged to “learn, discuss and share ideas” with students of other races and different backgrounds. He argued that it also takes away the “invisible'' ability to exchange things. We can draw a direct line from Brown to the case for affirmative action.Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard University) argued that classroom diversity was a “compelling national interest.'' We can draw a direct line from Brown to the noble work on racially integrated busing. We can draw a direct line from Brown to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI/DEIB) efforts in most secondary and postsecondary schools in America.
Brown forced a fundamental recalibration of the judicial appointment process. Before Brown, presidents appointed judges based on their intelligence, wisdom, and prudence. Featuring Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, and Felix Frankfurter. Presidents then thought they could advance partisan policies through judicial channels. If he is able to bypass the traditional Democratic branches of the NAACP and score a stunning victory in court, it will no longer be wise to appoint the most respected legal intellectuals.
Leave Holmes, Brandeis, Frankfurter. The goal now is to appoint the most politically ideological thinkers available through the system, the jurists who can best carry out a particular political platform. Robert Vokes on the right and Lawrence Tribes on the left are gone. But giants of the judiciary, such as William Brennan and Harry Blackmun, who were nominated by the opposing party for president, also left. Impartiality has been replaced by politics, neutrality by partisanship.
Mr. Brown's economic impact is immeasurable. The “separate but equal” principle has always been morally dubious, but it has also been practically foolish.the study exposed negative economic impact A segregated America. The prosperity of people of color in particular is tied to America's continued struggle against de facto racism. The same goes for maneuverability. According to the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, “School integration fosters economic growth by increasing human capital, innovation, and productivity while strengthening the social trust and relationships necessary for the smooth functioning of markets.” clearly stated.
The significance of the court's decision against Brown cannot be overstated. Simply put, this is the most important and consequential Supreme Court decision of the 20th century. Not all illnesses have been resolved. Seventy years after the landmark ruling, racial issues still exist in America. Still, I suspect that almost all of us would like to live in this temporal dimension of desegregation. It took a long time, and it took him 70 years to reach an agreement. But it's something and definitely worth celebrating.
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