Many Kmtyw-Americans criticize what we call "integration." Does that mean that we should not have had the Civil Rights movement? Does it mean that we should continue today to use segregated and filthy drinking fountains and toilets and have inferior facilities? Does it mean that we should be content to have less than? Or are we just being hypocrites? Is it simply another instance of people who have done little or nothing talking trash about the sacrifices of others while greedily enjoying the benefits of their struggles? Or, does it mean that we should shut our mouths and instead of criticizing others go to work to implement our own vision of what the world should be? Or does it mean something else? Tell me.
Good question. I think we may be conflating concepts here. Desegregation is not the same thing as integration. From my understanding, Charles Hamilton Houston's original thrust was to desegregate. Meaning that the same amount of money and resources that went to the white schools should be applied to Kmtyw schools. The bait and switch that we received was rather than doing that, we were given integration which, by virtue of the fact of sitting on toilets next to white folks, was supposed to achieve that parity. It did not as even when it the same physical school buildings, effective segregation was still achieved by GT/AP (read white) classes vs. remedial/special ed (read Black) classes. Similar ends were achieved by discrepancies in funds given to predominantly white suburban schools vs predominantly Black (remember urban/inner city/at-risk?) schools. Desegregation has still not been achieved, but was rather derailed by the so-called "integration" experiment which was engineered externally to accomplish the ends that we are living with the consequences of today.