Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
My daughter, an attractive professional woman in her thirties, bought a car yesterday. A used car, but a very nice one. We almost didn’t get to hear her tell about it because it seems that the financing guy was determined to hold her hostage. She would not budge. Recalling her experience, she remarked that the sales associate was wonderful and that she was completely satisfied with that part of the deal. As to the money part? “I don’t think it was personal,” she said. “ I think he did to me what he does to every attractive woman who walks in there.” The pride I felt - - not just for my daughter but for every woman who has been jerked around in a car dealership - - was immense. It was exhilarating. They tried to saddle her with an enormous monthly car payment which was nothing like the figure that had been floated over the phone. She got out the piece of paper where she had written it. She also got out her calculator and went through all the numbers, step by step. She s...