Problem
Segregation in educational institutions remains one of the most conspicuous legacies of racism in the United States, despite the Brown v. Board of Education decision nearly 70 years ago. In fact schools are perhaps as segregated today as they were in the 1960s. Part of the reason for this, of course, is the persistent segregation in housing, since public schools are based on residential districts. Did you have the impression that your own school was well integrated, or did it seem like your school districts were split into largely "white" schools and "minority" schools? What were race relations like in your school? Was it common for people to form close friendships across racial lines, or did it seem like most friendship groups were intra-racial?
Some people, after all this time, have lost hope in the project of integration and have concluded that the more important thing is resources and funding to black schools (look up, for example, Howard Fuller, a black education reformer based in Milwaukee). After all this time, it's not hard to understand why peope might adopt this position. What do you think is important about school integration as such, rather than just making sure majority-black schools have equal funding to majority-white schools? What kind of action, if any, do you think our society should take to integrate schools?