Warriors Don'T Cry

Attitudes Developed Through Integration of The School System Affect the Community as a Whole

Chester E. Finn, Jr., a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a prominent conservative voice on education said, "We are floating back toward an educational pattern that has never in the nation's history produced equal and successful schools. There is no good evidence that it will work now" (Bonner 2). Mr. Finn states this in relation to the statement that non-white students no longer seem as passionately committed to integration as they were in the 1950's. If this in fact is proven to be the truth, and the lack of passion for integration slowly moves society toward segregation, then the regression would prove devastating to the advancements made by the minorities in this country. Desegregation should be upheld at all costs and with the same fervor and passion displayed by the great activists of the 1950's and 1960's. The cost of segregation to society would not only be one of great emotional and spiritual cost, but also one of great financial cost, thus making desegregation the smarter and wiser course to be pursued.

In a multi-racial society such as the one in which we live, different races sometimes have difficulty relating to each other. Desegregation in the school system forces members of society to learn about each other and to adapt to each other in various aspects of life. If whites and minorities can adapt to attending school together and participating in the classroom and in the athletic arena together, eventually they will develop a better understanding of one another. Once a better understanding of one another is achieved, it will hopefully lead toward an enlightened, positive attitude relating to the differences and similarities between minorities and better prepare us for the multi-cultured society that lies ahead.

As members of the human race, we all coexist in relative physical proximity, but for all intensive purposes, our personal and residential lives are far from developing an integration mind set. Whether it is consciously or subconsciously, we tend to exist and gravitate toward a separatist society. Most neighborhoods in which we live are segregated communities. They consist of a solid majority of one class or the other. By continuing to enforce and encourage desegregation within our nation's school system, the youth of today get a healthy dose of exposure to the difficulties, as well as advancements, of all members of the community.